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I love this quote: "Going to a 4 year school is supposed to be the foundation from which you create a future, not the transaction that crushes everything you ha
by fawce 14y ago
I love this quote: "Going to a 4 year school is supposed to be the foundation from which you create a future, not the transaction that crushes everything you had hoped to do because you have more debt than you could possibly pay off in 10 years."
I hosted a coursera meetup recently (http://www.meetup.com/Coursera/Boston-MA/829362/ http://www.meetup.com/Coursera/Boston-MA/829362/) and I met two students who were enrolled as part time off-campus students, taking the required minimum of classes at the university, and only "spending" those classes on requirements for their majors. All of their enrichment beyond the major was through MOOCs like Coursera. They told me it would take 6 years instead of four, but cost way less, and the preferred the MOOCs for the advanced material anyway. The last piece of the puzzle for them was finding internships, so they could lay the groundwork for a job upon graduating.
Compared to my "find yourself" traipse through college, I was blown away by the steel-trap optimization these guys were applying to school. This economic downturn is breeding a whole generation of just-try-to-stop-me kids. It will be awesome 25 years from now when they are in charge.
- rogem002 14y ago> This economic downturn is breeding a whole generation of just-try-to-stop-me kids. I disagree that the economic downturn is the cause of these young peoples motivations. I would argue that due to a large amount of people achieving a high level of education, degrees are not a foot in the door. As a result personal investments such as attending networking events, doing work experience and building an online presence (Such as a quality GitHub account) will make it a lot easier to stand out from the herd.
- javajosh 14y agoSomething that I dislike is when people use jargon without defining it. In this case, you used "MOOC" without definition. I didn't have to, but I looked it up and it means Massive Open Online Course. But I am annoyed that I had to look it up, and I'm giving you feedback that, in the future, you should define your terms.
- fawce 14y agonoted, thanks.
- christiangenco 14y agoEdit original post please? I fell in the same trap, even though I'd heard the term before.
- fawce 14y agoI would, but unfortunately the edit link is gone. I've never actually done an edit before, is there a time limit or something?
- andrewflnr 14y agoYes, and it's not very long, two hours tops as far as I can tell.