[STEVEN 1]

I want freedom to do my own thing, a check is nice but it's only part of a fulfilling ambition to build your own entity from the ground up. Work should be more then just about money, it should excite you, drive your passion, and make you want to be there on the days you have to be, that's what a career is, just a paycheck is just a job.

[papafox]

Can anyone tell me why a DJ making 40K per year seems to be looked upon more highly than a plumber who makes 80K?

Neither of these jobs require a college degree of course, so it seems apples to apples, yet it seems (to me at least) that one of these jobs is looked upon higher by society, even though (on average) the DJ won't make as much as the plumber.

[STEVEN 1]

Because plumbers get dirty. They drive around in trucks, work with tools, wear dingy clothes not because they're poor but because the nature of their work messes their clothes up. It's simply not glamorous, if you look pass the glamour however and you see the years of training and skill it takes to become a master plumber or electrician or mechanic, it's equivalent to a 5 year graduate degree but people will never view us as educated or skilled simply because we get dirty, my wife's management accounting degree and my technical degree in mechanics and refrigeration wasn't that much different except she stays clean and I get dirty.

[jane_sm1th73]

Originally Posted by mikelizard860

...

It's just like the ivy league. No difference in ACTUAL education between harvard and uconn or michigan state. But there's a difference in the value for employment in a harvard degree vs a state college

You, of course, are in a position to make this statement authoritatively? I don't think so.

I am. Respectfully, you do not know whereof you speak.

If you do not know critical thinking going into an Ivy, you will certainly have mastered in by the time you get out. EVEN in engineering. For example:

An engineering problem at a final in a state school requires you to solve a well-known engineering problem in a discrete space. It may read like so: "A bridge must support support a live traffic load of 50K vehicles a day, ranging from subcompacts to 18 wheelers, with a span of x in crosswinds ranging from y to z. Pick an I-beam from the following list." (multiple choice, probably 20 questions, take in class with two hours time allotted)

In an Ivy engineering program, the same problem will read like this: "Design a bridge for these conditions. Itemize your assumptions and defend your design considerations". (five problems, take home, one week).

Where do you think you're going to get the better engineer?

That's just one example. The same approach applies regardless of subject area.

Of course the quality of education differs!

[Lintu]

I went to a top college and can honestly say I don't feel that strongly about my kids going someplace similar. I am not convinced it was a better option than a state school at this point. It's not that things haven't gone well - they have - but I don't think it had anything to do with that particular school versus another.

[STEVEN 1]

My sister went to college, still hasn't achieved a degree and is 48,000 in debt. College is big business and wants your money.

College still has value if you were academically talented enough to become a top engineer or Med student. But beyond engineering or medicine there really is no jobs for college grads, this is my list of what I see going on:

1. Lawyers do not find work upon graduation, can leave law school 250k in debt, and the field has become less lucrative, simply put the law field has dried up.

2. School teachers if you can survive kids who don't care, state budget cuts, and parents who think their little darling can do no wrong then God bless ya, teaching never was a lucrative profession but rather a more noble one, with all the budget cuts and government red tape, teaching is not only a horrible profession, it also is no longer a stable one.

3. Computer and IT sorry but your jobs can easily disappear, once that market flooded with IT grads less opportunity was available and on top of that the guy from India will do it cheaper. A good friend of mine just lost his IT job down in NC.

4. Liberal Arts majors you folks are passionate learners with the common sense of a rock. You really thought you were going to get a 120k a year with a degree in social science? You were lied to, the counselor of your college who put you in that major should be arrested, and you should get every dime of your money back.

So yeah college is pretty much a scam today unless you were academically talanted enough for engineering or med school most of you would be better off in a skilled trade or service profession like police, fire and rescue, paramedic

[Lintu]

Uh...well...I was a liberal arts major and I have a very good job in marketing, so...

The problem is not people majoring in the liberal arts, but rather people thinking they can get a lucrative job IN the liberal arts.

[GIANT_ENEMY_CRAB]

Scare tactics. That is all.

[JayCT]

Originally Posted by STEVEN 1

My sister went to college, still hasn't achieved a degree and is 48,000 in debt. College is big business and wants your money.

College still has value if you were academically talented enough to become a top engineer or Med student. But beyond engineering or medicine there really is no jobs for college grads, this is my list of what I see going on:

1. Lawyers do not find work upon graduation, can leave law school 250k in debt, and the field has become less lucrative, simply put the law field has dried up.

2. School teachers if you can survive kids who don't care, state budget cuts, and parents who think their little darling can do no wrong then God bless ya, teaching never was a lucrative profession but rather a more noble one, with all the budget cuts and government red tape, teaching is not only a horrible profession, it also is no longer a stable one.

3. Computer and IT sorry but your jobs can easily disappear, once that market flooded with IT grads less opportunity was available and on top of that the guy from India will do it cheaper. A good friend of mine just lost his IT job down in NC.

4. Liberal Arts majors you folks are passionate learners with the common sense of a rock. You really thought you were going to get a 120k a year with a degree in social science? You were lied to, the counselor of your college who put you in that major should be arrested, and you should get every dime of your money back.

So yeah college is pretty much a scam today unless you were academically talanted enough for engineering or med school most of you would be better off in a skilled trade or service profession like police, fire and rescue, paramedic

Wrong. There are jobs in all these fields. There are also many people getting these jobs. They may not be in fields with as big of a demand or as sexy but there are still jobs. Jay

[bobtn]

Steven 1"1. Lawyers do not find work upon graduation, can leave law school 250k in debt, and the field has become less lucrative, simply put the law field has dried up."

My niece, an employed lawyer often in the news in her state, must have not gotten the memo.