4 ms·

"Adult Education" has this nagging stigma associated with it (though, thankfully, that's changing due to MOOCs and such). But still -- even when the major univ

by nlh 12y ago

"Adult Education" has this nagging stigma associated with it (though, thankfully, that's changing due to MOOCs and such). But still -- even when the major universities offer it, it's seen with a skewed tilt by much of the rest of the world. Ask anyone who graduated from Harvard (undergrad), HBS, HLS, etc. about the Harvard Extension School and you'll get the eye-roll I'm talking about. I think in cases like this it's less because of the adult part but more because of the payola part -- anyone can sign up for HES classes provided they pay. What I think is potentially interesting, and frankly am surprised isn't offered yet (or at least not widely), is the idea of continuing one's education into adulthood through the same university. My personal motivation: When I was 19 and a sophomore picking a major, I chose what interested me at the time - business & psychology. I loved what I learned and am grateful for my college education. But here I am 18 years later and my brain and desires have changed. I'm rabidly excited about programming and CS topics, and have done a pretty decent job of teaching myself through various online resources over the past few years. My alma mater should capitalize on this -- they should offer a "supplemental degree" program where I can give them money, take classes (remotely or on campus), do the work, take the tests, and get a CS major supplement to my previous undergrad degree. It would maintain the full authority of the university and be a full bachelor's degree, just completed almost 2 decades after the first bit :) I can't imagine I'm alone in wanting this sort of thing...

sillysaurus3 12y ago
Ask anyone who graduated from Harvard (undergrad), HBS, HLS, etc. about the Harvard Extension School and you'll get the eye-roll I'm talking about. I think in cases like this it's less because of the adult part but more because of the payola part -- anyone can sign up for HES classes provided they pay. So it's like the regular Harvard admissions process, then. EDIT: Just a little joke. But I'm not sure there's much of a difference between someone attending an expensive "prep school or outstanding high school" and someone paying a lot of money to enter a top-tier university. Attending such schools isn't a guarantee of admission, but being from a rich background boosts your chances by unreasonable margins. http://posttrib.chicagotribune.com/news/24598924-418/high-schools-play-role-in-ivy-league-acceptance.html#.VItRrmTF-mE http://posttrib.chicagotribune.com/news/24598924-418/high-sc... There are clear advantages to attending a top–tiered high school, as can be seen from college admissions data. The Harvard Crimson recently reported that in Harvard’s Class of 2017, six per cent of admitted students came from only 10 high schools. Eleven percent of high schools with students admitted to Harvard sent 36 percent of students, while 74 percent of schools sent only one student. Clearly where you went to high school plays a major role in whether or not you are admitted to Harvard.
ilamont 12y ago
Ask anyone who graduated from Harvard (undergrad), HBS, HLS, etc. about the Harvard Extension School and you'll get the eye-roll I'm talking about. I think in cases like this it's less because of the adult part but more because of the payola part -- anyone can sign up for HES classes provided they pay. The eye-rolls also occur because of a large number of students and graduates who try to pass themselves off as students/alumni of Harvard College, GSAS, or the Business School. It's unfortunate, because the high-profile impostors and resume exaggerations detract from the fact that it takes a lot of work to be accepted to a degree program and complete the requirements to graduate. In addition, there are some high-quality offerings in certain fields -- for instance, the post-bacc for students interested in going to medical school, as well as the on-campus classes taught by Harvard faculty.
mbrundle 12y ago
No you're not. My background is biochemistry (UK degree), biomedical image processing (UK PhD) and web development (self-taught). After a decade of academic research in medical imaging, I'm now moving more towards pure tech. I'd love to go back to uni, say full time for 6-12 months, either in the US or UK, and rigorously study the fundamentals of Computer Science, however I haven't found a mechanism that really works for me. An additional undergrad degree is too long and slow - I know I can study MUCH more efficiently than I could when I was 18, and I also want to be very focused on CS, so most of a US undergrad course would be a waste of time to me. On the other hand, a 1 year Masters is too advanced, since I don't have a firm grasp of the basics. Online courses are definitely filling the gap but I feel like I learn faster with human interaction and mentoring. Bootcamps are okay to an extent (I'm currently doing The Firehose Project to learn some industry web dev practices, and they provide great mentoring and group projects), but they only advance your skills so far, and probably not up to the level I expect you'd be at after completing the first year of CS. It'd be great to see some different options out there which provide the rigour and cater to a more mature audience.
- ChuckMcM 12y ago
  This is pretty much the target, a 2 year program that covers basics to mastery in a particular subject. I have seen folks who have put together curriculums for that out of MOOC lists but it hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves. My theory is that if could retrain for a new discipline in 2 years it would strongly mitigate the notion of 'structural' unemployment. Particularly if you already had the basics down (aka an undergraduate degree). I suggested to the Alumni group at USC that such a program, a "mini-bachelors+masters" might make for something they could provide their alumni (or others) that would both get them more tuition dollars and help people.
- dataminded 12y ago
  Someone somewhere needs to be working on this. I also want something shorter and faster than an undergrad degree and more focused on CS than boot camps appear to be.
ethanpoole 12y ago
At the University of Minnesota, those with degrees from the university can audit courses at a greatly reduced rate. I'm not sure whether this applies to online courses, but it's very likely that it does. During my undergraduate education there, I encountered many such post-degree students; they were quite a joy to have in class.
- nlh 12y ago
  That's awesome. Question: Could those post-degree auditors get any credit for those classes? Or was it simply for the content?
  - ethanpoole 12y ago
    It's simply for the content, not credit. I assume that if they wanted to get a second degree, they would have to reenroll. I should point out that university employees could also take classes for free, while earning credit; though there have been some cuts to this program recently, if I recall.
acomjean 12y ago
I think if people are going to questions "adult education" they might question how you got 2 undergrad degrees. Some universities have a "Graduate Certificate" program where you can take graduate classes. They can be hard to find on websites. They seem to have worked well for a couple of my friends who took them to help them change career directions. I started taking graduate CS classes for a certificate at Pace (my undergrad was in civil engineering), which ended up being helpful completing a Masters Program at Northeastern. for example: http://www.pace.edu/seidenberg/seidenberg-programs/graduate-programs/advanced-certificates http://www.pace.edu/seidenberg/seidenberg-programs/graduate-...
jules 12y ago
In my university they had this. There were always 1-2 50+ people following the lectures (math & physics). Only one of them was ever able to complete a course successfully, and that was with immense effort. He basically spent more effort on one course than the rest of the students spent on the entire curriculum. It was inspiring to see the drive he had, but it's not feasible to complete a whole major that way. I'm not sure if that's related to age or just that the people who apply later in life are statistically different than those who apply out of high school.
beej666 12y ago
Sounds like a great idea to me!

