I failed to prevent my kid from going to college

Re:I failed to prevent my kid from going to college by libeclipse on Wednesday August 30, 2017 @07:29AM (#15131225)

tl;dr the rantings of some dude that did poorly in his own time at college and thinks all it consists of is liberal arts degrees

Note: I'm a university student in the UK, studying a serious technical degree. I'm not sure if this level is equivalent to "college" in the US, I assume so.

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Re:I failed to prevent my kid from going to college by alistairSH on Wednesday August 30, 2017 @08:30AM (#15131524)

I'm not sure if this level is equivalent to "college" in the US, I assume so.

In a broad sense, yes. But, there's more to it.

In the US, there are several tiers of colleges...

- Community Colleges: offer 2-year (associates) degrees. Frequently serve as a launching point for entry into a 4-year program (if direct entry wasn't an option due to lackluster performance in high school). Also frequently offer vocational degrees (network and system admin, skilled trades, etc).

- College: Offer 4-year (Bachelors) degrees. Typically do NOT offer post-graduate degrees.

- University: Offer 4-year AND post-graduate (or professional) degrees.

It's not a hard and fast rule - The College of William & Mary (Williamsburg, VA) is one of the best universities in the nation and it's name is basically a historical anomaly.

The majority of colleges in the US are probably equivalent to the UK's polytechnics and other newer universities (vs the UK's ancient universities, which are closer to our Ivy League + a few other select research universities).

Edit - As it relates to this guy's blog, if he attended a top-tier university and found it was a waste of time, he was likely not mature enough to take advantage of its offerings.

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Re:I failed to prevent my kid from going to college by dhimes on Wednesday August 30, 2017 @07:40AM (#15131276)

Yes, it's equivalent. Thanks for saving me the time to read the piece. Good luck with your studies.

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Re:I failed to prevent my kid from going to college by 0x27081990 on Wednesday August 30, 2017 @07:39AM (#15131267)

I used to think the same as you when I still was a student. “How can these people critize the wonders of college? I’m learning so much!”. Then I realized I learnt nothing.

Disclaimer: it wasn’t a fancy college, but still.

I just think education needs some sort of revolution

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Re:I failed to prevent my kid from going to college by blusterXY on Wednesday August 30, 2017 @09:50AM (#15132107)

James Altucher studied computer science, not liberal arts.

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