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Yes and no. I could do an online degree, but not for anything I’d be interested in going back to school for (at least nothing terribly useful). I’ve actually be

Yes and no. I could do an online degree, but not for anything I’d be interested in going back to school for (at least nothing terribly useful). I’ve actually been surprised at some of the online offerings. There’s a decent state school near me, one I’ve considered going to if I could ever magically figure it out, but the online offerings are not great, mostly consisting of the typical degrees described as “useless” along with some seemingly made up programs. Another, at an even better school offers a variety of degrees, but most of them are BA’s described as being mostly for things like pre-law. Even the few interesting or useful degrees they offered online had a note indicating that it was probably better to complete a number of the courses in person. Also I don’t see an online program providing me any of the things I want to get out of university. Sure I could use them to get “a degree”, but that’s not particularly what I’m interested in. Most online and non traditional programs seem to exist solely for economic mobility, I.e. someone in a dead end job wants to get some degree that might lead to some sort of career, and that’s not the position I find myself in right now. I’ve been researching this for years, I actually hoped to be getting back to school this year, but after a layoff and a year of not being able to get high paid work, it’s just probably not going to happen. Tuition isn’t actually that bad in-state where I live now, but what is expensive is the cost of living, particularly when a bulk of full time work needs to be performed at the same time as classes run. Prior to my current predicament, the plan was to do the first two years online through a community college, transfer to the school I was targeting through the state guarantee programs, and then hopefully have saved up enough money to weather the rest of an undergrad degree.

syndicatedjelly 3y ago
You maybe interested in OSSU: https://github.com/ossu/computer-science https://github.com/ossu/computer-science
- notsurenymore 3y ago
  The knowledge is available sure, but I’m finding out more and more how meaningless it is. I could maybe learn most of what interests me even outside CS. The knowledge is there, but what I’m missing is the opportunities. For example, I didn’t go to school, but many of my friends did. One good friend of mine from high school ended up getting a job in a really cool domain, not simple because he had the knowledge, but because he had the opportunities to work on those things in a setting with other people and connection to recruiting pipelines, etc. I could spend years studying the sort of thing he does on my own and never have a chance of really engaging with it or getting since to work in it. For another example, here’s another commenter on this thread giving an example of things you just can never get a chance do outside an academic setting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37499943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37499943 Of course as I mentioned if I had gone to school at 17 or 18 I likely would have squandered all this trying to put in the minimum effort to get in and out asap. My ideal goal isn’t to just snag some overpaid FAANG job. Though if that’s what will get me where I want than so be it.
  - syndicatedjelly 3y ago
    Yeah idk what advice to give that you haven't heard. I don't know what you're aspiring to, but some dreams just remain that way. Sometimes it's best to accept that and focus on what you do have control over. Do you enjoy what you do currently? Is it possible to grow that into a career that fulfills you? Personally, I became much happier once I started looking outside my career for happiness. The best advice I got was use your job to earn money to pay for the things you love, as opposed to using your career as the sole means of fulfillment. Hopefully that helps

syndicatedjelly 3y ago

You maybe interested in OSSU: https://github.com/ossu/computer-science https://github.com/ossu/computer-science

notsurenymore 3y ago
The knowledge is available sure, but I’m finding out more and more how meaningless it is. I could maybe learn most of what interests me even outside CS. The knowledge is there, but what I’m missing is the opportunities. For example, I didn’t go to school, but many of my friends did. One good friend of mine from high school ended up getting a job in a really cool domain, not simple because he had the knowledge, but because he had the opportunities to work on those things in a setting with other people and connection to recruiting pipelines, etc. I could spend years studying the sort of thing he does on my own and never have a chance of really engaging with it or getting since to work in it. For another example, here’s another commenter on this thread giving an example of things you just can never get a chance do outside an academic setting: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37499943 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37499943 Of course as I mentioned if I had gone to school at 17 or 18 I likely would have squandered all this trying to put in the minimum effort to get in and out asap. My ideal goal isn’t to just snag some overpaid FAANG job. Though if that’s what will get me where I want than so be it.
- syndicatedjelly 3y ago
  Yeah idk what advice to give that you haven't heard. I don't know what you're aspiring to, but some dreams just remain that way. Sometimes it's best to accept that and focus on what you do have control over. Do you enjoy what you do currently? Is it possible to grow that into a career that fulfills you? Personally, I became much happier once I started looking outside my career for happiness. The best advice I got was use your job to earn money to pay for the things you love, as opposed to using your career as the sole means of fulfillment. Hopefully that helps