nypost.com— The four-year college degree has come to cost too much and prove too little. It's now a bad deal for the average student, family, employer, professor and taxpayer.
Jun 29, 2009View in Crawl 4
In my opinion college should be MORE expensive. Not only do scholarships entice a horde of people - saturating the market with graduates, but there's no incentive for the individual to make the effort if he knows it's a free ride. If there was a screening process that only the most enthusiastic, or the least wealthy, or a combination of several points were brought together to see who would benefit the most from college... I would really like to see something like that. Run ons ftl...
Racking up that much debt is straight up stupid and should not be blamed on "going to college". Many people go through college debt free, even those who are not wealthy. Just don't go to a small private college that offers "great teaching" at five times the cost, find scholarship money, and work while in school.
This article assume that people with lower incomes save as much as people with higher incomes. This is wrong. Poorer people save less, and rich people save more.
phrawgh got it right but I'll bite too:You're a snob, you're probably not too hot at math, or just don't like to think in rational patterns, so you got in line for the people friendly B.S. (bulls**t) of a liberal arts degree. While you enjoy the prosperity and luxury afforded by society, you fail to realize that it was envisioned and made real by engineers and technical-progressives. And us Engineers et al , occasionally get sick of hearing you poets, writers, businessmen/cons and politicians act as though your intellectual contributions to society are the only contributions. Listen next time you turn on the tap in your rather nice home, try and recall that it's someone in a cubicle (and a helluva lot of other hard working people in the field and in factories) that makes that action so simple and so reliable.
Colleges in Canada are starting to offer bachelor degrees, for example, Seneca now offers a bachelor of applied technology degree in computer programming.
If you're an employer that immediately gives marks up or down based on the name of the school, instead of real world things like experience, team work, etc... f**k you, I don't want to work for such an ignorant douche.
That really depends on the field you plan on going into. If you plan on writing in house software in the financial sector, a computer science degree is a significant mismatch. Unfortunately, a lot of employers think that a degree in computer science will create a good software developer so they put that as a requirement for employment. Having an MBA would be more useful than a CS degree.I've been writing software for business for over a decade now with just a high school diploma and a diploma from a 10 month course at a technical college. If I were to change jobs I might face some resistance landing a new one simply because I do not have a degree period despite having over a decade of field experience.The problem with relying on a degree as the main deciding factor is that employers end up passing up on individuals with significant technical skills as well as accumulated domain knowledge for kids fresh out of school without a clue about the business world.I think the value of degrees can be improved by requiring a mandatory work term as part of the course completion requirements as a co-op student.
I think you might be misunderstanding what Pawns is trying to say. For one, he used a bit of sarcasm. I don't think he finds a degree to be insignificant. I think he is doing the same work that other people are doing with a degree, and finding himself being paid less for the same job. Completely understandable.I've done a few different jobs in my life. I went from running network cable to setting up server environments networked between multiple sites. The company I was with went under, but they were willing to take a chance on my despite my lack of a degree. They paid me about 20% of what they billed me for, which I was happy to get.Now I'm 31 years old and finally going to college this fall (August 18th). I have trouble finding a decent job these days. I've even interviewed well, passed tests, etc only to have someone else higher up say hell no to the guy with no college. Living in the real world, a degree is still important unless you can really afford to start your own business or get really luck with prospective employers.
poonchowJun 30, 2009
In my opinion college should be MORE expensive. Not only do scholarships entice a horde of people - saturating the market with graduates, but there's no incentive for the individual to make the effort if he knows it's a free ride. If there was a screening process that only the most enthusiastic, or the least wealthy, or a combination of several points were brought together to see who would benefit the most from college... I would really like to see something like that. Run ons ftl...
andygreenhawJun 30, 2009
THE JOB MARKET FOR RECENT GRADS IS NOT AS BAD AS PEOPLE THINK. I just wrote a response to this article on my blog. Please let me know what you think.<a class="user" href="http://andygreenhaw.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/why-the-journalism-job-market-is-not-as-bad-as-people-think/">http://andygreenhaw.wordpress.com/2009/06/30/why-t ...</a>
blankjobJul 1, 2009
because ignorance is the newest trend?
elamoJul 6, 2009
Racking up that much debt is straight up stupid and should not be blamed on "going to college". Many people go through college debt free, even those who are not wealthy. Just don't go to a small private college that offers "great teaching" at five times the cost, find scholarship money, and work while in school.
chinalumberjackJul 8, 2009
I really have to ask, in what field and when did you graduate?
themostimprovedJul 9, 2009
This article assume that people with lower incomes save as much as people with higher incomes. This is wrong. Poorer people save less, and rich people save more.
gideon1554Jul 15, 2009
phrawgh got it right but I'll bite too:You're a snob, you're probably not too hot at math, or just don't like to think in rational patterns, so you got in line for the people friendly B.S. (bulls**t) of a liberal arts degree. While you enjoy the prosperity and luxury afforded by society, you fail to realize that it was envisioned and made real by engineers and technical-progressives. And us Engineers et al , occasionally get sick of hearing you poets, writers, businessmen/cons and politicians act as though your intellectual contributions to society are the only contributions. Listen next time you turn on the tap in your rather nice home, try and recall that it's someone in a cubicle (and a helluva lot of other hard working people in the field and in factories) that makes that action so simple and so reliable.
shillabusJul 17, 2009
Colleges in Canada are starting to offer bachelor degrees, for example, Seneca now offers a bachelor of applied technology degree in computer programming.
mtheoryxJul 18, 2009
If you're an employer that immediately gives marks up or down based on the name of the school, instead of real world things like experience, team work, etc... f**k you, I don't want to work for such an ignorant douche.
aristotle0dudeJul 18, 2009
That really depends on the field you plan on going into. If you plan on writing in house software in the financial sector, a computer science degree is a significant mismatch. Unfortunately, a lot of employers think that a degree in computer science will create a good software developer so they put that as a requirement for employment. Having an MBA would be more useful than a CS degree.I've been writing software for business for over a decade now with just a high school diploma and a diploma from a 10 month course at a technical college. If I were to change jobs I might face some resistance landing a new one simply because I do not have a degree period despite having over a decade of field experience.The problem with relying on a degree as the main deciding factor is that employers end up passing up on individuals with significant technical skills as well as accumulated domain knowledge for kids fresh out of school without a clue about the business world.I think the value of degrees can be improved by requiring a mandatory work term as part of the course completion requirements as a co-op student.
bsonlineJul 19, 2009
I think you might be misunderstanding what Pawns is trying to say. For one, he used a bit of sarcasm. I don't think he finds a degree to be insignificant. I think he is doing the same work that other people are doing with a degree, and finding himself being paid less for the same job. Completely understandable.I've done a few different jobs in my life. I went from running network cable to setting up server environments networked between multiple sites. The company I was with went under, but they were willing to take a chance on my despite my lack of a degree. They paid me about 20% of what they billed me for, which I was happy to get.Now I'm 31 years old and finally going to college this fall (August 18th). I have trouble finding a decent job these days. I've even interviewed well, passed tests, etc only to have someone else higher up say hell no to the guy with no college. Living in the real world, a degree is still important unless you can really afford to start your own business or get really luck with prospective employers.
airbanditFeb 27, 2010
College is a complete scam as of now. It wasn't that case 20 years ago. Anyone today going for a job is getting conned. Take a look at all the poor suckers on <a class="user" href="http://www.thegreatcollegehoax.com" rel="nofollow">http://www.thegreatcollegehoax.com</a> that got screwed.