Ever feel you overpaid for a college class?

[BIG JOE]

From what you guys are saying.. It kinda confirms my thinking that Education has gone the way of other social services... It's not a means of Higher Learning anymore.. it's an Industry. The ROI is not important anymore (?)..It All About The Money.

 

[dpantazis]

not really, it just goes to show you that no matter what you want to do in life, you gotta pay to play!

 

[hawkdriver]

I do think it is all about the money for the most part. I think being educated is very important but I don't think today's university atmosphere is the best place to get an education anymore.

Tail Gunner, I work for Army Fleet Support LLC, an L-3 Company, down here at Fort Rucker. Largest DOD aviation contract in the US. Contract-wide we work on UH-60 A/L/M's, AH-64's, CH-47's, OH-58 A/C/D's, UH-1's, and TH-67's. I'm a UH-60 Test Pilot and that's all I do. An A&P can go contract-wide and work on anything. Pay and benefits are the best you will find for hundreds of miles. Easy work with good pay. Some of these cats have no clue how good they really have it. We are union so that's always something to consider depending on your opinion of unions.

 

[hawkdriver]

Tail Gunner- I'm sure you are anxious to finish school. I grew up in Michigan until I joined the Army in '83. I saw myself getting into trouble if I didn't leave and do something. No work if Generous Motors wasn't hiring and I didn't like the cyclic flow of employment my older cousins lived when they got laid off. I joined the Army and never looked back. Two best things I ever did in my life- joined the military and retired from it after 21 years. Michigan is such a beautiful state but the work atmosphere sucks.

 

[Tail_Gunner]

Michigan is such a beautiful state but the work atmosphere sucks.

I hear ya. If I can't get in at American, it's likely we'll be leaving da U.P. There is only one other possibilty at the airport, that being a small FBO. From what I gather, they don't hire A&P graduates, only experienced.

There are a lot of opportunites for an A&P, just not U.P. here.

Who knows, maybe we'll move to TX, build an oversized car port/pole barn and park the camper under it.

 

[hawkdriver]

Yes, tons of opportunities for A&P's. That's why I told my kids I would pay for it. There are jobs in Iraq/Afghan right now that are paying friends of mine $130k for A&P work. But even stateside there are jobs all across the country. An A&P will take you you just about anywhere in the world you want to go.

 

[DaveBen]

I totally agree with Hawk. The A&P is a great way to go, almost anywhere. I was considering going the A&P route when I got my pilot's license. But I was still in college and had dreams to get into the Electronics Field, before computers. Hell, TV was not even colored when I was in college.

Dave

 

[JimmyDee]

I would like to take an opposing view on this subject of easy college. The colleges I went to were not easy. I did have a few classes that were easier than others but even the easy ones were good classes where I learned a lot.
I found the tech classes I had at our community college here in Muskegon, Michigan were some of the hardest classes I had. Electronics was not a blow away and found it to be time consuming to say the least. Out of 34 students that started the course, 7 graduated.
My undergrad and graduate degrees were completed at private colleges in Western Michigan and I would say, partly because I was working full time while going to college, I found myself on the verge of burnout with some of the classes I took.
Was my experience unusual? I think not. If the curriculum in any of my classes was to the level that has been mentioned here in the first post of this thread, I would have found a school that was more in tune with what higher education was about. $250 a credit hour is about right but calling your class, a 4 credit hour class is laughable. If it were me, I would report the instructor to the college administration. I took a welding course as an elective and we had many hours of hands on welding. I actually learned how to weld, and it was only a 3 credit hour class.
Jim

 

[hawkdriver]

I don't believe anyone actually said college was "easy". I think the point Tail Gunner had was he paid a lot of money to an institution and sort of felt cheated. I certainly would want more hands on in that type of class. It sounds like it would have been easy to pass the class but I don't think that was his point, IMO.

 

[BJS]

I work at a University and have simply come to the conclusion that degrees are simply wallpaper and I refer to them as that which truly annoys the academics. However I had a professor as an undergraduate who described the degree series for the sciences so accurately: Bachelors of Science - BS - Bull excrement; Masters of Science - MS - More Excrement; Doctor of Philosophy - PhD - Pile it Higher & Deeper

And depending on how you choose to pursue your education you could have obtained an Associates of Science in Science to gain the source to spew your excrement.

I will say that I am at a point in my career where prospective employers, both public and private are requiring a masters degree of some caliber to even be considered for jobs that would be a promotion for me. Hence why I am taking advantage of the tuition benefit here that will give me the next check in the box I need to advance.