Is the College Degree watered down?

[jhmoore]

Originally posted by: jimkyser
By the way, jhmoore, I don't mean to pick on you.

Nah, whatever, it's fine...

Actually, that is a good point, and one I hadn't thought of--the fact that attaining a BA/BS requires self discipline, and is a demonstration of that fact.

 

[Jave]

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats

Originally posted by: Dissipate
What is your degree in? I think there are a lot of good jobs for engineers right out of college.

Business Information Systems

With this degree you will be making more than Engineers and CS majors. After my MS in CS, my starting salary was considerably less then MIS or BIS majors.

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Jave

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats

Originally posted by: Dissipate
What is your degree in? I think there are a lot of good jobs for engineers right out of college.

Business Information Systems

With this degree you will be making more than Engineers and CS majors. After my MS in CS, my starting salary was considerably less then MIS or BIS majors.

Maybe CS majors, but definitely not engineering. You must have an incredibly low starting salary for an MS to be considerably less than MIS or BIS majors.

 

[homercles337]

Ever heard of grade inflation? The system is busted so that faculty can get tenure. A junior faculty member (and hence one seeking tenure) that was on all my committies in grad school taught the UG intro statistics course. His frist year, he failed more than 50% of students and received HORRENDOUS evals. The next year, he made the class easier and evals went up. His third year he made the class even easier and evals went up to a level that would ensure he get tenure. This was at the #2 (research oriented) school in the nation (tied for #1 in other disciplines). I cant remember the study, but it found that the ONLY thing positively correlated with evals was grades.

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: homercles337
Ever heard of grade inflation? The system is busted so that faculty can get tenure. A junior faculty member (and hence one seeking tenure) that was on all my committies in grad school taught the UG intro statistics course. His frist year, he failed more than 50% of students and received HORRENDOUS evals. The next year, he made the class easier and evals went up. His third year he made the class even easier and evals went up to a level that would ensure he get tenure. This was at the #2 (research oriented) school in the nation (tied for #1 in other disciplines). I cant remember the study, but it found that the ONLY thing positively correlated with evals was grades.

Evals are completely useless. Some of the Indian students here give good evaluations because they say they have to respect their professors, even if they're absolutely terrible teachers. The worst teacher I've ever had got about 80% positive evaluations here, and I'm sure I have no idea how. I gave him about 2/10 on everything. :|

 

[slash196]

As a current college student, all I have to say on the subject is that if I was going to college to get a job, I'd have gone to a technical school. Getting a job is about the last thing I want to do with my college degree. The whole world doesn't revolve around work, you know. Frankly, I'd rather learn and enlighten myself while I have the chance, instead of going into some kind of career boot camp.

 

[kogase]

Originally posted by: slash196
As a current college student, all I have to say on the subject is that if I was going to college to get a job, I'd have gone to a technical school. Getting a job is about the last thing I want to do with my college degree. The whole world doesn't revolve around work, you know. Frankly, I'd rather learn and enlighten myself while I have the chance, instead of going into some kind of career boot camp.

I've been thinking the same thing. I don't plan on majoring in something just to make money... like engineering. I want to go to college to learn.

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: kogase
I've been thinking the same thing. I don't plan on majoring in something just to make money... like engineering. I want to go to college to learn.

Yes, because engineers don't learn anything and we're all in it for the money. :roll:

If I were interested in money, I would have been a business major. I'd have studied three hours a week, drank the rest of the time, and would make 5x the money I'll make with a PhD in engineering.

 

[kogase]

Originally posted by: CycloWizard

Originally posted by: kogase
I've been thinking the same thing. I don't plan on majoring in something just to make money... like engineering. I want to go to college to learn.

Yes, because engineers don't learn anything and we're all in it for the money. :roll:

If I were interested in money, I would have been a business major. I'd have studied three hours a week, drank the rest of the time, and would make 5x the money I'll make with a PhD in engineering.

Well, yeah, you learn how to... engineer stuff. I see so many people on this forum who either majored in or are planning to major in engineering of some sort, and I can't help but think it's not so popular because it's just a fascinating subject. The logic that most people are using is that it'll be an easy way to land a high paying job. Sure, there must be some people who are genuinely interested in it, who spend their spare time creating electronics and other inventions, but I sort of doubt most of these people are like that.

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: kogase
Well, yeah, you learn how to... engineer stuff. I see so many people on this forum who either majored in or are planning to major in engineering of some sort, and I can't help but think it's not so popular because it's just a fascinating subject. The logic that most people are using is that it'll be an easy way to land a high paying job. Sure, there must be some people who are genuinely interested in it, who spend their spare time creating electronics and other inventions, but I sort of doubt most of these people are like that.

