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Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

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Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#91

Post by pwodhouse »

rayiner wrote: post #48
redwards510 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Running Start alumni here. It's an amazing program, but I often wonder if it was the right decision. Leaving high school at 10th (of 12) grade had a major impact on my life. I lost out on those long term friendships, prom, senior year, graduation, and the collective preparation for college, as well as missing out on freshman year OF university, etc. I don't have high school reunions to attend. In the end, it didn't c…

> I lost out on those long term friendships, prom, senior year, graduation, and the collective preparation for college, as well as missing out on freshman year OF university, etc. The importance of these "experiences" is garbage baby boomers feed young people because they're the decadent generation. Most generations prior to them never had those things. (It wasn't until WWII that more than 50% of Americans graduated…

Outside of the MAGA contingent, people hope to build a better life than the previous generation had. Working 50 years at the steel mill isn't the American Dream.

If you live your life in a bubble apart from the rest of humanity, and you are happy, good for you. If you couldn't find friends in high school, sympathy for you. But most humans are social creatures who put value on having community.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#93

Post by tropo »

takk309 wrote: post #26
not_a_moth wrote: post #4

I regret the four years part at least. I believe undergrad really only needs to be 2-3 years tops.

I have two Civil Engineering degrees (BS and MS) and have been working in the field for some time now and I think the opposite, CE should be a minimum 5 year program. The people I see as fresh undergraduates do not know enough to do the job but those with master's degrees do. I guess it is forcing those that do the hiring to select for those who have more schooling.

Right now it is 1 year, plus another 3 years of filler. We could make it 5 with another year of filler, but I don't think that would help. Suppose we mandate another year worth of classes: Ancient Mesopotamian Art, Intersectionality in Sports, Flute Performance, Zoology, Sexual Development in the Infant, Ballroom Dance, French Existentialism, Phlebotomy, Astronomy, History of Jazz. Does this help? We already have 3 years of it.

Chains of prerequisites are long enough that we might need 2 years by the calendar, but there is only 1 year worth of material. Going half-time for 2 years would provide the same benefit as the modern American 4-year degree.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#94

Post by hellocs1 »

metildaa wrote: post #80
akhilcacharya wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Stanford CS is tied for #1 with Berkeley CMU and MIT

Berkely (BSD), MIT (of MIT license fame) & CMU (Sphinx) have a history of notable software that has enabled computing for decades, most HN users can name software developed by either institution. Stanford doesn't have that cache, despite what US News & World might say. US News & World rankings tend to be fairly subjective, look at their top 15 cities. Edit: CS School Rankings for those interested: https://www.usnews.…

Are you seriously saying Stanford doesn't have the same cache as Berkeley, MIT, or CMU in CS because you couldn't name something invented from Stanford?

How about number of Turing laureates? Stanford has the most for alumni + faculty, and comes second if you only count alumni (to Berkeley), and comes second if you just count long-term faculty (to MIT), and comes first for short-term faculty.[0]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Turing_Award_laureates...

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#95

Post by jkmcf »

leftyted wrote: post #43

I regret my degree (though I'm doing fine). It's in History, but that's not the issue. The issue is that I wasn't mature enough or academically inclined enough when I was 18-22. I did very well in High School due to fear of disappointing my parents but I didn't do any work in college and now I regret it. I did learn how to program. I have a coworker who worked in a kitchen for a year after high school which spurred h…

Only took me 2 weeks of working in a kitchen to figure that out! Still chose the wrong major for me (physics), but it opened enough doors to have a sw dev career.

What do you regret about the history degree? Job applicability or that it didn’t interest you enough to continue with it? The latter was my problem... I do wish I could have had two BAs, one in a blended-subject liberal arts...

