Anyone else fall for this scam ?

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My son has just started his second year of university and he's majoring in philosophy. I cringe every time I write a cheque for tuition. I always ask him how many jobs he has seen on Workopolis for philosophers. I'm hoping son #2 decides to go the college or trade school route to save me some coin and actually get an education that will benefit him in the job market.
 
Gary64 said:
My son has just started his second year of university and he's majoring in philosophy. I cringe every time I write a cheque for tuition. I always ask him how many jobs he has seen on Workopolis for philosophers. I'm hoping son #2 decides to go the college or trade school route to save me some coin and actually get an education that will benefit him in the job market.
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You're paying for your son to get a worthless degree???

Wow.
 
imnothng said:
You're paying for your son to get a worthless degree???

Wow.
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I respect him for helping his kid even when the kid might not have made the best decision.
You can't always tell others what to do and he understands that. Respect for respecting your son's deicison and sticking by him!
 
Gary64 said:
My son has just started his second year of university and he's majoring in philosophy. I cringe every time I write a cheque for tuition. I always ask him how many jobs he has seen on Workopolis for philosophers. I'm hoping son #2 decides to go the college or trade school route to save me some coin and actually get an education that will benefit him in the job market.
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Might as well start a bonfire and start throwing in your money. At least this way the video could get many hits on youtube so the cash would be better used this way.
 
This one's funny too:

[video=youtube;4M98x-FLp7E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M98x-FLp7E[/video]

Best part: "My dad used to say we'll all end up working for C students one day.... jokes on you dad I'm never going to get a job" :lmao:
 
Gary64 said:
My son has just started his second year of university and he's majoring in philosophy. I cringe every time I write a cheque for tuition. I always ask him how many jobs he has seen on Workopolis for philosophers. I'm hoping son #2 decides to go the college or trade school route to save me some coin and actually get an education that will benefit him in the job market.
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While others here have said it is useless (and they are more or less right) there is still a path where it will add value in the future. If after university he goes and gets a two year college diploma in an employable area he will get a little credit for the university (hopefully some English and maybe early Math credits) but when he graduates he will have a good chance of getting a job in that other field. Long term he will get promoted faster because he also has a degree, some degree on top of the college diploma... In the end though sort of an inefficient way about it.

But as long as you have a career (not just a job) some unrelated degree these days is better than none at all. I have seen people move through (promoted) the technology world faster than just college grads only because they had degree in some unrelated field and the other guys didn't.
 
considering that most of the jobs on Workopolis suck, I am not sure why I would want my job listed there.

I used to tell people to go **** themselves when the questioned how "useful" my undergrad degree would be.

As with all types of training, the answer at the end of the day is "we'll see".
 
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So much for university being the tool to teach you how to think not get a job.
 
Not sure what's with all the anti-university replies here. If you don't want to go/pay, don't. No one is forcing you. I for one don't think my university education was a waste.

Also, it's not a matter of college/trade school/university. It's a matter of attitude and willingness to learn and understand what is required to get the job done (whatever it might be). I have met competent people in my field with "only" a college diploma as well as incompetent idiots with a masters degree or several "certifications".

I also disagree with the notion that if you want "employable" or "useful" skills go to college. IMO the most useful skill is the ability to understand the problem and pick the most appropriate way to solve it. I don't see how college teaches you that better than university.
 
moosh009 said:
Not sure what's with all the anti-university replies here. If you don't want to go/pay, don't. No one is forcing you. I for one don't think my university education was a waste.

Also, it's not a matter of college/trade school/university. It's a matter of attitude and willingness to learn and understand what is required to get the job done (whatever it might be). I have met competent people in my field with "only" a college diploma as well as incompetent idiots with a masters degree or several "certifications".

I also disagree with the notion that if you want "employable" or "useful" skills go to college. IMO the most useful skill is the ability to understand the problem and pick the most appropriate way to solve it. I don't see how college teaches you that better than university.
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It really depends on the subject you are taking. Many college courses are very hands on and people leave with skills that can be applied on the job right away. Also in a three year college program pretty much all of your courses are in the subject matter or directly related (most of the ~90 credit hours).

Depending on the degree and the person taking it there may only be 30 to 60 credit hours (out of 120) that comprise the major the rest are electives (although some may be arms length related). But that changes from degree to degree (and arts v science) of course also by person (some take a harder path). I think many of the soft degrees are hard to find a job in (like the philosophy example earlier, in fact some are entirely not employable in the field with just the bachelors--colleges tend not to even offer programs like these), hard sciences and fields like accounting, engineering etc. seem to be much more employable and people leave with the skills they need.

Having said all this it is not fair to compare the ability to find a job with a four year philosophy degree versus say a three year technology or a two year accounting from college. Not an apples to apples comparison. Compare the same subject matters and almost always the university grad will get a better job.

Long term the person with the degree will almost always be better off assuming it is a degree that leads to a job. This is why many college people go back for the degree afterwards. It is also why many people with the unemployable degrees decide to go do a college program (in an employable field) to get a job versus say a masters in the original field.
 
Gary64 said:
My son has just started his second year of university and he's majoring in philosophy. I cringe every time I write a cheque for tuition. I always ask him how many jobs he has seen on Workopolis for philosophers. I'm hoping son #2 decides to go the college or trade school route to save me some coin and actually get an education that will benefit him in the job market.
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I dont mean to disappoint but most art students end up waiting tables

Sent from my phone using my paws
 
With the cost of education constantly increasing and the current employment/economic climate... investing 40 K plus (at minimum) on an education can set you back a lot if there is no return on your investment. That's just the hard cost, not even factoring the lost income you could have been earning those three or four years.

Not to mention bankruptcy wont release you from the clutches of student debt.
 
I don't know where people got the idea that university is supposed to be job training that leads to material wealth. It was never like that, it wasn't like that during the Renaissanse or the Enlightenment, it isn't like that now.

Gallieo wasn't rich, neither was Mozart.
John Locke didn't get rich off his philosphies, nor is that why we know of him, but there is no doubt that human existence as a whole was enriched by all of them.

People don't graduate from Harvard with the highest incomes, they never have and they never will. If you want to just get a job, go to MIT.
 
RetroGrouch said:
Because it's been drilled into our heads since we were in kindergarten that employers will hire university grads over people without degrees.
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Thats not really untrue though.

Afterall, many many CEOs of huge companies are just liberal arts degrees... Jamie Dimon has a Psych degree.

I just don't think that material wealth should be the only reason why people want to learn what they learn. People here take riding courses, they aren't related to your job, they are related to things you are interested in outside of work.

People take cooking courses, read on their own time, study art and music because it enriches their lives, most of the time, its not about money.

I didn't study only the law subjects that had to do with my job at the end of the day. I took constitutional law, family, personal tax, criminal, none of which I use in my every day work. but I wanted to learn it, so I did.
 
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+1 to opengambit. It just depends whether or not you think the ~40k is a bit steep for personal development. My undergrad's been said to be useless in the real world...but it depends on what you mean by the real world. A double major in psych & philosophy won't get me a job, but the philosophy's done wonders for me and the psych has useful everyday applications. But again, it depends what you personally get out of it.

RockerGuy said:
I dont mean to disappoint but most art students end up waiting tables

Sent from my phone using my paws
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And some people waiting tables make way more than people who have a degree
 
RockerGuy said:
I dont mean to disappoint but most art students end up waiting tables

Sent from my phone using my paws
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waiting on tables or serving drinks can net you some serious cash that the taxman will never ever see if you're crafty

*edit* woops, someone already beat me to it
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