Topic: Anyone here in school?

[chrisfranklin]

I'd look at the state regulations regarding what kind of job you want to work.  Find out what kind of degree or not you really need.
Theres a lot of jobs out there that have the potential to earn fairly well that don't by law require a college degree.  Stockbroker, for example-- you have to pass a few licensing exams but no college degree is required.

Or I'd check with people already working in the field you want to work in and try to follow in their footsteps and get in exactly the same programs they were in.  My main free advice though:  don't take on any educational debt unless the payoff is a forgone conclusion  -- a job, a state-licensed profession of some kind.   

Education debt is not the kind of debt that you can bag in a Chapter 7 filing.  You take on school loans and you're going to have to pay them back.

Keep in mind that you've got plenty of genius Phds forced in to working at local book stores across the country --  don't be one of them.

[stan98tj]

I hear ya man, I'm gonna have a brand new Jeep payment by the time I'm done...What did you go for?  The being on a ship part peaked my interest

BS in marine transportation-basically business of shipping and 3rd mate unlimited license

[bammerman]

Keep in mind that you've got plenty of genius Phds forced in to working at local book stores across the country --  don't be one of them.

I agree with you on this one except for a tiny opinion I have. I think these people refuse to relocate for a job (own a house, family, etc... in there current area).

[chrisfranklin]

I agree with you on this one except for a tiny opinion I have. I think these people refuse to relocate for a job (own a house, family, etc... in there current area).

Are you saying these guys are maybe finding work that makes use of their education, but they don't want to move somewhere for the job?  I could believe that.

Personally, I went to an ok parochial high school in the D.C. area and then a public university (U.Va. in Charlottesville, Va.).  I was in-state for college, so it cost less than private or out-of-state schooling.  

Career-counseling at my high school and at U.Va. was pretty g@d-awful circa 1989-1993 -- I think both schools were kind of like, "ahh, you can figure that career stuff out for yourself...we're in the academic business, not the career counseling business."  Well, by my logic, the academic institutions that make the aggressive investment in counseling their students and lining up work for their graduates are the ones that get donations from said graduates down the road.  

Anyway, my point here is this:  respect how you are going to invest your own time down the road when you are solely the one picking up the tab.   If everybody is telling you, when you are 16-18, to drop 200k on 4 years of private college, then seriously ask yourself what the return on investment is for your 200k.  Is it going to require further investment in graduate school to yield decent-paying work?  

Maybe you should be investing a few hundred or a few thousand honestly taking some career aptitude tests before you ante large dollars on education. Then build and invest in education based on the test results there. Heck, online tests are better than nothing (and heck all this apptitude testing is even worthwhile when you are already 20K or more deep in some regular program you aren't so sure about anymore)  

Or maybe join some organization that has an interest in finding out what you are best at  -- maybe the military in some cases.  
I only say all this because I might have benefited from making some different moves for education when I was younger.  
  

[sharpxmen]

you will find people on both ends of the fence, that made it big and never went to school and that gotten nowhere with a lot of schooling.

If you play percentages though you have a better chance to get higher income with a degree.

good point about counseling and guidance.

[Sine Deviance]

I'm a freshman at UNCW and I'm close to burnt out already but I'm majoring in Criminal Justice so I can do it in 3 years if I try hard enough. I am transfering to UNCC though because of the atmosphere down here.

Dude, no way! The guy I bought my YJ from went to UNCW. I live in Mooresville, which is only about 20 minutes north of UNCC up I-77. We should get together sometime after you move.

[MrsZR7]

I'm currently in school at university of phoenix.  I just started there in October, after a couple of years of being out of campus college.  I thought I was done with all the English-type of classes, but I'm still stuck in communications class and just finished with Critical Thinking.  I'm horrible at that stuff.  Give me a math class ANY DAY!!!!

Yeah, I'm already burnt out.  I don't like online schools like I did the campus college lifestyle.  I think it's much easier to learn in a classroom.  When I'm at home, sitting in front of MY computer, I just want to mess around on the internet.

[chardrc]

bringing this thread back to rant about my thermodynamics teaching assistants' (TA's) incompetence  ... the professor is stuck in Europe because of the volcanic ash thing so for the past 2 classes the lead TA has been "teaching the class". the topic internal combustion engines .. so TA stands in front of the Board and tells us that to increase compression ratio you would have to "increase the number of cylinders to like 20 cylinders or something" and then continues to say how there are size requirement for motors so a 20 cyl motor wouldn't be practical.... glad Im paying to go to college to learn this  ... sad part is that no one else realized that the Ta was completely wrong....

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