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I think the worth of a college education varies so much from person to person, as well as field to field. If you are becoming a doctor, going to college is 100%

I think the worth of a college education varies so much from person to person, as well as field to field. If you are becoming a doctor, going to college is 100% necessary for obvious reasons. But for a programmer, it may not be, depending on the person. More than helping you learn how to code, a college education helps you learn HOW to learn how to to code. You won't get much useful experience until you are in an internship or doing actual work in the field learning from people that are better than you. You can spend forever on theories, but it will never actually get you anywhere unless you put it to use. For the people that need to learn how to learn, the price of college can be worth it. For others, it can be a waste of time and a LOT of money.

tanderson92 11y ago
Not so; medical schools are somewhat unique in only requiring certain college coursework. One can complete a medical degree whilst never finishing a bachelors degree. The most prominent example of this is the Kentucky Senator Dr. Paul who graduated from Duke with an M.D. and has no bachelors degree.
- ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
  That's not very common-its very much a corner case.
  - sachingulaya 11y ago
    Sons and daughters of political figures tend to be the ONLY ones to be afforded that. Every few years I hear of a senator's kid getting in w/o MCAT scores or some other requirements skirting.
- jdmaurer 11y ago
  Well I use the term "going to college" loosely, it can be applied to getting any kind of degree (whether it's an MD or a bachelors) vs. self-learning, which is not pursuing a degree at all.
- vacri 11y ago
  Does "going to college" exclusively mean getting an undergraduate degree in the US? "Graduating from Duke" and "completing a medical degree" both sound inherently going-to-college to me. Here in Australia we'd sub in "uni" for "college", but it just sounds weird to "complete a degree" without "going to [tertiary education]".
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
  - colomon 11y ago
    Without thinking about it too much, I think I'd say "going to college" for undergrad (even at a university), "going to grad school" for a graduate degree, and "going to med school" for a medical degree. (For reference, I'm from Michigan.)
  - grantcox 11y ago
    In the US a significant proportion of every undergraduate degree is "general education", ie what in Australia would be an Arts degree. AFAIK, specialized degrees like law and medicine are exclusively post-graduate degrees.
ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
I think it depends on the circumstances of your self learning. In general I think its harder to get a programming/software engineering job nowadays than it was 15-20 years ago without a degree. I mean, if you were self taught on PHP/Perl/Linux in the 90s, then you could've gotten yourself in on the ground floor without a CS degree. Likewise for any new tech stack that gets introduced, immersing yourself in it can certainly make up for not having a CS degree.
- kbenson 11y ago
  While I think it has gotten harder for non-CS degreed people to compete with CS-degreed people when viewed in terms of how hiring used to happen, due to limitations in ways to show experience, I think there are now many more ways to show equivalent experience other than a prior job in the same industry. A good Stack Overflow reputation and/or a Github account with some projects or contributions to known open source projects that have been accepted would go a long want in my book towards asserting someone could function as a programmer.
- jdmaurer 11y ago
  Very true--it does take much more motivation and skill nowadays to get into a job without a degree. But it can still be done. Getting a degree doesn't give you a good Stack Overflow or GitHub profile. It's experience in the field that gives you that. I've interviewed coders for dev jobs at the agency I work at, and 99% of the time, I won't even ask/care about a degree if they have an impressive portfolio.
- Futurebot 11y ago
  I'm not sure if it's true or not (and I was one of those self-taught in the late 1990s devs) that it's harder now, but I can tell you that even back then it had challenges even beyond getting a foot in the door: https://medium.com/@opirmusic/why-software-developers-should-still-choose-to-go-to-university-if-someone-else-is-paying-45091d22acc1 https://medium.com/@opirmusic/why-software-developers-should... It was possible then, and it's possible now; it is definitely a lot more work than with the degree, though.
  - 11y ago
deleted 11y ago
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tanderson92 11y ago

Not so; medical schools are somewhat unique in only requiring certain college coursework. One can complete a medical degree whilst never finishing a bachelors degree. The most prominent example of this is the Kentucky Senator Dr. Paul who graduated from Duke with an M.D. and has no bachelors degree.

ZanyProgrammer 11y ago
That's not very common-its very much a corner case.
- sachingulaya 11y ago
  Sons and daughters of political figures tend to be the ONLY ones to be afforded that. Every few years I hear of a senator's kid getting in w/o MCAT scores or some other requirements skirting.
jdmaurer 11y ago
Well I use the term "going to college" loosely, it can be applied to getting any kind of degree (whether it's an MD or a bachelors) vs. self-learning, which is not pursuing a degree at all.
vacri 11y ago
Does "going to college" exclusively mean getting an undergraduate degree in the US? "Graduating from Duke" and "completing a medical degree" both sound inherently going-to-college to me. Here in Australia we'd sub in "uni" for "college", but it just sounds weird to "complete a degree" without "going to [tertiary education]".
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
- colomon 11y ago
  Without thinking about it too much, I think I'd say "going to college" for undergrad (even at a university), "going to grad school" for a graduate degree, and "going to med school" for a medical degree. (For reference, I'm from Michigan.)
- grantcox 11y ago
  In the US a significant proportion of every undergraduate degree is "general education", ie what in Australia would be an Arts degree. AFAIK, specialized degrees like law and medicine are exclusively post-graduate degrees.

ZanyProgrammer 11y ago

I think it depends on the circumstances of your self learning. In general I think its harder to get a programming/software engineering job nowadays than it was 15-20 years ago without a degree. I mean, if you were self taught on PHP/Perl/Linux in the 90s, then you could've gotten yourself in on the ground floor without a CS degree. Likewise for any new tech stack that gets introduced, immersing yourself in it can certainly make up for not having a CS degree.

kbenson 11y ago
While I think it has gotten harder for non-CS degreed people to compete with CS-degreed people when viewed in terms of how hiring used to happen, due to limitations in ways to show experience, I think there are now many more ways to show equivalent experience other than a prior job in the same industry. A good Stack Overflow reputation and/or a Github account with some projects or contributions to known open source projects that have been accepted would go a long want in my book towards asserting someone could function as a programmer.
jdmaurer 11y ago
Very true--it does take much more motivation and skill nowadays to get into a job without a degree. But it can still be done. Getting a degree doesn't give you a good Stack Overflow or GitHub profile. It's experience in the field that gives you that. I've interviewed coders for dev jobs at the agency I work at, and 99% of the time, I won't even ask/care about a degree if they have an impressive portfolio.
Futurebot 11y ago
I'm not sure if it's true or not (and I was one of those self-taught in the late 1990s devs) that it's harder now, but I can tell you that even back then it had challenges even beyond getting a foot in the door: https://medium.com/@opirmusic/why-software-developers-should-still-choose-to-go-to-university-if-someone-else-is-paying-45091d22acc1 https://medium.com/@opirmusic/why-software-developers-should... It was possible then, and it's possible now; it is definitely a lot more work than with the degree, though.
- 11y ago

deleted 11y ago

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