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A college degree, in my opinion, has little to do with the degree or the technical material you learn. the value of attending college and completing a four-yea

A college degree, in my opinion, has little to do with the degree or the technical material you learn. the value of attending college and completing a four-year degree at an accredited university comes from the environment you're ingrained in for that time. The people you meet, the conversations you have and experiences you expose yourself supersedes the raw material in the curriculum. Don't get me wrong, the stuff in the textbox are important but I think you get your real value from the experiences and the relationships you make with your peers and instructors. Is it worth going into debt? I'm not sure, I'm Canadian and was able to get a CS degree for 50K (Not that crippling of a debt). For me, it was worth the time and money.

lacampbell 10y ago
the value of attending college and completing a four-year degree at an accredited university comes from the environment you're ingrained in for that time. The people you meet, the conversations you have and experiences you expose yourself supersedes the raw material in the curriculum. Don't get me wrong, the stuff in the textbox are important but I think you get your real value from the experiences and the relationships you make with your peers and instructors. This is an extremely romanticised view of university, IMO. Maybe you went to a particularly good one. I studied computer science. My experience was nothing like that at all. The vast majority of the people I met had no real interest or passion about the subject. They took no interest in anything outside of the course work, and certainly weren't up for any interesting discussions about our field. The motivations seemed to be purely financial - jump through these hoops and get a job. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just hope people considering attending university consider that their experience may match mine. You may walk into a lecture full of shy people, who have divided themselves along ethnic lines, who are not interested in the subject, or stimulating discussion, or being friends, or anything outside their grades. The lecturer will pick up on it and be appropriately unmotivated. YMMV, but for me it was literally just getting a piece of paper that stopped recruiters and HR deleting my CV. I learned far more chatting in IRC than I did in my courses. I'm 3 years out from university and no longer speak to anyone I met there.
- rezashirazian 10y ago
  When I was in college, CS was not in demand as much as it is now. It was shortly after the 2001 bust and the whole industry had become 'toxic'. I guess given the circumstances of the time, it attracted people who were more interested in the subject matter than getting a job. I had a great experience and the people I met really helped me with my success after college.
- sotojuan 10y ago
  This is where most CS departments are heading because "if you study CS you'll get a job!!!!". My experience was similar, though I at least made some friends.
  - Insanity 10y ago
    I fear you are right in this. In my experience, the people who did it out of passion or interest where unfortunately the minority.
flukus 10y ago
If that's all you get out of college then you should have joined a country club.
laichzeit0 10y ago
A college degree signals to an employer that "this person can finish something". That's why the worst thing you can ever do is put on your resume "Some college". That signals "this person cannot finish something". It doesn't matter what the reason is, just don't put it on. I have to interview a lot of people and I look for qualities that signal the person has the type of personality that can work on a problem, even an extremely boring one, until it is _done_. It doesn't necessarily have to be a degree, but that is an easy signal. A PhD is even better. That person worked on something for very long and had the discipline to write it up. That speaks volumes for someone's work ethic. I'm not saying this is the best or only way, you will get outliers. If you are a betting man, this is a very good strategy and you will be right more than wrong.
- mdpopescu 10y ago
  An alternative way of judging a degree (I'm not just playing Devil's advocate, this is what I believe) is that people who finished college - or worse, have a PhD - are people who do well in artificial, hierarchical environments, where prestige is overwhelmingly more important than knowledge or "getting things done". (You can see a similar mentality with government employees, for example.) A good exemplification of this is in the Big Bang Theory show, where "Dr." Sheldon is obviously superior to any non-doctor around, no matter how badly adjusted he actually is in the real world. The fact that a lot of people believe that Sheldon is a good model to follow is seriously baffling to me.
  - laichzeit0 10y ago
    Yeah that's definitely a possibility. I personally know a guy who took 8 year to finish his Masters degree. It wasn't especially difficult, he's just overly pedantic and perfectionist. But I'd probably ask someone why they took so long to complete. Actually come to think of it that type of person you describe is perfect for a corporate environment. They want someone that can follow process, not rock the boat, and eventually get something done. Perfect for government too.

lacampbell 10y ago

the value of attending college and completing a four-year degree at an accredited university comes from the environment you're ingrained in for that time. The people you meet, the conversations you have and experiences you expose yourself supersedes the raw material in the curriculum. Don't get me wrong, the stuff in the textbox are important but I think you get your real value from the experiences and the relationships you make with your peers and instructors. This is an extremely romanticised view of university, IMO. Maybe you went to a particularly good one. I studied computer science. My experience was nothing like that at all. The vast majority of the people I met had no real interest or passion about the subject. They took no interest in anything outside of the course work, and certainly weren't up for any interesting discussions about our field. The motivations seemed to be purely financial - jump through these hoops and get a job. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but I just hope people considering attending university consider that their experience may match mine. You may walk into a lecture full of shy people, who have divided themselves along ethnic lines, who are not interested in the subject, or stimulating discussion, or being friends, or anything outside their grades. The lecturer will pick up on it and be appropriately unmotivated. YMMV, but for me it was literally just getting a piece of paper that stopped recruiters and HR deleting my CV. I learned far more chatting in IRC than I did in my courses. I'm 3 years out from university and no longer speak to anyone I met there.

rezashirazian 10y ago
When I was in college, CS was not in demand as much as it is now. It was shortly after the 2001 bust and the whole industry had become 'toxic'. I guess given the circumstances of the time, it attracted people who were more interested in the subject matter than getting a job. I had a great experience and the people I met really helped me with my success after college.
sotojuan 10y ago
This is where most CS departments are heading because "if you study CS you'll get a job!!!!". My experience was similar, though I at least made some friends.
- Insanity 10y ago
  I fear you are right in this. In my experience, the people who did it out of passion or interest where unfortunately the minority.

flukus 10y ago

If that's all you get out of college then you should have joined a country club.

laichzeit0 10y ago

A college degree signals to an employer that "this person can finish something". That's why the worst thing you can ever do is put on your resume "Some college". That signals "this person cannot finish something". It doesn't matter what the reason is, just don't put it on. I have to interview a lot of people and I look for qualities that signal the person has the type of personality that can work on a problem, even an extremely boring one, until it is _done_. It doesn't necessarily have to be a degree, but that is an easy signal. A PhD is even better. That person worked on something for very long and had the discipline to write it up. That speaks volumes for someone's work ethic. I'm not saying this is the best or only way, you will get outliers. If you are a betting man, this is a very good strategy and you will be right more than wrong.

mdpopescu 10y ago
An alternative way of judging a degree (I'm not just playing Devil's advocate, this is what I believe) is that people who finished college - or worse, have a PhD - are people who do well in artificial, hierarchical environments, where prestige is overwhelmingly more important than knowledge or "getting things done". (You can see a similar mentality with government employees, for example.) A good exemplification of this is in the Big Bang Theory show, where "Dr." Sheldon is obviously superior to any non-doctor around, no matter how badly adjusted he actually is in the real world. The fact that a lot of people believe that Sheldon is a good model to follow is seriously baffling to me.
- laichzeit0 10y ago
  Yeah that's definitely a possibility. I personally know a guy who took 8 year to finish his Masters degree. It wasn't especially difficult, he's just overly pedantic and perfectionist. But I'd probably ask someone why they took so long to complete. Actually come to think of it that type of person you describe is perfect for a corporate environment. They want someone that can follow process, not rock the boat, and eventually get something done. Perfect for government too.