Re: Degrees

[Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>]

Many people discussing degrees are failing to draw the distinction
between having a college education and holding a degree.

My father was forced to leave school only two courses short of
his Aeronautical Engineering degree due to financial distress.
A friend of mine burned out within a similar distance of his
Electrical Engineering degree.

In our society, it is traditional to look only at the barest
summary: degree/no degree, maybe with GPA thrown in.  Suppose
the tradition was, instead, to look at college transcripts.
The hiring managers could actually look for a solid grounding
in the specific subjects that were most relevant
to the job, and the failure to retake a Shakespeare class
might not weigh very heavily in the balance.

While transcripts themselves are documents of limited value,
they're a couple of orders of magnitude more informative than
the presence or absence of a degree, especially when someone
has coursework outside those absolutely required for graduation.
For example, someone looking at my degree would only see
me as a Computer Engineer, and my extensive coursework in
writing would not appear in any official way.

But this is just an idle fancy of mine.  In reality, a great
many people put more importance on the diploma than in the
coursework that went into it.  This is illogical and unfair,
but that's the way it is.

It's true that my friend and my father both had to put of with
a certain amount of grief due to their sad, degraded, degree-less
status.  Certainly one who is acquiring a college education
anyway should also acquire the sheepskin if they can.

But it's not absolutely a given that everyone would be better off
if they were college-educated.  It provides an interesting
example of decision analysis.  One needs to weigh the alternate
uses of the time and money, one's actual inclinations (as opposed
to others' expectations), one's long-term goals, and the
effectiveness of various educational programs at achieving these
goals.  The social value of the sheepskin is a separate analysis,
but pursuing both an education and a sheepskin at the same time
will cut the total cost compared to doing them separately.

The problem is that you need to make this decision when
you're eighteen, but you can't perform the analysis until you're
nearly forty, if then (decision analysis being a surprisingly
unknown discipline).

I had the advantage of knowing exactly what I wanted to do with
my life when I was eighteen.  I was wrong, but it kept me focused
during school.

        -- Robert

--
Robert Plamondon, High-Tech Technical Writing, Inc.
36475 Norton Creek Road * Blodgett * Oregon * 97326
robert -at- plamondon -dot- com * (541) 453-5841 * Fax: (541) 453-4139
http://www.pioneer.net/~robertp

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