How much "formal" education do you have??

[TheRogue]

What is your education level?

[TheRogue]

I did NOT post this as an education-bashing thread. We were talking at work the other day, and someone said "ya know, you hear people say that they wish they would've gotten that college degree, but you never hear anyone say they wish they hadn't gotten their degree".

In a time of recession (or depression) one thing that ALWAYS goes up is application to higher learning institutions. And what else always happens in these times?? States ALWAYS cut funding to them. Some colleges and universities here in Oregon will be limiting enrollment this coming year...even though they're expecting another large jump in applications!!

TR

[1pump]

you never hear anyone say they wish they hadn't gotten their degree".

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">I don't think anyone's been fired from a job for understating their educational background.

[crabbait]

How much do I need? The guy said, "See them two planes?", "Yep", "Don't let 'em hit!", "Ok"

Worked pretty good so far!

[The Fishing Geek]

Well that must have taken the fun out of it. Of course, I also wish that someone would do a MS Flight Simulator add-on that, when the plane is put into a power dive, will generate screams through the back speakers of a surround speaker system.

[sinker]

hhhmmm, went to college for Forestry for a while and now work in a machine shop. Something went wrong somewhere.
But now I'm facing lasyoffs again so now I'm trying to decide what I should be retrained in. I'm thinking truck driver. I have no desire for an office environment.

[Snapset]

College did not teach me what to think, but it did help me learn how to think better, to solve problems by breaking them into solvable pieces. I also learned the importance of critical thought, among other things.

I would say that the value of my college education is worth ten percent of what I have learned at church, and even less compared to what I have learned from my parents..

[Silver Hilton]

I went to college with way too many people that didn't have the sense to come in out of the rain. That said, you can't understand a lot of what goes on in the world today, without things that aren't taught at until the college level. Like accounting, computer science, history, and economics.

Spelling, however, is optional.

[ 04-26-2003, 11:02 PM: Message edited by: Silver Hilton ]

[Rod Holder]

I'zz highly edukated..I gots tweelve years of skoolin,,,, sixth grade, six times.
Actually I have a B.S. degree and teach at a college, but that doesn't mean squat cuz those springers are still way smarter than I.
College is like weight lifting for the brain, it helps train that beer sponge to work better.

[Cool Texan]

On question #2, an option of "Not necessarily" would have been good.

[Straydog]

CT,

Good point!

Going from life in Grants Pass to college, even as close as Ashland, opened my mind more than I would have ever guessed.

I grew up in a Leave it to Beaver household in a very conservative mill town. I had never been around people of color, people from big cities or people from other countries.

That, coupled with learning to pick ideas apart and really think about their elements, is what I think was the most meaningful part of my college education.

[wannacatchem]

I graduated from Bend Hi in 74. Went to SOSC in ashalnd where I majored in women and minored in beer. They asked me to leave after 2 semesters. I was a ski bum/ranch hand for 5 years after that. Joined the USAF cause I was starving. Traveled the world (and learned a couple skills). Got ready to retire and and had a guy point to a pile of machined metal and electronics that makes computer chips and ask me if I thought I could figure out how it works and then fix it if it broke. The pay was astronomical(compared to military pay) so I said "yep". So here I am(with a HS diploma)in a group of guys with bachelors and masters degree's working on the most technologically advanced semiconductor manufacturing equipment on the planet. I figure I'm the luckiest guy on the face of the earth. But I still have figured out how to catch a steelie :depressed:

[FISHFINDER]

College....Oh, those were the days. I'm not sure how much I learned academically, but I sure learned a lot about people and independence during those years. I also met people during those years that are now some of my best friends today. Kyle, I'm not sure about the importance to succeed in life based on academics. I know people who could recite a library of text books that would have a hard time ordering a Big Mac. Some of those same people would have a hard time teaching their kids how to fish, hunt, or enjoy the outdoors.

I would much rather share a conversation with someone who has learned life by "doing" than someone who has "learned" life from a textbook.

FF

[TheRogue]

Never said life was better learned in academics, FF...some people are just NOT suited to be career college students (like I was )

Point I was after is that no-one ever regrets actually having a degree, or taking other courses beyond high school. But that's one of the first things in state budgets which get attacked during an economic downturn, just at the time when many people feel they need to get more education to succeed.

You don't regret your architecture degree do you??

TR

[pdxkevin]

Seems to me... that most successful independant business owners are self taught. They didn't go beyond high school.

From my experiences, the further you go in school the more of a certain political/social view you must swallow and spout back. If you don't ~ your grades will suffer.

