Is College A Waste Of Time And Money?

[Thunder_Snus]

Mathematics is a pre-requisite for engineering, so you would need to take math as well. Physics also plays a role, so add that on. Maybe chemistry (depending on your path), but I would highly recommend taking it whether it's a requirement or not (it serves as a great lesson on precision, reactions, and other things).

Still Crow, the courses you need to get an engineering degree...that's the math classes...engineering classes...physics and possibly chemistry should total 2 maybe 2.5 years. There is just this other stuff including history, possibly foreign language, english, psych, and possibly more depending on where you go that are nothing but a ploy to make you pay more money.

[Thunder_Snus]

That is absolutely not the case in the UK ... but I think the degrees in this country are becoming more and more like your definition.

The university degree system was set up as learning for the sake of learning and the betterment of knowledge for the good of the country and the world in general ... I cannot imagine how much more ignorant of the world around us we'd be as a race if it wasn't for academia and universities. It was never intended to be a piece of paper that entitled the owner to a job!

The problem is when you apply capitalist principles to academia then it can never function in the same way as it was intended. Every student has to "perform" and there has to be some kind of tangible recordable results seen for the money invested. The idea of having to pay for your own further education is a ridiculous way of going about things - it excludes all the academic talent from poorer backgrounds fulfilling their potential. And in the long term society loses out.

University should be what it was when my parents studied their degrees ... something funded by the state and only possible to get in to if you were in the top percentage of academic talent. Why? For the same reason you would expect your state to hire the best people for any other job with public money. Don't get me wrong ... I'm a massive fan of non-academic skills and crafts too - and that's what I've ended up doing for a living and no university degree could prepare you well for the majority of jobs! But when you consider that most major breakthroughs in the 20th century in science and engineering came not from results-led, sponsored positions - but as accidental consequences of learning for the sake of learning and experimentation then I predict that we're at the end of a great era.

That college now is a joke and a bought piece of paper to add to your resumé is a sad reflection of a purely business and money led society.

Colleges here in the US atleast have almost nothing to do with higher learning. Sure doing nothing will get you a C, but unless you get stuck with an actual professor you will never fail a class. It's really discouraging to study hard all semester and come out with a 99.8% in a class just to find out it was curved so that someone with an 82 also go an A. Most people consider attending class 50% of the time as hard work and an ok thing to do.
There are definitely good universities here that stick with the classical model of what higher education is, but for your typical state college or Uof? college is basically just an excuse to relax for 4 years and build up debt to avoid getting a job after graduating from high school.

[squeezyjohn]

Yes - I know. We've got loads of universities based on that model since deregulation back in then late 1990s

Frankly it's a cynical move on the part of the government designed to reduce the youth unemployment figures and stimulate growth in the financial sector by making the concept of debt seem normal for all generations passing through the system.