Anyone else being told your degree is useless? (career, nurse, economy)
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Would I be prying if I asked you for more details?
Not at all. My original plan was to become a teacher, I was going to do history and government at the high school or possibly the college level. I started out as a Government major, and after I had pretty much the worst professor ever, I changed it to history. I had my history degree all mapped out, with 3 US history classes, 3 Middle Eastern history classes, 3 Asian History classes, and 3 or 4 European History classes. It was all nicely figured out.
Then, I got into a funk because I simply wasn't interested in school anymore, after the first 3 semesters. I stopped going to class, I stopped doing my work, I basically just sorta hung out. I had mentioned wanting to do EMS before, and gave it more serious thought.
That's when I started looking a little deeper- to make any real money, you need your Master's degree or higher, you need to be good enough to make tenure, and possibly become head of a department. There other jobs that don't require as much education that pay far more.
I left that school for a while, did a little traveling, and worked. Paid for one last semester there, changed my major from history to EMS. That school didn't have an actual EMS program, they just offered a few classes, and with my transcript and academic probation I would have never been allowed to take that class while at that university and living on campus- and there's no way I could have taken 12 credit hours at the main university for the degree, 10 credit-hours at the branch where the EMT classes were, and working full time to support myself by getting an apartment.
I've transferred to a smaller branch college closer to home, so I live at home while I'm taking my EMT-B class. I'm transferring to a larger university a year from now and I'll be going with a perfectly clean GPA and academic record from the change of majors and change of schools.
I eventually want to become a paramedic, who make far more starting out than high school teachers (and most university professors) do, with slightly more work related stress. After that, I'd love to become a critical-care flight medic or flight nurse for a medical flight company, they make GREAT money ($60K+ per year plus benefits, plus a great work schedule) and it'd be more than enough to support myself.
I plan on having this done by the time I'm 27 or so, which isn' bad considering I basically have to restart my entire degree. If I ever reach burnout, there's enough money left in my education fund to go on and get a doctorate, and at that point becoming an MD with the experience and about half the classes already finished would be much easier for me than it might be for people just getting into it. I have no desire to take out ridiculous amounts of money in loans for a top-tier school when the state school in my state has perfectly good degrees in medicine, so that would keep costs down.
Maybe where you are, my wife is an RN working @ two hospitals, both of which are understaffed because they can not find qualified nurses.
Believe when I say there are plenty of qualified and unemployed nurses out there. Many hospitals are on a hiring freeze or they refuse to hire more nurses because they don't want to spend more money on nurses. Nurses are an added expense that many hospitals do not want to bother spending on. So they hire a few good nurses and force them to take on dangerously high patient loads, networking and burning their staff out.
I was a philosophy major, so I heard it all the time. I think my degree is worthless, but certainly not useless.
You are probably more intelligent than most of the people criticizing you. I always found that to be ironic myself. Some of the smartest people I ever met in college were Liberal Arts majors. When I say smart, I don't necessarily mean the most practical. They just had the ability to think on a much higher level than the average joe. It was almost like they were on their own little planet. Don't even get me started on philosophy majors. The discussions we'd have in class would hurt my brain. But I just wasn't interested in all that personally.
Unfortunately, because they didn't choose the most practical, cost efficient degree, they were pinned as dumb and naive. Then again, I'm sure most of them weren't going to college strictly for the $$$ job like most simple, average folk would be interested in. It's really sad that they are given this reputation IMO.
People who say things like that are typically insecure youknowwhats. Twenty-seven years ago, I earned my degree in English. Today, I'm semi-retired after founding two different companies and selling them off. And even though I consult part-time for clients I like, I still do better than those guys who pursued more 'practical' degrees. In fact, last week, I was flown up to Michigan and told a room full of MBAs how they needed to improve their operations. Because I never saw my degree as limited to reading poetry and writing academic papers. Instead, I saw it as learning how to take in large amounts of abstract information, synthesize it into a workable hypothesis, develop the idea fully, and make it work.
Mind you, that's not a knock on the career-based majors of the world. However, anybody who thinks you can't make a good living with a degree in the humanities just lacks imagination. Starting out is tougher, of course, but if you have any brains or initiative whatsoever, you'll do just fine.
You are probably more intelligent than most of the people criticizing you. I always found that to be ironic myself. Some of the smartest people I ever met in college were Liberal Arts majors. When I say smart, I don't necessarily mean the most practical. They just had the ability to think on a much higher level than the average joe. It was almost like they were on their own little planet. Don't even get me started on philosophy majors. The discussions we'd have in class would hurt my brain. But I just wasn't interested in all that personally.
Unfortunately, because they didn't choose the most practical, cost efficient degree, they were pinned as dumb and naive. Then again, I'm sure most of them weren't going to college strictly for the $$$ job like most simple, average folk would be interested in. It's really sad that they are given this reputation IMO.
So in your opinion, picking a practical career, makes someone "simple folk"
Quote:
Originally Posted by Z3N1TH 0N3
I figured as much. There are definitely some tools on here who I wouldn't mind running into on the streets though, if ya get my drift.
hey there Billy Bad ass... way to show your intellegience E-bullying.
So in your opinion, picking a practical career, makes someone "simple folk"
Not quite, but let me break it down for you as to clarify what I was suggesting.
If someone picks a practical career, they are not necessarily simple or average. They just chose to go a more practical route.
OTOH, simple/average folk tend to go the practical route (HVAC, plumbing, electrical, auto mechanic, truck driving, etc.). They are not interested in analyzing philosophical principals or finding the distance from the sun to Mercury or reading the works of John Locke or incorporating cosine or sine in an equation to model periodic patterns. Essentially, people who are not academically inclined tend to pursue technical (or what most would consider "practical") careers. This is pretty clear by simply observing the differences in student composition of a top tier university and of a technical school.
In other words:
If you chose a practical career, you aren't necessarily simple or of average intelligence.
If you are simple or of average intelligence, you likely chose or will pursue a more technical/practical career (as opposed to pursuing academic enrichment).
I'm not trying to sound pompous, I'm just stating what is pretty evident.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MustangEater82
hey there Billy Bad ass... way to show your intellegience E-bullying.
LOL...
E-bullying would suggest that I am antagonizing a particular person on the interweb. Who specifically have I called out and antagonized on this thread?
Tell them to go screw themselves! No degree is worthless. No one can take your education away with you.
I don't care what anyone says. If you have a degree and you are making peanuts after you graduate then your degree is worthless, especially if you are making peanuts and not even working in your field of study.
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