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are you happy with your decision of college/major?

32,527 1,665 January 28, 2012 at 08:26 PM in Chat Slickdeals
https://slickdeals.net/f/3876914-Are-you-currently-working-in-the-field-you-graduated-from

i got the idea from this but i'm also bitter about what the perception vs reality is between colleges. in california.. the general thought is you go to a cal state if you can't go to a uc. my sister went to the best uc she could get into (at the time) and hated every minute of it. i went to a uc and hated the major options. after completing the sequence and talking to friends i know i made a horrible mistake.

also, if you're not doing something that requires a degree...maybe its better you just get an associates/trade school cert and avoid the huge debt collge has

edited to say.. this is mostly 2000 + era when the cost of a degree is so large, any college degree won't pay off. it used to be you can get anything and make more than a high school graduate. now paying tons for just the sake of saying you have a degree from a "good" school doesn't pay off.

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Joined May 2004
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Ram|bunc|tious
01-29-2012 at 08:48 PM.
01-29-2012 at 08:48 PM.
Quote from damsel. :
Snooze ya lose!
Careful or I'll post a few very flattering pics of you in the Bump thread Wink






Whistling
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Joined Jul 2007
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Thrifteh
01-29-2012 at 08:49 PM.
01-29-2012 at 08:49 PM.
Quote from tsuperwanker :
computers + medicine. Love informatics, and don't regret getting my degree in it. Booming industry too. I've had friend who did either CS, IT or software engineering and they can't find jobs.

No debt for undergrad, and now applying to master's. Free tuition ftw! Big Grin
My DD will be a senior next year and just tonight she showed me some pamphlet that listed the cost from local state school on up to Ivy league. She's interested in chemical engineering and I choked when I saw the cost for a state school that has an excellent engineering program (she'd be an out of state student.) $38k/year Jawdrop

Tell me more about this SD you got on your tuition?
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Original Poster
arjunsr
01-29-2012 at 08:51 PM.
01-29-2012 at 08:51 PM.
Quote from Thrifteh :
My DD will be a senior next year and just tonight she showed me some pamphlet that listed the cost from local state school on up to Ivy league. She's interested in chemical engineering and I choked when I saw the cost for a state school that has an excellent engineering program (she'd be an out of state student.) $38k/year Jawdrop

Tell me more about this SD you got on your tuition?
ucsd is awesome at engineering. bio especially.. but she can do bio chem?

before she commits.. look at some o chem text books. that's what usually separated people from wanting to and actually majoring in chem majors.
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Thrifteh
01-29-2012 at 09:04 PM.
01-29-2012 at 09:04 PM.
Quote from arjunsr :
ucsd is awesome at engineering. bio especially.. but she can do bio chem?

before she commits.. look at some o chem text books. that's what usually separated people from wanting to and actually majoring in chem majors.
She defs hates bio but loves chem. Poor thing is just turning 17 tomorrow and already worried about what to do with the rest of her life. Oh, I totally spaced o chem. Maybe she should talk to my brother about that one. laugh out loud

She was talking about USD, but that was before the chem engineering idea popped in her brain.

Dude, when did my baby grow up and how in the hell are we (her, her father & I) going to pay for this education? If she went to the local state school and lived at home the annual cost would be less than her current hs tuition. Maybe I'll have her take her general course studies here and transfer.
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Original Poster
arjunsr
01-29-2012 at 09:10 PM.
01-29-2012 at 09:10 PM.
Quote from Thrifteh :
She defs hates bio but loves chem. Poor thing is just turning 17 tomorrow and already worried about what to do with the rest of her life. Oh, I totally spaced o chem. Maybe she should talk to my brother about that one. laugh out loud

She was talking about USD, but that was before the chem engineering idea popped in her brain.

