US college tuition is pure lulz. Why do you guys put up with it?

[Murloc]

I'm sure I posted it elsewhere, maybe not word for word though. I also didn't mean to imply that I was just talking about the US. It's everywhere. And an idiot that can't handle college might be better at a job than anyone who graduated. Some people aren't good test takers, or don't work well in a classroom environment. Yet there are no alternatives.

those people you are talking about are a small part of those who fail.
and anyway you can't learn everything by yourself, if someone teaches it to you it's faster and needs less motivation.

 

[Dominato3r]

Does it include out of state costs?

 

[DanTMWTMP]

The tuition for UCSD wasn't so bad. It was the living cost that destroyed me. I still owe the gov't about 20k in student loans (a huge percentage of the loan is for the living costs), but taking my time to pay it off, due to the tax deductions. Interest rate isn't too bad either.

 

[rcpratt]

Maybe, but I'm basing this off of US News saying my school is the #3 Engineering school, #3 undergrad business program, top 5 law program, top 5 econ program, etc etc etc... and #1 public school. So yes, I think I have basis.

But I do agree. I see a lot of people touting their schools as top schools when they're just "good." (example: tOSU).

The best thing is people that go to schools that are great for some things, but they're in the LSA program or something. I have no issue saying I went to a top 10 engineering school or whatnot because I did, but it's just hilarious when LSAs act like they're awesome for the same reason.

i think posters do it to avoid confusion with Oklahoma state which doesnt have the in front of it. being an ohio state grad as well, i just call us ohio state or osu. Though if i remember right, there was a dispute with ohio university over the use of o-h-i-o or something like that awhile back.

Right, but the times when OK State and OSU overlap (in the sports world at least, which is all I really care about) are next to none. It's obvious for any Big Ten fan who you're talking about with OSU.

 

[PimpJuice]

College as a whole is complete bullshit. There are better, more efficient ways to learn what you want to know, but fucking companies want you to have that little piece of paper saying you graduated, like it means something.

The only thing it's worth is connections, as mentioned above.

a) You weren't smart enough to get into a college
b) You couldn't hack it if you did get accepted
c) You had no friends in college and hated the experience

Regardless of which one it is, you should stop generalizing cause it just makes you look that much dumber.

 

[Beev]

a) You weren't smart enough to get into a college
b) You couldn't hack it if you did get accepted
c) You had no friends in college and hated the experience

Regardless of which one it is, you should stop generalizing cause it just makes you look that much dumber.

Heh, what's hilarious about your post is it makes you look absolutely ridiculous. I went to a university for four semesters before deciding it just wasn't for me. During that time I had no problem keeping my GPA up, and in fact, I loved living in the dorm. If I could do that without having to be enrolled I would even today. It was a blast. It was painfully obvious I was generalizing, so if you think I was trying to downplay every single facet about college then perhaps you should have gone to a better school.

 

[SP33Demon]

Heh, what's hilarious about your post is it makes you look absolutely ridiculous. I went to a university for four years before deciding it just wasn't for me. During that time I had no problem keeping my GPA up, and in fact, I loved living in the dorm. If I could do that without having to be enrolled I would even today. It was a blast. It was painfully obvious I was generalizing, so if you think I was trying to downplay every single facet about college then perhaps you should have gone to a better school.

So did you graduate?

 

[Beev]

So did you graduate?

Nope. Didn't need to. I was lucky enough to find and get a job in the field I was going to school for without needing to.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Nope. Didn't need to. I was lucky enough to find and get a job in the field I was going to school for without needing to.

What field is this?

I'm trying to imagine getting an engineering job without a degree. Nope. Not really possible. I'm thinking Silicon Valley electrical engineering... Nah. I don't think Intel, Apple, Google would take anyone. But of course I live in a bubble so what do I know right?

 

[OutHouse]

University of Colorado
Costs (2008 - 09):

* Tuition and Fees: $7,278 (in-state); $26,756 (out-of-state)
* Books: $1,749 (why so much?)
* Room and Board: $9,860
* Other Expenses: $4,374
* Total Cost: $23,261 (in-state); $42,739 (out-of-state)

http://collegeapps.about.com/od/collegeprofiles/p/ColoradoBoulder.htm

 

[Beev]

What field is this?