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#96

Post by rayiner »

pwodhouse wrote: post #91
rayiner wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I lost out on those long term friendships, prom, senior year, graduation, and the collective preparation for college, as well as missing out on freshman year OF university, etc. The importance of these "experiences" is garbage baby boomers feed young people because they're the decadent generation. Most generations prior to them never had those things. (It wasn't until WWII that more than 50% of Americans graduated…

Outside of the MAGA contingent, people hope to build a better life than the previous generation had. Working 50 years at the steel mill isn't the American Dream. If you live your life in a bubble apart from the rest of humanity, and you are happy, good for you. If you couldn't find friends in high school, sympathy for you. But most humans are social creatures who put value on having community.

Working in a steel mill would be a much more valuable life experience than senior year of high school for most people. And it’s not like people in the 1930s didn’t have community. To the contrary, they had much more of it than we do these days, where everyone leaves their home town to go office to college, chasing a school a few points higher on some ranking.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#97

Post by singhrac »

legitster wrote: post #13

In WA, there is a program where you can finish the last two years of high school at a community college and graduate with a two year degree for free. It was probably the best decision of my life. I basically got to trial and error all of my interests for free much earlier and cheaper than everyone else. And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at g…

I was a Running Start alum as well (along with many of my friends). If you're in Pullman, you can take courses at Washington State University. It was incredible for me - for my friends who went to UW or WSU after graduation, they got 2 years of college credit and many graduated early. I went out of state and was able to skip introductory courses, and having already been to college in high school meant I was way more mature than many other students.

Honestly, for the cost of the program, it is extremely impactful. I didn't feel like I missed out on high school much either - I still took half my classes there.

I guess to counter the idea that it hurts on college applications: I can't say anything definite, of course, but I'm fairly certain taking physics at WSU looks much better on an application than taking your high school's physics. You look like a more ambitious and capable student.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#98

Post by spacegod »

fiftyfifty wrote: post #16

It's crazy to spend so much time and money in school and not have a plan for what kind of career you are going to get when you get out. Parents and educators are failing these young people in not guiding them into realistic jobs and careers. The process before anyone attends college should be to decide on potential careers and then pursue the schooling and other qualifications you need to succeed in that career. A st…

I did look and I still did not come out the other side ok.

I think personality is an underrated factor. I would've been happier working at 7/11 for the rest of my life than having to go to university (which I hated) and then to a job I hated to pay it off.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#99

Post by mistahchris »

legitster wrote: post #13

In WA, there is a program where you can finish the last two years of high school at a community college and graduate with a two year degree for free. It was probably the best decision of my life. I basically got to trial and error all of my interests for free much earlier and cheaper than everyone else. And it went against the guidance of my school counselors. They thought community college would hurt my chances at g…

I was also a running start student. I think that it was not a good choice for me. I was not well prepared for the responsibilities of managing my time, and had no desire to think long term. I doubt I'm alone, or even unusual. I know I would have gotten more out of my education had I waited a few years.

I think community college is fantastic, but I'm not so sure about starting so young.

Re: Two-thirds of American employees regret their college degrees

#100

Post by nostrademons »

hellocs1 wrote: post #94
metildaa wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Berkely (BSD), MIT (of MIT license fame) & CMU (Sphinx) have a history of notable software that has enabled computing for decades, most HN users can name software developed by either institution. Stanford doesn't have that cache, despite what US News & World might say. US News & World rankings tend to be fairly subjective, look at their top 15 cities. Edit: CS School Rankings for those interested: https://www.usnews.…

Are you seriously saying Stanford doesn't have the same cache as Berkeley, MIT, or CMU in CS because you couldn't name something invented from Stanford? How about number of Turing laureates? Stanford has the most for alumni + faculty, and comes second if you only count alumni (to Berkeley), and comes second if you just count long-term faculty (to MIT), and comes first for short-term faculty.[0] https://en.wikipedia.o…

I mean, you could look at Google, Yahoo, SnapChat, VMWare, Sun, and Cisco as "interesting software invented at Stanford". Not to mention TAOCP and TeX. Only difference is that Stanford alums tend to get rich off their inventions because they don't bother to share the source code (usually; Knuth is an exception) while Berkeley & MIT have more of a history of public-domain contributions.
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