I have a degree from a traditional University, which has served me well throughout my working career. I was lucky enough to get the right degree at the right time (i.e. Computer Science in the early 80’s), and the school I got my degree from has a degree of cache with employers, so my degree was worth every penny (that my parents paid, I’d also like to point out).
These days, what are the degrees the new grads are getting worth? Having 3 children either about to start or about to finish University degrees I am keenly interested in this subject. My kids are at a University in Canada, but there are also Colleges which offer some interesting programs, and I work with folks with degrees from these establishments as well.
Then there are the on line “Universities” and “Colleges”, I don’t really understand the whole system with these “degrees’ that are received and their value, however, PBS did do a very interesting Frontline piece on this exact subject. If you are thinking about getting one of the “degrees” I would strongly suggest watching this video and figuring out whether it is all worth it.
While this is only a small portion of the video, but wander over to PBS and watch the entire show.
those online degrees are such huge money makers. I used to work supplying leads for some of these companies. They are willing to pay $25-$40 just for the name, phone number, and email address of people that might be interested. I think people are still able to get government assistance to pay for them too.
It’s much like most other things in life. You can get the generic thing or the name brand. Sometimes it’s worth going the cheap route, sometimes it’s worth going for quality. When it comes to education, quality rules…but if quality is our of question, the cheap route is sometimes better than none at all.
Price college degrees like you would any commodity: by looking at the ratio of supply and demand.
Supply is the number of people getting degrees of a certain sort. Demand is the number of jobs suited to people with such a degree.
The number of college graduates has soared in recent years because of the belief that this is the ticket to a better life. So supply has swollen for most degrees.
Meanwhile, the economy has not created nearly as many jobs requiring degrees, and now there’s a global recession.
So, sadly, a college degree probably doesn’t have the economic value it did 30 years ago. One response is to go for advanced degrees.
My degree likely helped me get my job but it was my college diploma (computer programmer analyst) that really enabled me to get an internship in IT and the knowledge on how to continue in this field.
I always say university taught me how to learn, college taught me how to do something.