I'm trying to imagine getting an engineering job without a degree. Nope. Not really possible. I'm thinking Silicon Valley electrical engineering... Nah. I don't think Intel, Apple, Google would take anyone. But of course I live in a bubble so what do I know right?

Software engineering (well, database management mostly). Self taught myself SQL. If you can show off a portfolio you can get any job. This is especially true in engineering actually because you can physically show the company what you can do. I'm sure that wouldn't work for every company, but a lot of them just want proof that you know your stuff. Get a degree or teach yourself and make a portfolio. Take your pick.

 

[Gibson486]

Software engineering (well, database management mostly). Self taught myself SQL. If you can show off a portfolio you can get any job. This is especially true in engineering actually because you can physically show the company what you can do. I'm sure that wouldn't work for every company, but a lot of them just want proof that you know your stuff. Get a degree or teach yourself and make a portfolio. Take your pick.

LOL....take engineering out of your title....

 

[Beev]

LOL....take engineering out of your title....

It may not fit with the title (iyo), but the latter half of my post still fits it. Teach yourself any programming language, on your own, and you will find a job. No degree required, and takes less time.

God damn a lot of people got butthurt over my initial post. I guess people just need validation for their life choices... Sad really.

 

[Train]

I hear the cost of beer has been skyrocketing in Canada the past few years.

What's a keg of domestic go for? How about a case? You gotta factor those in to a college education. In the USA, everyone gets an automatic minor in brew-ha-ha-ology.

 

[TheVrolok]

It may not fit with the title (iyo), but the latter half of my post still fits it. Teach yourself any programming language, on your own, and you will find a job. No degree required, and takes less time.

God damn a lot of people got butthurt over my initial post. I guess people just need validation for their life choices... Sad really.

It sounds, to me, like you're the one trying to validate your life choice of dropping out of college. You made broad sweeping generalizations about college that do not often hold true, and then blame people who called you out for it for attempting to validate themselves? Riight.

 

[Gibson486]

It may not fit with the title (iyo), but the latter half of my post still fits it. Teach yourself any programming language, on your own, and you will find a job. No degree required, and takes less time.

God damn a lot of people got butthurt over my initial post. I guess people just need validation for their life choices... Sad really.

don't care if you go to college or not. Infact, doing database stuff should not need it and there are plenty of fields out there where you can do fine without it. However, it the term "engineer" that gets me going. There are programmers that do not know an ounce of science and they call themselves software engineers because they can program.

 

[xeemzor]

Maybe, but I'm basing this off of US News saying my school is the #3 Engineering school, #3 undergrad business program, top 5 law program, top 5 econ program, etc etc etc... and #1 public school. So yes, I think I have basis.

But I do agree. I see a lot of people touting their schools as top schools when they're just "good." (example: tOSU). In addition to ranks, there's like tiers. There's like the tier that competes with the Ivies, and that's where I feel my school is. There's the tier of low Ivies + great schools, and there's the tier that's below it that people call "safety schools," and then there's just fail tier where if you got in there for law school, you might as well kiss that $160k salary goodbye.



similar shit happens in Berkeley. It's retarded. Without politicizing it too much, you can see how this becomes liberal spend-spend-spend agenda.

The differences in schools often is just so marginal as to not matter. In my field, there is a huge amount of recruiting as to give me the same chance as someone who went to a "top" college. I think people overvalue the quality of their school and undervalue networking. A degree is just a too to get your foot in the door at a job interview, nothing much more. Unless, of course, you are one of those silly liberal arts people.

 

[SLCentral]

Heh, what's hilarious about your post is it makes you look absolutely ridiculous. I went to a university for four years before deciding it just wasn't for me. During that time I had no problem keeping my GPA up, and in fact, I loved living in the dorm. If I could do that without having to be enrolled I would even today. It was a blast. It was painfully obvious I was generalizing, so if you think I was trying to downplay every single facet about college then perhaps you should have gone to a better school.

Wait. You went to school for four years, and THEN dropped out? Why the hell would you not just finish it out? What did you have left, one semester?

 

[gorcorps]

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/10/06/0628_payscale2/1.htm

Best bang for your buck schools:
(mine) Colorado School of Mines
Annual Tuition and Fees: $12,244 in-state, $26,404 out-of-state
30-Year Net Return on Investment: $1,132,000
30-Year Net Return for Graduates: $1,664,000
Annualized Net ROI: 13.6 percent

You're just looking at the wrong schools OP

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

It may not fit with the title (iyo), but the latter half of my post still fits it. Teach yourself any programming language, on your own, and you will find a job. No degree required, and takes less time.