Dude, when did my baby grow up and how in the hell are we (her, her father & I) going to pay for this education? If she went to the local state school and lived at home the annual cost would be less than her current hs tuition. Maybe I'll have her take her general course studies here and transfer.
does she qualify for scholarships?
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Maleficent
01-29-2012 at 09:10 PM.
01-29-2012 at 09:10 PM.
Quote from Thrifteh :
She defs hates bio but loves chem. Poor thing is just turning 17 tomorrow and already worried about what to do with the rest of her life. Oh, I totally spaced o chem. Maybe she should talk to my brother about that one. laugh out loud

She was talking about USD, but that was before the chem engineering idea popped in her brain.

Dude, when did my baby grow up and how in the hell are we (her, her father & I) going to pay for this education? If she went to the local state school and lived at home the annual cost would be less than her current hs tuition. Maybe I'll have her take her general course studies here and transfer.
That is definitely the way to go. More students should do this. My state has a state-wide "guaranteed transfer" program for gen ed courses like that (I believe many states do), and if you take them at a small college or community college, you'll get the same credits needed for your degree, but at a MUCH lower price.

I wish I had done that right out of high school. It would have cost me and my parents a lot less!
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arjunsr
01-29-2012 at 09:16 PM.
01-29-2012 at 09:16 PM.
Quote from IVIal :
That is definitely the way to go. More students should do this. My state has a state-wide "guaranteed transfer" program for gen ed courses like that (I believe many states do), and if you take them at a small college or community college, you'll get the same credits needed for your degree, but at a MUCH lower price.

I wish I had done that right out of high school. It would have cost me and my parents a lot less!
in ca that route has been saturated. it used to be if you got a 3.0+ gpa from a community college near a uc you wanted to go to you'd get a guaranteed admission to that uc. now.. its no guarantee, and not sure everything transfers over.
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Maleficent
01-29-2012 at 09:32 PM.
01-29-2012 at 09:32 PM.
Quote from arjunsr :
in ca that route has been saturated. it used to be if you got a 3.0+ gpa from a community college near a uc you wanted to go to you'd get a guaranteed admission to that uc. now.. its no guarantee, and not sure everything transfers over.
Well obviously you'd have to check with your state's programs. I don't know how it works in CA, which is why I used my state as an example, and said that I believe many other states have similar programs, but obviously I would not be well-versed in the particulars. The world doesn't revolve around California, you know. Tongue

I'm sure if she did a little digging on the website of the university from which her daughter would like to graduate, she can find information on transferring, what credits will transfer, etc.

And guaranteed admission isn't necessary - is there any sort of guaranteed admission for students right out of high school in CA? If not, then I doubt getting any college credits elsewhere (especially if she got good grades) would hurt her chances any.
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arjunsr
01-29-2012 at 09:41 PM.
01-29-2012 at 09:41 PM.
Quote from IVIal :
Well obviously you'd have to check with your state's programs. I don't know how it works in CA, which is why I used my state as an example, and said that I believe many other states have similar programs, but obviously I would not be well-versed in the particulars. The world doesn't revolve around California, you know. Tongue

I'm sure if she did a little digging on the website of the university from which her daughter would like to graduate, she can find information on transferring, what credits will transfer, etc.

And guaranteed admission isn't necessary - is there any sort of guaranteed admission for students right out of high school in CA? If not, then I doubt getting any college credits elsewhere (especially if she got good grades) would hurt her chances any.
yeah. the uc's are supposed to admit every student that meets a min level of graduation from high school. i just use the uc's cause they are usually held as some of the best public schools in the world. berkeley/la/sd are usually top 35 in the world rankings. the rest are usually top 100.

i guess that's why i'm so pissed with the system. it seems unless you go through the system.. you don't understand it. adults push you to names and rankings. they don't care about what fits you. what will get you the job you want.
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trygve
01-29-2012 at 09:44 PM.
01-29-2012 at 09:44 PM.
Quote from PaintTheSkyGrey :
Not everyone can intimidate the school into giving you a full ride because you look like a freaking Nordic Hugh Laurie-Hulk amalgamation that could easily take make the entire system come raining down on everyone's heads.
Well, I've always said that an unfair advantage is my favorite kind. Smilie

Quote from CaptPriceIsRght :
I got a degree in electrical engineering and a job right after I graduated. Am I happy with my major choice? Yes. With my job? Not really. I'm not even using my degree. I always ask myself, "I went to school for this?"
I've got three brothers with EE degrees and I think it's funny that I'm the only one who does any electrical engineering or even spends any quality time with a soldering iron. (I'm also the one in the family who hooks up the stereo/home theater systems for everybody else, too.)

