OEL, it sounds like you are talking about useful degrees like engineering. My mind was more about worthless degrees like business. Obviously you need to go to real school to get an engineering degree. For business? Not so much.
I see. I admit that my experience is mostly around engineering, with a bunch of friends with PhDs in chemistry and material science, one of them professor at UofA, the others in the private sector. In that area, online and for-profit degrees are jokes compared to even local state universities like ASU and UofA.
Also, I myself got a bachelor's in communication (useless) with a minor in computer science from a traditional university. I transferred to ASU and got accepted in their Educational Media and Computers department for a Master / PhD program. They waived out-of state tuition and employed me 20 hours a week as TA and RA. I ended up debt-free, paid about $ 1,000 / mo. There is no way in hell I would have had any of those opportunities had I spent my money on a fake degree from a diploma mill.
All hard science majors say all liberal arts majors are useless. Fact.
You're full of wisdom aren't ya?
Well, if you're interested in something like a job with a decent pay, engineering and medical fields have been pretty safe bets for a while.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed studying communication after coming from 2 straight years of 100% hard science. Interesting classes, fun people, I had a blast. But in terms of actual jobs and career opportunities, that field sucked.
So what else is there that gives you some bang for your buck? Accountant with a CPA is pretty good. It's still numbers though. I guess you can always become a teacher wit hour liberal arts degree. Any other job won't pay a whole lot more than not having a degree at all.
Well, if you're interested in something like a job with a decent pay, engineering and medical fields have been pretty safe bets for a while.
Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed studying communication after coming from 2 straight years of 100% hard science. Interesting classes, fun people, I had a blast. But in terms of actual jobs and career opportunities, that field sucked.
So what else is there that gives you some bang for your buck? Accountant with a CPA is pretty good. It's still numbers though. I guess you can always become a teacher wit hour liberal arts degree. Any other job won't pay a whole lot more than not having a degree at all.
I said that because that's what you always hear. It's sort of a joke for people who are in hard science.
Liberal arts degrees aren't worthless. It's frustrating to see people claim business degrees are worthless when plenty of people get jobs with them. Most people with college degrees get jobs, the market has been suppressed the last ~5 years due to the recession. The issue is not the degree- the issue is the amount of people going to college. Everyone goes to college these days and most can find ways to afford them. Most people afford it through loans- student loan debt is over a trillion dollars. There are economists out there suggesting that the student loan debt is a bubble. A bubble that is actually bigger than the housing bubble was. That's a scary thought.
People are talking about how colleges like GCU are a scam. The entire college system is a scam right now because of how many people are going. It depresses degree value. In fact, its recommended now to get a 6 year degree instead of a 4 year degree. Colleges get as many people to go now as possible, its really easy to get into a state university and easy to get funding for it. The funny thing is I hear people talk all the time about how their degrees didn't teach them much and the corporation they were employed by provided the job training. Why get a degree, then, if the employer is going to train you anyway?
The issue is most employers require degrees for employment consideration. The whole thing is a racket right now and stems from economic structure where there aren't many other options for employment like manufacturing and such like the old days. Unless you want to get into retail or something but the middle-class instant-gratification generation wants lots of money without working ******-paying jobs with ****** hours like retail. Actually what I hear time and time again is not what you know but who you know, so perhaps only networking matters?
Many jobs these days require strong verbal and written communication skills which liberal arts degrees teach. That being said, hard science degrees like engineering and computer science are excellent and you can get virtually guaranteed jobs. Unfortunately many people are not mathematically inclined and their job prospects are low thanks to the economy, government loan subsidies and the amount of people going to college.
Saying that a liberal arts degree is worthless is plain wrong. Saying a hard science degree is preferable is accurate.
Last edited by AndrewYotes: 03-18-2013 at 04:14 PM.
Anecdote: we have 5 employees. 3 of us code most of the time (myself included), 1 is the HR / accounting person, and one is the CEO (my business partner). 2 of the software guys never went to college. I studied communication. The accountant never went to college and is currently studying for a CPA at 37 years old. The CEO is the only formally trained software engineer with a minor in accounting, and he does neither (well, that's not exactly true, he does help code from time to time).
Our top-2, best 1099 software development contractors so far have been a hacker with no college degree, and a CPA with an accounting degree from Harvard.
On the other hand, I've employed 5 software engineering interns from ASU over the past few years, and none of them made the cut for full-time employment.
ASU mascot, Sparky getting new look with the help of fans
Quote:
TEMPE, AZ - Not happy with the new Sparky? Arizona State University is giving Sun Devil fans a chance to be heard.
In a press release issued Tuesday afternoon, ASU announced they are asking students, sports fans, faculty, and staff to share their thoughts on the updated mascot costume that debuted March 1.
Chase Field used to be ranked among the best stadiums in the league. Now it's not even in the top 10 despite being one of the nicer looking ballparks in all of baseball.
OSU-RPI=10 (8-7 versus top 50 RPI teams)
Arizona-RPI=15 (6-5 versus to 50 RPI teams)
Arizona is a +3.5 tonight....take it! (7-1 ticket sales difference in favor of the Cats according to Stubhub, I know their allotment was sold out immediately)
I can accept them not winning it all for a long time but I cannot accept the Wildcats continuing to fall short of the Final Four too many times since they lost to Duke in 2001.
Wonder what the attendance was last night in utah for the Arena league game against the Rattlers. From what I could see on tv it did not look like they had much more than 1,000 people in the stands. And it was Utah's home opener. Pretty sad. I remember having Rattlers tickets before the Coyotes came to town and the Ratts used to draw upwards of 15,000 per game, and other teams used to draw well too. I think the last time I went to a Rattlers game they had about 6,000 but man there was almost no one at that Utah Blaze game last night.
