4 ms·

you're only hearing about extreme examples of people getting worthless degrees from private universities fully financed. a degree is fairly affordable in the U

you're only hearing about extreme examples of people getting worthless degrees from private universities fully financed. a degree is fairly affordable in the US. you can do first 2 years at a community college for no more than $2k/year and then can do the last two at a state university for 9-20k/yr. if you can get a degree that actually returns you money through an enhanced wage then you can pay that off no problem.

ed_elliott_asc 5y ago
Will that get you into a faang? Just curious!
- lordnacho 5y ago
  Aren't all the top legal jobs in the US taken by graduates of quite expensive private schools?
  - denimnerd42 5y ago
    Yes, being a lawyer is an extreme example where you need both top grades and a top 20 rated school. I wouldn't recommend that career if your parents can't pay your way as the risk of not making it into a top legal firm even if you meet those requirements is still high.
    - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
      "Getting a job as a lawyer" != "getting a job at a top firm", though. And lawyers tend to get paid fairly well, even if not at a top firm.
- ch4s3 5y ago
  Do they offer a class focused on the interview like Stanford? No. Can you still cram interview problems until your eyes bleed? Yes.
- denimnerd42 5y ago
  Yeah no problem. I can't speak to every state school but I went to one that was easy to get into and had a highly rated computer science program with a lot of extra curricular clubs that made it easy to distinguish oneself.
  - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
    Would you name it?
- vibrio_bobtail 5y ago
  Yes, although I was a bit slower. Three years at community college, three years at UC. First job out of college was at Google as a software dev.
- tombert 5y ago
  I got a job at Apple as a dropout with, at the time, only some credits from Florida State University and Valencia Community College. I've also had interviews with Facebook and Google and Amazon. I'm not going to say that the school you go to doesn't matter, but I think that having good experience tends to matter more than anything else. It's not like I'm some hypergenius or anything (far from it), I'm just somewhat of a self-learner and tend to do alright in whiteboard interviews.
- jurassic 5y ago
  I know people with no degree at FAANG. Best time to break in is after a few years in industry when you have some work accomplishments you can point to that indicate you are a high performer. New grads are pretty undifferentiated except for university prestige so that's a rough time to compete if you're from a less prestigious school or no school.
- tanjtanjtanj 5y ago
  Yes! I can think of several examples of people I know at the state university I attended.
tombert 5y ago
> you can do first 2 years at a community college for no more than $2k/year I'm not sure which community colleges you are going to. When my wife went to CUNY BMCC it was on the order of ~$2400/semester, so roughly $4800/year. Still not too unreasonable, but more than twice what you were saying. Granted, this is NYC, not known for being super cheap, but I didn't think that CUNY was considered absurdly expensive either. Upon checking, the local community college where I grew up (the Orlando area) is about $1500/semester, so about $3000 a year, assuming you take summers off [2]. [1] https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/students/bursar/tuition-and-fees/ https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/students/bursar/tuition-and-fees/ [2] https://net1.valenciacollege.edu/future-students/financial-aid/tuition/ https://net1.valenciacollege.edu/future-students/financial-a...
- denimnerd42 5y ago
  In Dallas we pay around $1000 / semester. https://www.dallascollege.edu/paying-for-college/cost-tuition/pages/default.aspx https://www.dallascollege.edu/paying-for-college/cost-tuitio... Even twice what I was saying is a pretty low amount compared to a private university at 60k/year.
  - tombert 5y ago
    Fair enough...maybe I should have done school when I lived in Dallas! I don't disagree with your thesis, regardless. If you do something with the CUNY system, you're still on the hook for <$10/year (at least for tuition, rent+food is a different story). A total investment of ~$50-60k total cost is definitely worth it from an economic perspective. With the exception of eccentrics like me, generally speaking the high-paying jobs are gatekept behind academia, meaning that the tuition would pay for itself within 2-3 years, easily.

ed_elliott_asc 5y ago

Will that get you into a faang? Just curious!

lordnacho 5y ago
Aren't all the top legal jobs in the US taken by graduates of quite expensive private schools?
- denimnerd42 5y ago
  Yes, being a lawyer is an extreme example where you need both top grades and a top 20 rated school. I wouldn't recommend that career if your parents can't pay your way as the risk of not making it into a top legal firm even if you meet those requirements is still high.
  - AnimalMuppet 5y ago
    "Getting a job as a lawyer" != "getting a job at a top firm", though. And lawyers tend to get paid fairly well, even if not at a top firm.
ch4s3 5y ago
Do they offer a class focused on the interview like Stanford? No. Can you still cram interview problems until your eyes bleed? Yes.
denimnerd42 5y ago
Yeah no problem. I can't speak to every state school but I went to one that was easy to get into and had a highly rated computer science program with a lot of extra curricular clubs that made it easy to distinguish oneself.
- AnimalMuppet 5y ago
  Would you name it?
vibrio_bobtail 5y ago
Yes, although I was a bit slower. Three years at community college, three years at UC. First job out of college was at Google as a software dev.
tombert 5y ago
I got a job at Apple as a dropout with, at the time, only some credits from Florida State University and Valencia Community College. I've also had interviews with Facebook and Google and Amazon. I'm not going to say that the school you go to doesn't matter, but I think that having good experience tends to matter more than anything else. It's not like I'm some hypergenius or anything (far from it), I'm just somewhat of a self-learner and tend to do alright in whiteboard interviews.
jurassic 5y ago
I know people with no degree at FAANG. Best time to break in is after a few years in industry when you have some work accomplishments you can point to that indicate you are a high performer. New grads are pretty undifferentiated except for university prestige so that's a rough time to compete if you're from a less prestigious school or no school.
tanjtanjtanj 5y ago
Yes! I can think of several examples of people I know at the state university I attended.

tombert 5y ago

> you can do first 2 years at a community college for no more than $2k/year I'm not sure which community colleges you are going to. When my wife went to CUNY BMCC it was on the order of ~$2400/semester, so roughly $4800/year. Still not too unreasonable, but more than twice what you were saying. Granted, this is NYC, not known for being super cheap, but I didn't think that CUNY was considered absurdly expensive either. Upon checking, the local community college where I grew up (the Orlando area) is about $1500/semester, so about $3000 a year, assuming you take summers off [2]. [1] https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/students/bursar/tuition-and-fees/ https://www.bmcc.cuny.edu/students/bursar/tuition-and-fees/ [2] https://net1.valenciacollege.edu/future-students/financial-aid/tuition/ https://net1.valenciacollege.edu/future-students/financial-a...

denimnerd42 5y ago
In Dallas we pay around $1000 / semester. https://www.dallascollege.edu/paying-for-college/cost-tuition/pages/default.aspx https://www.dallascollege.edu/paying-for-college/cost-tuitio... Even twice what I was saying is a pretty low amount compared to a private university at 60k/year.
- tombert 5y ago
  Fair enough...maybe I should have done school when I lived in Dallas! I don't disagree with your thesis, regardless. If you do something with the CUNY system, you're still on the hook for <$10/year (at least for tuition, rent+food is a different story). A total investment of ~$50-60k total cost is definitely worth it from an economic perspective. With the exception of eccentrics like me, generally speaking the high-paying jobs are gatekept behind academia, meaning that the tuition would pay for itself within 2-3 years, easily.