Why don't people care what college costs?

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PingSpike

Lifer
Feb 25, 2004
21,747
579
126
Originally posted by: SludgeFactory

Don't knock the blue collar guys though. Getting into a good trade at 18 y.o. and having some financial discipline, the option of retirement would probably come much earlier than for most of us chumps with college edumacations. Only problem is not ending up physically beat down from your labor when you're 50.

I agree with this. After looking around at the mess out there, it seems like becoming a plumber or an electrician is a good choice. My younger brother in law is does quite well in high school, but his plan is to become an electrician. My wife thinks he should go to college, but aside from a maybe business degree I'm not sure what purpose it would serve. He'll make decent money doing this, he likes to work with his hands and he can run his own business if he likes. Its as good a plan as any these days, and IMO, better then a lot of more touted paths to success.
 

Parasitic

Diamond Member
Aug 17, 2002
4,000
2
0
For undergrad I went to a public state school (Berkeley) but the overall expenses were still as high as some of other ones on my accepted list...in fact I might've paid less at a private school of comparable caliber because of financial aid.
 

sourceninja

Diamond Member
Mar 8, 2005
8,805
65
91
My advice is always pick the cheapest community college where your credits will transfer. Spend as much of the time there as possible and then transfer. That cuts costs.
 

Tommouse

Senior member
Feb 29, 2004
986
0
0
Originally posted by: EricMartello
College is a great scam they got going on...I remember when I was in high school, the "you need college to succeed" propaganda started during my sophomore year and got more 'intense' for the remaining two years. They really shove that whole, "go to college or you'll end up pumping gas in NJ for the rest of your life" thing.

In many places you need a degree to just get your foot in the door. The bachelors degree is very much becoming the new High school degree. Liberal Arts degrees serve the purpose of getting that checkbox filled and not getting your resume trashed immediately. From there they will want to know what experience you bring to the table ... blah blah blah.

The point I'm trying to make is this: A college degree doesn't mean instant success, but without one you are severely limiting your career opportunities.
 

rh71

No Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
52,844
1,049
126
my [biggest IT] company only required a 4-year degree somewhere... that's all the sealed transcript they wanted had to say... that I completed a bachelor's. They cared much more about experience (internships, etc. - and boy did I get grilled about them). Not sure how they do it now, but I was surprised to see it when I went through the process. But then you think about it and realize big companies recruit from all types of schools, not just IVY.
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,562
9
81
I'm the director of IT at a medium sized company who never went to college. Started as a junior programmer and moved my way up. When I hire, I don't even look at the education portion of the resume, I simply don't care. I'm sure that's partly because I never went to college myself, but it's also because I've seen too many people get through college and are still complete morons when they come out. When I look at resumes I look at their actual job experience.
 

ViviTheMage

Lifer
Dec 12, 2002
36,189
87
91
madgenius.com
Originally posted by: BoberFett
I'm the director of IT at a medium sized company who never went to college. Started as a junior programmer and moved my way up. When I hire, I don't even look at the education portion of the resume, I simply don't care. I'm sure that's partly because I never went to college myself, but it's also because I've seen too many people get through college and are still complete morons when they come out. When I look at resumes I look at their actual job experience.


and for some people the only way in, is through an education.
 

BoberFett

Lifer
Oct 9, 1999
37,562
9
81
Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
Originally posted by: BoberFett
I'm the director of IT at a medium sized company who never went to college. Started as a junior programmer and moved my way up. When I hire, I don't even look at the education portion of the resume, I simply don't care. I'm sure that's partly because I never went to college myself, but it's also because I've seen too many people get through college and are still complete morons when they come out. When I look at resumes I look at their actual job experience.


and for some people the only way in, is through an education.

Or, you know, put in your time at the bottom and work your way up like people have done for millennia.
 

invidia

Platinum Member
Oct 8, 2006
2,151
1
0
Originally posted by: BoberFett
Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
Originally posted by: BoberFett
I'm the director of IT at a medium sized company who never went to college. Started as a junior programmer and moved my way up. When I hire, I don't even look at the education portion of the resume, I simply don't care. I'm sure that's partly because I never went to college myself, but it's also because I've seen too many people get through college and are still complete morons when they come out. When I look at resumes I look at their actual job experience.


and for some people the only way in, is through an education.

Or, you know, put in your time at the bottom and work your way up like people have done for millennia.

Well, I can understand how that works in your industry and field, as I did some work in IT before. But in some fields, you can't even gain that experience unless you have a 4-year degree. This applies especially in the science/engineering fields.
 