Quote from Thrifteh :
My DD will be a senior next year and just tonight she showed me some pamphlet that listed the cost from local state school on up to Ivy league. She's interested in chemical engineering and I choked when I saw the cost for a state school that has an excellent engineering program (she'd be an out of state student.) $38k/year

Tell me more about this SD you got on your tuition?
I don't know how much of a difference it made, but I'm sure it didn't hurt that I entered a lot of science and math competitions during my senior year and did the science fair circuit. ACS has an annual competition for high schoolers and the science fairs are well-attended by companies and organizations looking to hand out awards (scholarships, cash prizes, and fancy-looking medals and plaques) to contestants who have projects relevant to their areas of interest. I don't think it looks bad on an application and those cash prizes are better than gift cards.
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iflabs
01-30-2012 at 02:14 AM.
01-30-2012 at 02:14 AM.
Regrets? Hope not. I would love to work with something related in the toy industry.

Quote from CaptPriceIsRght :
I got a degree in electrical engineering and a job right after I graduated. Am I happy with my major choice? Yes. With my job? Not really. I'm not even using my degree. I always ask myself, "I went to school for this?"
Care to elaborate? There are some things I have done in senior design that I can't see myself doing in a job (reliability bsing etc).

One of my colleagues does technical writing for Harley Davidson. Holy smokes, most boring engineering job ever.
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JustARandomGuy2015
01-30-2012 at 02:49 AM.
01-30-2012 at 02:49 AM.
alaska is cheap. 2.5k college semester or so.
im only at 48 credits now, so 1/3 way done or so for my bachelor. only difference is i dont pay anything+ get paid 2000 a month to attend school. its more of a job to me than going to school. i have 3.0 gpa
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BoboLuck
01-30-2012 at 05:05 AM.
01-30-2012 at 05:05 AM.
Quote from steventruong :
He didn't take it because he was trying to slack off. After graduation, he tried looking for a job for nearly 1.5 years before this company hired him. And even then, he went back for a bunch of interviews (I'm guessing somewhere between 5-7 interviews) over the course of 6 months. After that, it still took them some time before he was hired on and QA was the only thing he could get.

During that time, he applied to all sorts of EE jobs in the area and even started applying to non-EE jobs just for the sake of getting a job.
My university is be on the co-op stuff. We have dozens of companies come a few times a year. If you co-op for a year, you're almost guaranteed to get a job with that company once you get your degree. I haven't had the time or finances to co-op but I am lower management in a fortune 500 company. I'm also going to go work with their engineering department the last 6 months or so that I'm in school. I don't necessarily want to stay with this company long term but it is a decent stepping stone on my way to better employment.
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CPTAssistant
01-30-2012 at 05:51 AM.
01-30-2012 at 05:51 AM.
Masters in Information Systems w/ $35k debt. Took me a while to find my first job, work experience seems to trump education. Now that I shoved my foot in the door, I should be ok.

Do I regret my decisions? No way... I'm happy with my life.

With that said, I do think I should have continued with the programming side of IT... but I also think I should have spent ages 4-18 practicing kicking field goals or swinging a golf club.
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SnakePlisken
01-30-2012 at 05:57 AM.
01-30-2012 at 05:57 AM.
Quote from Legionnaire :
alaska is cheap. 2.5k college semester or so.
im only at 48 credits now, so 1/3 way done or so for my bachelor. only difference is i dont pay anything+ get paid 2000 a month to attend school. its more of a job to me than going to school. i have 3.0 gpa
hard to study when it's 40 below? & alaska ain't cheap, now way, no how
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