You can disagree all you want and what you said has some merit
what i said comes from life experience and i consider myself to be successful in the workforce and did not spend tens of thousands on 4 year or more college degree
Okay I’m curious, what do you do for living if you don’t mind sharing.
I am a Level III Inspector in a QC/Dedication lab…i inspect and test parts for 4 nuclear plants for the largest utility in the country
started out in the warehouse and worked myself up by learning trades
we test valves, piping, relays, switches, breakers, radiators, cable and etc
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That sounds awesome dude! What kind of trade experience did you get? HVAC?
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Electrical and mechanical
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I went to a CC for welding. Using pell grants it only cost me about $2500 out of pocket.
I’ve made at least twice that using it, so I’m way ahead of the game.
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TikTok is like any other social media platform, it’s what you make of it. There’s a lot of great lifting resources on the platform. Beside, I think we all know Twitter is the worst…
From whom?
Are you not aware how many free resources exist to teach people, young and old, these things? Khan Academy would be my first recommendation. I learned how to do calculus through them while taking calculus, because the $2200 course instruction was subpar to the free online one.
I’m hoping this question you posed is in earnest because there is a litany of free educational resources out there that put paid education to shame.
FWIW, MIT offers their CS50 course online for free.
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Heck you can learn a crap ton on Wondrium or Skillshare for $100/year.
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That’s kind of what I’m getting at. Everyone with a degree recognizes it’s little more than a loan receipt and learned 80% of their current job on the job. So why is the degree needed? A more thorough competency assessment as a part of the interview process could do away with much of this nonsense.
I’m not understanding @zecarlo’s perspective… school is getting stupid, yet you must do school to be good at something… wut?
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I think for at least some professions it gives you a foundation. I agree, you learn most of your knowledge/skills on the job, but a basis is helpful.
IMO, we could easily cut an undergrad degree in half, though.
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When I was going through some training for Nuclear Engineering, I often had instructors reference us to go check out Khan Academy if for any reason we were having trouble wrapping our heads around a physics concept. Truly an amazing resource.
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Since you sre going thru Nuclear training, what is your perspective of the future of nuclear energy? what are your instructors saying about it?
Taught by people who… went to college.
And those people will be the ones teaching, free or otherwise. School should be about standards. It should be about an academic environment. It should be about those things a Youtube video can’t give you: live, in real time, face to face contact and discussion. Give and take. Ask a video a question and you won’t get an answer. Question what is being taught and you won’t get an answer.
I phrased that poorly, I’m done with that training now, but not far removed.
The general consensus among most is that nuclear energy is the cleanest, best power source that we have, and is really one of the only long term energy solutions we have.
That being said, people are terrified of it. For statistically irrational reasons In comparison to all other energy sources, but the fear exists nonetheless. So until people either lose their fear, or scarcity demands nuclear as the only option less, probably not a lot of short term growth in the industry.
Agreed, been in the nuclear business for 33 years myself
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I agree, but this is based in ideal, not reality. Schools often are not like this, and you - yourself - have experience that goes to prove this. Should we fix the system? Yes. Should we also re-prioritize school towards career specific schooling? Also yes. Both would require the entirety of academia to change, which is run by folks who vote for ideals, not reality.
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Slightly disagreeing with this note, I think for undergraduate degrees should be intentionally broad. I studied political science. Given the school I went to, for that degree I still had to take calculus, a year of EE, some computer science, thermodynamics, physics, etc. I had a lot of experience in STEM, even though I majored in humanities, plus history courses that weren’t pertinent to my degree but that we all had to take.
Maybe it’s my idealizing the “renaissance man”, but I do think undergrads should have a well rounded education. This includes both humanities and STEM. And while I’ve heard many STEM majors talk about the prestige of their degrees, I was still very significantly above average in my nuclear engineering courses as a guy going in with a poli sci major. Turns out, a smart dude is probably going to be smart in whatever he applies himself to.
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