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Aside from hard science and engineering degrees where the technical knowledge is a foundation for what you'll learn in industry, a college degree is simply a piece of paper that says "I received a balanced education and have my life together enough to focus, manage time, and complete tasks reliably for 4 years straight." Rarely do you ever use most of the knowledge you gained in college besides the aforementioned life management skills.
Then why even bother going to a university? Seems like community college would be a much better use of your money to accomplish that
University is meant to be higher level and teach you soft skills. Academics also aren't supposed to be the only thing you do, but participating in clubs and sports is supposed to give students experience in leadership to make them better leaders when they graduate.
It is supposed to be a civilian version of officer candidate school.
So then I really fucked up by working fast food to pay for my textbooks when I could have been out playing sportsball
Or being in a fraternity or student clubs.
The only club I had time for was the chicken club
2 vs 4 year degree. I do recommend going to community college first though and transferring if pursuing a degree.
At least in the US, most community colleges offer 4 year degrees
Maybe it varies state to state but I don't know of any that offer real 4 year degrees, and I went to a community college
Yeah, IvyTech here in Indiana will get you credit to transfer to a 4-year school but only offers associates degrees.
Where? I can think of one that had a university satellite campus for a handful of programs. But those were the only 4 year degrees and they were still through a university and had university pricing.
It is
Right, and without it the only thing you're qualified to do is work shit blue collar jobs and live out of your car. That is, if you were lucky enough to buy one before they became unaffordable.
Working in the AEC firm, I can absolutely confirm that engineering degrees teach you almost nothing you'll do on the job. The disconnect between college and work in engineering not only exists, but is far, far larger than anyone may think.
It depends. I absolutely use my degrees in my job, including my Masters. However, I'm heavy into the kinds of design where it is valuable.
Also, a lot of the job is plan preparation and no one really teaches that in college.
That's good you can use your skills in your design work! I see a lot of shell shock in my civil firm.
And yeah, absolutely. So many EITs, engineers, and even PEs live in CADD which is not taught nearly enough in the curriculum. Also, computer literacy is not emphasized enough, IMO. Every engineer these days works with computers, especially in Excel. Additionally, a lot of engineers especially don't have people skills enough to effectively coordinate with all parties involved in their roles; it would be great to get some of that experience in mock PM situations or something during school. That all has to be taught on the job.
So many EITs, engineers, and even PEs live in CADD which is not taught nearly enough in the curriculum.
A lot of that seems to come from non-practicing professors teaching classes. They really need to create homework that requires reading plans more, if not generating them.
Also, computer literacy is not emphasized enough, IMO. Every engineer these days works with computers, especially in Excel.
In my day, it was assumed that engineers would just have that competency. That assumption has changed. You also have cases where, again, non-practicing professors don't know that you should incorporate Excel as part of some classes.
Additionally, a lot of engineers especially don't have people skills enough to effectively coordinate with all parties involved in their roles; it would be great to get some of that experience in mock PM situations or something during school. That all has to be taught on the job.
This is actually where the Greek system and student clubs are supposed to do this work. The best way to learn PM skills is by managing projects. You aren't going to get that in a class unless you are working on group projects. You get that by running a club or putting together a campus event.
Those are all really good points, and yeah, you're completely right in that too many of those fall upon non-practicing professors. Or moreover, very disconnected professors.
And that is true, but not doing Greek or many clubs myself, that didn't even cross my mind.
Eh. There's more to it than like you need a degree to become a doctor, lawyer, psychologist etc. It's just that you need to have a well layer out plan and a good understanding of what your strengths and weakness are. Unfortunately, in the US there's a massive emphasis on getting into college right after high school where people barely know what they want nor have any real world experience. In Ireland there's a scheme there's a thing called a mature student where its basically encouraging people 23 or older to go into college. Like courses will have spots reserved for them and the like.
What do the kids do in the meantime? I understand it's a lot to throw a "kid" into university, but it's often done so they can get a career and start contributing to retirement and building wealth.
I mean it's also impractical to have a family without some career so that gets put on hold too. Or worse they have kids and have to go to school at the same time.
I'm not saying everyone should go to college, but just defending the reasoning for those that do why they go as young as they do.