IGBT

Lifer
Jul 16, 2001
17,960
140
106
..TaxPayers are bent over a barrel paying taxes with the lions share going towards education. Top heavy admin.is soaking up most of the dollars and the dollar to education performance ratio gets worse every year. If you want cheaper higher quality education do something about the parasitic admin.
 

illusion88

Lifer
Oct 2, 2001
13,164
3
81
Originally posted by: schizoid77
A quadruple post...what school did you go to again?

That's not a quadruple post.... he posted a different reply in each post. Which community college did you say you attended?
 

EricMartello

Senior member
Apr 17, 2003
910
0
0
Originally posted by: Jumpem
$60k in student loans between the wife and I. Though we wouldn't have the jobs we have today without it.

You'd also probably not need the jobs you have to pay the bills you got from going to school to get the jobs you have. :)

Originally posted by: Jumpem
I never would have been able to afford a house on the ~$8/hr I made before college. Three years out of college we are making $120k, and have a house a nd a new car.

If you are actually good at something, you can find work that pays $15-$20/hr solely on your abilities and experience...that's how I got started back when I was 20. I don't think it's an option for many people tho...good luck with your future.

Originally posted by: illusion88
That's not a quadruple post.... he posted a different reply in each post. Which community college did you say you attended?

You don't need a separate post for each reply, especially since each reply is a single sentence. Most forums have rules against chain posting like that even if they are unique replies.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
Originally posted by: Acanthus
I've lived in Erie and have been on the Behrend campus :)

The building is a bit flashy, but also remember that they moved the ENTIRE ENGINEERING PROGRAM for all PSU schools including from PSU main and all of the satellite schools to Behrend with that new building.

They are consolidating the entire engineering school to one campus to improve the student experience, and Behrend is very reasonably priced when you compare it to Main.

I was a prospective PSU Engineering student that went business... and i used to make fun of the guys that jumped ship.

Business is easier, as someone who did both... However pay is similar and i couldnt handle the stress of Engineering regardless of my desire to build and design things. I also spoke to a lot of engineers at GE who describe their jobs as "95% bullshit and 5% actually designing things".

Edit: I gots bad grammar.
All of the engineering stuff? What about civil, chemical, or nuclear? I recall reading that main campus had some kind of nuclear reactor available to them. If we've got one of those, I sure as hell haven't seen it. ;)

Concerning the "95% bullshit," I guess it depends on the job. GE seems like the first place that a lot of fresh grads go because it's right there, and it's a big name. But most people are only there for a year or so before they burn-out from the place, and go elsewhere. Two guys who graduated in 2003 and 2004 were there on Friday, talking to a professor, who's now my supervisor for work-study.

They're working up in New England somewhere, and they seem to be doing a lot of real engineering work every day. One was working on some silicon wafer alignment thing, accurate to a few microns. I don't remember what the other one does. But the first one even mentioned that he still uses a few of his textbooks on a regular basis. It sounded like they'd done nicely in terms of finding good employment that is regularly using what they learned at Penn State.

But GE - "burnout" is the one word I always hear associated with working there. I have no intentions of finding out personally. I've got more of a European work ethic - work to live, not live to work.


I've heard stories from other people who have gone from engineering to business, and are amazed at the reduction in the workload. It seems that some 4 year engineering degrees are finding themselves getting pushed into 5 years, simply because of the sheer quantity of material that needs to be covered. It's amusing too to cover certain topics where the professor says, "We're going to spend a week on this, but it's just an overview. I took an entire graduate course that covered only this subject."


 

Acanthus

Lifer
Aug 28, 2001
19,915
2
76
ostif.org
Originally posted by: Jeff7
Originally posted by: Acanthus
I've lived in Erie and have been on the Behrend campus :)

The building is a bit flashy, but also remember that they moved the ENTIRE ENGINEERING PROGRAM for all PSU schools including from PSU main and all of the satellite schools to Behrend with that new building.

They are consolidating the entire engineering school to one campus to improve the student experience, and Behrend is very reasonably priced when you compare it to Main.

I was a prospective PSU Engineering student that went business... and i used to make fun of the guys that jumped ship.

Business is easier, as someone who did both... However pay is similar and i couldnt handle the stress of Engineering regardless of my desire to build and design things. I also spoke to a lot of engineers at GE who describe their jobs as "95% bullshit and 5% actually designing things".

