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I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

blog.alyxandria.org

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Re: I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

#31

Post by dmak »

oh_sigh wrote: post #24
sirdogealot wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What's so fake about it? Completing a list of criteria and scoring well on standardized tests is pretty much all that qualifies somebody for a "degree" from any one of our current post secondary insitutions. When you wrote "fake Bachelor's degree from some fake accreditation system" I assumed you were talking about the Universities and Colleges of the world.

What's so fake about buying 100,000 followers on twitter? It means you're famous, right?

You can certainly fake it, but it can only hold for so long. There are degrees today that do not uphold the knowledge you would expect that person to have.

Re: I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

#33

Post by masters3d »

I understand the frustration the author may have with the current college system but there are ways of getting a cheaper quality education. People overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years. Take 1 college class every 6 months and you will get that degree in due time.

Re: I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

#34

Post by chaostheory »

> provides me the opportunity to challenge myself and not be restricted to the 10 or 12 classes available in a major

I don't feel that you're restricted to a set number of courses for your major. Universities tend to tell students about the MINIMUM number of courses that you NEED to take within your major in order to graduate. Universities will be fine with students taking more courses within their major just as long as you take the minimum number of courses in other areas such as general studies. There are also more and more inexpensive online university programs, of which more and more are being offered by public universities.

Even if the courses don't challenge you enough in your university, there's nothing stopping you from asking a professor for more work in the form of a quarter or semester hands on project or research. GA Tech professors are more than happy to hand them out, and there are some cool ones.

Since we're on the subject of something that challenges you, you should try applying to Georgia Tech. I'm not sure what the stats are anymore, but not too long ago only 10% of incoming freshmen (most of whom were the top 5% of their HS's) would graduate.

Michael, I'm not sure you fully did your homework before coming up with your proposed solution (though I could still be wrong). imho I don't feel that anyone can fully understand the problems of the current university system, until they actually attend one.

Re: I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

#35

Post by ChuckMcM »

alphaoverlord wrote: post #27

This blog post seems like a jumble of ideas that are neither consistent or connected. It starts with colleges should be more than job training centers, then ends with trying to create an accreditation process to prove value to external entities (of which I assume employers are a big part?). It mentions the high cost of education, then describes how his current options are lacking because the number of classes in each…

Considering that it is their first degree, I made the possible inaccurate assumption that this person was just getting out of the US equivalent of high school. My thoughts at that age were pretty jumbled too.

Many of my peers didn't really have any idea why they were in college until maybe their third year. It wasn't until they had the benefit of having gone through such a program and looked back on it to appreciate what it was that it was and how it affected them.

My sister asked once why I considered college graduation a 'big deal' and not high school graduation. My response is that graduating from college is the first thing you can do where it's reasonably hard, takes a multi-year effort, and is completely optional. It is, for me, a signal that someone has decided to pursue something through to the end, and to do so with the full knowledge that not doing so is also a valid path. It is, for me, the kinds of things that adults do, and kids don't do.

Re: I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

#37

Post by ivansavz »

This could be good, but I don't think we need to imitate the "granularity" of the existing system. Currently, the "accreditation" is very chunky: a piece of 11"x17" paper certifying you know how to read and write, and can produce a sustained effort of three years in a row.

A more interesting option would be to issue certificates for each course taken. Specifically, it shouldn't be necessary to sit through all the lectures and do all the exercises, but simply pass an "I know my stuff" exam, as per @amorphid's suggestion.

The test could be a 30 minutes skype interview + problem solving session over skype with an professional accreditator. Of course, this only pushes the reputation question to the problem of who accredidates the accreditators, but that might be easier to solve, at least for certain niches.

Re: I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

#39

Post by pdxandi »

jelloPuddin wrote: post #23
WildUtah wrote: post #10

Opening an accrediting agency is the wrong first move. There's lots of space to work within the system that's already being opened up to you easily and cheaply. Try these two accredited schools that will award degrees entirely by examination, remote classes, independent study, project-based learning, and other proven study that matches a rigorous college program: http://www.wgu.edu http://www.excelsior.edu Excelsior…

Just looking briefly at excelsior, they don't even have a true CS degree. It looks like mostly IT, network admin, and technician kind of stuff. I don't think this really fulfills the need he was discussing.

I just filled out the tuition estimator, and for an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering Tech (not sure what "Tech" means), it costs almost $67k for four years. I haven't looked into online education before, but that just seems outrageous. I graduated 10 years ago from a public university with an EE degree and it cost me $17k for four years. I realize college tuition has skyrocketed, but I see no rational reason a similar degree should cost anymore today than what I paid 10 years ago, inflation adjusted. I'm really just shocked and saddened at the current state of secondary education.

Re: I Can’t Afford a Bachelor’s Degree, So I’m Making My Own

#40

Post by Ologn »

masters3d wrote: post #33

I understand the frustration the author may have with the current college system but there are ways of getting a cheaper quality education. People overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in 10 years. Take 1 college class every 6 months and you will get that degree in due time.

Yes. The title is "I can't afford a Bachelor's degree" and he talks about $12k and $17k a year programs, but if he did not take a full schedule on and cut it in half, it would be $6k to $8.5k a year (or perhaps $7-9k with fees). It takes longer but if you say you can't afford it the other way...
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