It's not the degree that makes the person. It's the characture that does.

[Radke]

Funny thing about a college degree. I got a BS in business with an accounting emphasis. Became an accountant,
found out that was not the life for me after all. But because I had a degree, the company I worked for let me try
computer programming. Loved it, been working in the field for 20+ years. While college didn't prepare me for
my current field, I would not have been able to get here as easily without that degree. The point is that a lot of
the benefit of a degree is in perception, not necessarily what you have learned.

[fish assassin]

Let's see ... how does 6 years in a Community College rate?? I guess that
would be SOME college, eh?? I don't have a 4 year degree, but I've got (2) two
year degrees, both in technical fields. I was having a hard time trying to figure
out what I wanted to be when I grew up ...

Now that I'm "all growed up" I STILL don't know what I want to be when I grow
up, except rich enough to retire to the good life (fishing full time). :grin: :grin:

-assAssin-

[GutshotApe]

Originally posted by sinker:
hhhmmm, went to college for Forestry for a while and now work in a machine shop......I'm trying to decide what I should be retrained in.

<font size="2" face="verdana,arial,helvetica">Whatever you do, don't go back into forestry. There just aren't many private sector jobs out there anymore...and unless you're from one of the preferred gender or ethnic classes, you won't find many public forestry positions open to you. :depressed:

I base the preceeding on inquiries and recent visits to USFS supervisor's and district ranger offices in Oregon (Fremont NF, Winema NF), Arizona (Coronado NF) and Wyoming (Bridger-Teton NF) and the Eugene and CoosBay BLM offices. I stopped at these offices for maps and info and found they are now predominately staffed by females...female forest supervisors, female district rangers, female administrative assistants and female resource managers. The timber specialists are all gone...replaced by recreation planners...mostly female, it seems. The Eugene BLM recently had to bring a couple of old timber beasts out of retirement to show the newbies how to put up a sale....not that the enviros would let a sale go forward uncontested...

Just anecdotal observations, I know, but there is no question in my mind that a quota system exists in federal forestry hiring that discriminates against white males. :depressed:

OK...hardhat and raingear on...let 'er rip!

[FrogPond]

those results are almost a perfect bell curve...man I hated statistics :grin:

[ 04-28-2003, 09:52 AM: Message edited by: FrogPond ]

[Hoosier Daddy]

Retrain yourself in how to retrain people!

Kind of like morticians, business is always there.

[Cool Texan]

Statistically speaking, you will not find a correlation between advanced education (college) and the path to being one of the richest people in the world.

However, for all of us middle class folks, it seems to make life a lot easier as we dream about the worlds richest people.

[Scruffy Bearded Varmint]

A more interesting question perhaps...

How many people with college degrees are working in the proffession in which they received their degree?

In 1996 over 8% of people holding low-paying jobs and classified as unskilled workers also had bachelor's degrees from a four year institution.

Another interesting question. How many Americans feel their standard of living has improved, stayed the same, or declined over the last ten years?

If you rely on credit cards to maintain your standard of living, your standard of living is declining. Eventually you will have to pay the bill.

In almost every sector of employment real wages (after adjustment for inflation) have declined sharply over the past twenty years. This delcine even includes many highly skilled postions in technology that require not only a four year degree but hundreds of hours of continueing education every year to remain current in the field.

By the way, these questions do not have a partisan tone to them. The answers are the direct result of globalization. I spoke to the Human Resoure director of a large Oregon based company yesterday. Free Trade Agreements forced them to eliminate all USA based manufacturing jobs. Tha last plant will close this year.

Scruffy

[ 04-29-2003, 08:15 AM: Message edited by: Scruffy Bearded Varmint ]

[Snapset]

Good idea to bring up Nafta, SBV. I too am very concerned with the loss of Manufacturing jobs in the USA. I don't agree that any corporations are "Forced" to export jobs, except by economic advantages not available here. Over the long term I don't think there is anything that can be done about keeping those jobs here, except to increase productivity of manufacturing in the USA. Globalization is a tide we will be swimming against until a standard of living equilibrium is reached

However, if we can produce a better widget (Easy) that is cheaper (Difficult) than what is produced in China or Bangladesh, then the jobs will stay here. If not, then the jobs will seep through the borders until a Per-Widget wage equilibrium is reached, kind of like what has happened to auto makers. The wage equilibrium will be reached in one of 2 ways. Their wages will come up, or our wages will go down. Actually both events are happening, but our productivity is so much higher than the rest of the worlds, that we can hope to keep our higher wages as long as we keep on cranking out more widgets. It really is all about productivity.