God damn a lot of people got butthurt over my initial post. I guess people just need validation for their life choices... Sad really.

Programmers are a dime a dozen. I have friends who made it out of EECS and business programs and did startup iPhone apps. Do you think they really need their degree to do their startup? But they definitely needed that degree to get multiple offers from Apple, Google and Microsoft AND turn them all down to startup.

And seriously database management is as good as sysadmin. You don't need a degree for that. College isn't about learning all the technical aspects of things so you apply it right at your job. That's what on the job training is for. But like many said, college is to weed out idiots. A 4 year degree isn't exceptionally hard to obtain, even at a top notch university that buttrapes your GPA. There are jobs that clearly don't require a degree to do well in, but many companies will not hire you without a degree. And plus, if anything the BS degree is completely overrated nowadays. The MS is the standard now with PhD becoming more and more popular. Good luck moving around tech companies with just a BS degree unless you plan on exiting the technical field and moving into sales/marketing/management. And even then more and more managers are succeeding with a MS or PhD.

Call me when Google hires you just like they do when people make it out of my school with a top 3 CS program under their belt.

 

[mmntech]

Since the OP mentioned Brown... I don't hold much weight in the Ivy League. I think going to those schools is more about status. I don't think people necessarily get a better education there. University is BS anyway.

I went to one of the top public universities in Canada and I feel those years of my life were wasted. At the vary least, I don't think I've gotten out of them what I put in. There are people my age in my industry who already have steady jobs while I got nailed by the recession. I could have launched my career a lot sooner had I just gone to community college from the start... instead of clawing at every opportunity that comes along with 50 other people.

 

[OutHouse]

he MS is the standard now with PhD becoming more and more popular. Good luck moving around tech companies with just a BS degree

??? where do you see this? I am in Denver which has a very strong technical presence. We had a DBA position open and we zero guys with Masters apply,what exactly would a dude with a PhD do in IT? supervise sys admins on racking servers or oversee a DBA index a database?

Ive know plenty of guys who are very skilled in various fields of IT and have no problem finding 100K jobs when they want to move on and they have no formal degree. talk about a waste of money. If i ever saw a resume come across my desk and some dude flashing his PhD I think i would die laughing.talk about a waste of money.

And seriously database management is as good as sysadmin

depends on the complexity of the database and how much massaging has to be done to the db to keep it optimized then you need a full time DBA, having a sys admin work on the db in-between service tickets is asking for trouble.

 

[SLCentral]

Since the OP mentioned Brown... I don't hold much weight in the Ivy League. I think going to those schools is more about status. I don't think people necessarily get a better education there. University is BS anyway.

I went to one of the top public universities in Canada and I feel those years of my life were wasted. At the vary least, I don't think I've gotten out of them what I put in. There are people my age in my industry who already have steady jobs while I got nailed by the recession. I could have launched my career a lot sooner had I just gone to community college from the start... instead of clawing at every opportunity that comes along with 50 other people.

What exactly are you basing this statement on? I went to a decent private university (top-100 or so) my freshman year of college, and then transferred to a Ivy. I found the education to be significantly better than at my previous school. This is my first-hand experience.

 

[Drako]

Why the hell does everyone who graduates from there call it that? "THE" Ohio State. Sounds like everyone that comes out of there has an issue with just "Ohio State."

LOL, I went to Ohio State, and I call it Ohio State.

Of course I graduated long before it was deemed mandatory to include "The" in the name 🙂

 

[GoSharks]

Since the OP mentioned Brown... I don't hold much weight in the Ivy League. I think going to those schools is more about status. I don't think people necessarily get a better education there. University is BS anyway.

I went to Johns Hopkins for undergrad in Biomedical Engineering. For my MS, I was at the University of Utah in Bioengineering.

Hopkins BME is ranked #1 for both ugrad and grad and the university itself is top 15 overall. Utah's grad program is top 15, and something like top 50-75 for overall. Comparing JHU BME ugrad and Utah BE grad, the education and student body was comparable. However, when you compare JHU ugrad and Utah's much lower ranked ugrad, there are obvious differences in the quality of education and student body. Not even in the same league.