Maybe you're right. But if people are getting into engineering for the money, they're probably not smart enough to be engineers. 😛

 

[homercles337]

Originally posted by: CycloWizard
Evals are completely useless. Some of the Indian students here give good evaluations because they say they have to respect their professors, even if they're absolutely terrible teachers. The worst teacher I've ever had got about 80% positive evaluations here, and I'm sure I have no idea how. I gave him about 2/10 on everything. :|

You CANT be serious. Do you know what gets evaluated when a faculty member is up for tenure? Teaching, research, and service are the standard areas for evaluating faculty. Teaching == student evals. Research == pubs. Service == reviewer for the community (with Nature/Science > *). Certain schools weight these areas differently (liberal arts schools want stellar teaching evals, research schools not so much), but teaching is always there. Unless youre a Howard Hughes Investigator or wealthy and will likely buy out your teaching contract every semester anyway.

 

[CycloWizard]

Originally posted by: homercles337
You CANT be serious. Do you know what gets evaluated when a faculty member is up for tenure? Teaching, research, and service are the standard areas for evaluating faculty. Teaching == student evals. Research == pubs. Service == reviewer for the community (with Nature/Science > *). Certain schools weight these areas differently (liberal arts schools want stellar teaching evals, research schools not so much), but teaching is always there. Unless youre a Howard Hughes Investigator or wealthy and will likely buy out your teaching contract every semester anyway.

I meant that they're useless in that they're not a valid reflection of how good a teacher said professor is, not that they're not considered in tenure decisions.

 

[sonoma1993]

I think it really depends on the job field you are going into. for instance if you are going into welding, a college degree really isnt going to help you become a great welder, it might but most likely not. That more of a hands on job learning experince. But if your going into somethen like the chemical engineer, yeah college degree and beyond will defintly benefit you. But for someone going todo somethen with history, it like in between. A college degree is going to help you, but also going to diffrent parts of the world, and studyin that region is going to benfit you also.

 

[Jave]

Link

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: Jave

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats

Originally posted by: Dissipate
What is your degree in? I think there are a lot of good jobs for engineers right out of college.

Business Information Systems

With this degree you will be making more than Engineers and CS majors. After my MS in CS, my starting salary was considerably less then MIS or BIS majors.

Maybe CS majors, but definitely not engineering. You must have an incredibly low starting salary for an MS to be considerably less than MIS or BIS majors.

Management & HR usually get more salary than Technical staff. My hair dresser pulls over 100k so going to school and getting a degree does not make too much sense anymore.

Here is good link to see salaries for recent graduate Text

 

[CanOWorms]

Originally posted by: Jave

Management & HR usually get more salary than Technical staff. My hair dresser pulls over 100k so going to school and getting a degree does not make too much sense anymore.

Here is good link to see salaries for recent graduate Text

Management in technical fields are usually technical people. The link you provided is for Oklahoma University, not for the nation. Usually chemical engineering is ranked as the highest paying undergrad degree when the national list is released yearly.

You don't need a degree to be successful. Just because your hairdresser makes $100k doesn't mean much.

 

[Jave]

Originally posted by: CanOWorms

Originally posted by: Jave

Management & HR usually get more salary than Technical staff. My hair dresser pulls over 100k so going to school and getting a degree does not make too much sense anymore.

Here is good link to see salaries for recent graduate Text

Management in technical fields are usually technical people. The link you provided is for Oklahoma University, not for the nation. Usually chemical engineering is ranked as the highest paying undergrad degree when the national list is released yearly.

You don't need a degree to be successful. Just because your hairdresser makes $100k doesn't mean much.

I wish, my job will be lot easier.
I have provided the link so that OP can feel better about his future after reading that BUS graduate are doing fine.

 

[imported_Condor]

Before I retired, I only took a degree if I couldn't get prior military. The mil people got things done, the college people were expert in finding why things coulen't be done.

 

[SophalotJack]

I think times have changed, bud.

Military people are more politically biased then the most extreme left / right - wing people of this nation.

I should know.

 

[coomar]

my prof was telling me that originally the final exam was 100% of the course mark

 

[classy]

Originally posted by: CycloWizard
The answer is: it depends. What field do you want to get into?

More and more fields require more and more specialized knowledge, even at the entry level. Thus, the need for people with college degrees is increasing, as the college education gives you the basis for this specialized knowledge. I would fully expect this trend to continue, at least until our pre-college education system is worth anything and gives people a real knowledge base. Even then, the standards will continue to rise as technology becomes a more integrated part of society.

Thats it in a nutshell. It really depends.

 

[Reckoner]

Originally posted by: 0marTheZealot

Originally posted by: PaulNEPats

Originally posted by: Dissipate
What is your degree in? I think there are a lot of good jobs for engineers right out of college.

Business Information Systems

There ya go. Sh!t degree = Sh!t job.

Engineering/Science degrees are most definately not watered down.

Business Information Systems = Bachelor of Science. And why is my degree considered a sh!tty one? If you're going to bash it, at least go into specifics.