Edit: I gots bad grammar.
All of the engineering stuff? What about civil, chemical, or nuclear? I recall reading that main campus had some kind of nuclear reactor available to them. If we've got one of those, I sure as hell haven't seen it. ;)

Concerning the "95% bullshit," I guess it depends on the job. GE seems like the first place that a lot of fresh grads go because it's right there, and it's a big name. But most people are only there for a year or so before they burn-out from the place, and go elsewhere. Two guys who graduated in 2003 and 2004 were there on Friday, talking to a professor, who's now my supervisor for work-study.

They're working up in New England somewhere, and they seem to be doing a lot of real engineering work every day. One was working on some silicon wafer alignment thing, accurate to a few microns. I don't remember what the other one does. But the first one even mentioned that he still uses a few of his textbooks on a regular basis. It sounded like they'd done nicely in terms of finding good employment that is regularly using what they learned at Penn State.

But GE - "burnout" is the one word I always hear associated with working there. I have no intentions of finding out personally. I've got more of a European work ethic - work to live, not live to work.

Yeah the nuclear program wasnt moved for obvious reasons, ive heard the chemical and the tan engineers can finish up at Behrend but its optional.
 

Jeff7

Lifer
Jan 4, 2001
41,596
19
81
Damn. We could use the nuclear reactor to keep the REDC building warm in the winter. :D

And while they're at it, hook it up to a dehumidification system. As a work study, one of my tasks is to rub WD-40 onto a lot of the measurement equipment. Every damn bit of exposed steel in that place is rusting.



 

JS80

Lifer
Oct 24, 2005
26,271
7
81
Originally posted by: Jumpem
$60k in student loans between the wife and I. Though we wouldn't have the jobs we have today without it.

$60k in loans from collage and still can't get grammar good.

WTF is RIT?
 

JS80

Lifer
Oct 24, 2005
26,271
7
81
Originally posted by: BoberFett
I'm the director of IT at a medium sized company who never went to college. Started as a junior programmer and moved my way up. When I hire, I don't even look at the education portion of the resume, I simply don't care. I'm sure that's partly because I never went to college myself, but it's also because I've seen too many people get through college and are still complete morons when they come out. When I look at resumes I look at their actual job experience.

Yea, but he'll never be CTO, CIO, upper management (unless he's the proprietor).
 

ppdes

Senior member
May 16, 2004
739
0
0
I went to a small, expensive, private school for undergrad and a large, cheap, state school for grad work. The experiences were very different.

At the private school they had this seminar class where every week a different professor would come in, tell you all about his work, and then about positions in his lab or areas he could use student help in and whatnot. The school would pay the researching student's stipend and took pains to make sure they weren't being used for just dumb labor. All this just to get the students involved in research early on and actually practicing their fields. There was tons of stuff at the private school like that. Super available deans who were always around to listen, etc..

The public school was the complete opposite. Yes, you could still do original research with professors, but you had to hunt them down and convince them to spend their grant money on you if you needed a stipend. Overall the school lavished much less attention on you and you had to put in effort to do what was natural, encouraged, and greased with money at the private school.
 

S Freud

Diamond Member
Apr 25, 2005
4,755
1
81
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: Jumpem
$60k in student loans between the wife and I. Though we wouldn't have the jobs we have today without it.

$60k in loans from collage and still can't get grammar good.

WTF is RIT?


Awesome.
 

blinky8225

Senior member
Nov 23, 2004
564
0
0
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: Jumpem
$60k in student loans between the wife and I. Though we wouldn't have the jobs we have today without it.

$60k in loans from collage and still can't get grammar good.

WTF is RIT?

And you can't spell college, so what?
 

JS80

Lifer
Oct 24, 2005
26,271
7
81
Originally posted by: blinky8225
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: Jumpem
$60k in student loans between the wife and I. Though we wouldn't have the jobs we have today without it.

$60k in loans from collage and still can't get grammar good.

WTF is RIT?

And you can't spell college, so what?

lol @ u
 

TruePaige

Diamond Member
Oct 22, 2006
9,874
2
0
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: blinky8225
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: Jumpem
$60k in student loans between the wife and I. Though we wouldn't have the jobs we have today without it.

$60k in loans from collage and still can't get grammar good.

WTF is RIT?

And you can't spell college, so what?

lol @ u

double lol @ him.
 

tfinch2

Lifer
Feb 3, 2004
22,114
1
0
Originally posted by: blinky8225
Originally posted by: JS80
Originally posted by: Jumpem
$60k in student loans between the wife and I. Though we wouldn't have the jobs we have today without it.

$60k in loans from collage and still can't get grammar good.

WTF is RIT?

And you can't spell college, so what?

I'm pretty sure he misspelled it on porpoise.