by nlh 12y ago

sillysaurus3 12y ago

Ask anyone who graduated from Harvard (undergrad), HBS, HLS, etc. about the Harvard Extension School and you'll get the eye-roll I'm talking about. I think in cases like this it's less because of the adult part but more because of the payola part -- anyone can sign up for HES classes provided they pay. So it's like the regular Harvard admissions process, then. EDIT: Just a little joke. But I'm not sure there's much of a difference between someone attending an expensive "prep school or outstanding high school" and someone paying a lot of money to enter a top-tier university. Attending such schools isn't a guarantee of admission, but being from a rich background boosts your chances by unreasonable margins. http://posttrib.chicagotribune.com/news/24598924-418/high-schools-play-role-in-ivy-league-acceptance.html#.VItRrmTF-mE http://posttrib.chicagotribune.com/news/24598924-418/high-sc... There are clear advantages to attending a top–tiered high school, as can be seen from college admissions data. The Harvard Crimson recently reported that in Harvard’s Class of 2017, six per cent of admitted students came from only 10 high schools. Eleven percent of high schools with students admitted to Harvard sent 36 percent of students, while 74 percent of schools sent only one student. Clearly where you went to high school plays a major role in whether or not you are admitted to Harvard.

ilamont 12y ago

mbrundle 12y ago

No you're not. My background is biochemistry (UK degree), biomedical image processing (UK PhD) and web development (self-taught). After a decade of academic research in medical imaging, I'm now moving more towards pure tech. I'd love to go back to uni, say full time for 6-12 months, either in the US or UK, and rigorously study the fundamentals of Computer Science, however I haven't found a mechanism that really works for me. An additional undergrad degree is too long and slow - I know I can study MUCH more efficiently than I could when I was 18, and I also want to be very focused on CS, so most of a US undergrad course would be a waste of time to me. On the other hand, a 1 year Masters is too advanced, since I don't have a firm grasp of the basics. Online courses are definitely filling the gap but I feel like I learn faster with human interaction and mentoring. Bootcamps are okay to an extent (I'm currently doing The Firehose Project to learn some industry web dev practices, and they provide great mentoring and group projects), but they only advance your skills so far, and probably not up to the level I expect you'd be at after completing the first year of CS. It'd be great to see some different options out there which provide the rigour and cater to a more mature audience.

ChuckMcM 12y ago
This is pretty much the target, a 2 year program that covers basics to mastery in a particular subject. I have seen folks who have put together curriculums for that out of MOOC lists but it hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves. My theory is that if could retrain for a new discipline in 2 years it would strongly mitigate the notion of 'structural' unemployment. Particularly if you already had the basics down (aka an undergraduate degree). I suggested to the Alumni group at USC that such a program, a "mini-bachelors+masters" might make for something they could provide their alumni (or others) that would both get them more tuition dollars and help people.
dataminded 12y ago
Someone somewhere needs to be working on this. I also want something shorter and faster than an undergrad degree and more focused on CS than boot camps appear to be.

ethanpoole 12y ago

At the University of Minnesota, those with degrees from the university can audit courses at a greatly reduced rate. I'm not sure whether this applies to online courses, but it's very likely that it does. During my undergraduate education there, I encountered many such post-degree students; they were quite a joy to have in class.

nlh 12y ago
That's awesome. Question: Could those post-degree auditors get any credit for those classes? Or was it simply for the content?
- ethanpoole 12y ago
  It's simply for the content, not credit. I assume that if they wanted to get a second degree, they would have to reenroll. I should point out that university employees could also take classes for free, while earning credit; though there have been some cuts to this program recently, if I recall.

acomjean 12y ago

I think if people are going to questions "adult education" they might question how you got 2 undergrad degrees. Some universities have a "Graduate Certificate" program where you can take graduate classes. They can be hard to find on websites. They seem to have worked well for a couple of my friends who took them to help them change career directions. I started taking graduate CS classes for a certificate at Pace (my undergrad was in civil engineering), which ended up being helpful completing a Masters Program at Northeastern. for example: http://www.pace.edu/seidenberg/seidenberg-programs/graduate-programs/advanced-certificates http://www.pace.edu/seidenberg/seidenberg-programs/graduate-...

jules 12y ago

In my university they had this. There were always 1-2 50+ people following the lectures (math & physics). Only one of them was ever able to complete a course successfully, and that was with immense effort. He basically spent more effort on one course than the rest of the students spent on the entire curriculum. It was inspiring to see the drive he had, but it's not feasible to complete a whole major that way. I'm not sure if that's related to age or just that the people who apply later in life are statistically different than those who apply out of high school.

beej666 12y ago

Sounds like a great idea to me!