This post is not directly student loan related so the mods certainly can feel free to move it or dispose of it.
This is more of a general observation as I am seeing MORE and MORE cases of people coming up to me with over $50K of student loan debt from what I will call McColleges (not making ANY disparaging remarks on colleges in general)
YOU NEED TO DETERMINE YOUR EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVES BEFORE GOING TO COLLEGE.
At least in the SF Bay Area, If you are trying to enter the "high tech" (and it is extremely difficult right now and I would argue NOT a good career choice) Then the NAME of the school is GOING (with very high probability) be CRITICAL with regards to you getting your (presumably) FIRST REAL JOB. YOU really are (most likely) going to need a MINIMUM of a BS preferably an MS from a TOP 10 SCHOOL i.e. Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Illinois, etc. to even have a shot of getting a "high tech" job
WHY ??
Because the employer can get a TOP 10 grad.
College (something the McColleges WILL NOT TELL YOU) graduates today are MUCH MORE numerous than those in the 1940s and 1950s. ALL those studies saying that college graduates over their lifetime will make much more than non college graduates ignore the fact that a college diploma is MUCH MORE common today.
AND
If you are a Mccollege Information Technology graduate in the SF Bay Area then you most likely have WASTED (with waste being strictly defined as the financial expenditure to get a high tech job; the education may or may not have been worthwhile in and of its own sake) a LOT of money and time. I see more and more McCollege graduates working in retail malls and the trades with their diploma being basically worthless.
YOU NEED TO DETERMINE YOUR EDUCATIONAL REQUIREMENTS TO GET THE DESIRED RESULT I.E. CAREER BEFORE ATTENDING COLLEGE.
Full Version: BEFORE YOU GO INTO STUDENT LOAN DEBT
I think more than the name of the college, you definitely need to have one that has brutally good interneship placement programs.
I started in this field before CS was a possible major, but even I get called on the educational institutions I did (or didn't) go to.
I wouldn't disrecommend IT specifically, however, I would say that it's not a field to go into if you don't love it. Mean career life of a software engineer is 9 years, and that's a lot of student debt (and training) for a career that short. I know only one person who's been in the field as long as I have.
I started in this field before CS was a possible major, but even I get called on the educational institutions I did (or didn't) go to.
I wouldn't disrecommend IT specifically, however, I would say that it's not a field to go into if you don't love it. Mean career life of a software engineer is 9 years, and that's a lot of student debt (and training) for a career that short. I know only one person who's been in the field as long as I have.
QUOTE(direred @ Dec 12 2007, 03:11 AM) 
I think more than the name of the college, you definitely need to have one that has brutally good interneship placement programs.
Although the post was meant to be a general observation, I would definitely agree with the above. The problem of course is that internships are hard to get and the educational institution at least those in the SF Bay Area aren't getting them for you.
I recommend that for those SERIOUSLY interested in CS (which is a dismal career choice) to go to the ABSOLUTE BEST school that they can get into. i.e. Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Illinois, etc. and IDEALLY have little to no student debt.
I started in this field before CS was a possible major, but even I get called on the educational institutions I did (or didn't) go to.
Same here.
However, CS now is saturated with graduates that STILL can't get jobs because of the dot com boom (and subsequent) bust. CS grads often graduate with over $50K of student debt ending up with jobs paying less than $20 an hour. And many are in a "holding pattern" akin to being like airplanes looking for a place to land whose educational equivalent is getting the MS degree for jobs that in the past that did not even require a college degree.
I recommended (and I got laid off from the community college because of the demise of college enrollment) that EVERY AA program (and I do mean EVERY) in CS be discontinued. I have NO problem with AA programs such that allow YOU to meet your first two years of basic general educational requirements PRIOR to transfering to a four year college or university of your choice with the AA coursework being completely transferable. (California does a pretty good job in making sure that the AA coursework transfers over to either the California State University or University of California system). Needless to say, I did not make too many community college deans happy when I told them that a standalone AA degree in CS was totally worthless.
I wouldn't disrecommend IT specifically, however, I would say that it's not a field to go into if you don't love it. Mean career life of a software engineer is 9 years, and that's a lot of student debt (and training) for a career that short. I know only one person who's been in the field as long as I have.
The mean for someone starting out TODAY is probably much less than nine years. Many can't even start off with a CS job after graduation.
Although the post was meant to be a general observation, I would definitely agree with the above. The problem of course is that internships are hard to get and the educational institution at least those in the SF Bay Area aren't getting them for you.
I recommend that for those SERIOUSLY interested in CS (which is a dismal career choice) to go to the ABSOLUTE BEST school that they can get into. i.e. Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Illinois, etc. and IDEALLY have little to no student debt.
I started in this field before CS was a possible major, but even I get called on the educational institutions I did (or didn't) go to.
Same here.
However, CS now is saturated with graduates that STILL can't get jobs because of the dot com boom (and subsequent) bust. CS grads often graduate with over $50K of student debt ending up with jobs paying less than $20 an hour. And many are in a "holding pattern" akin to being like airplanes looking for a place to land whose educational equivalent is getting the MS degree for jobs that in the past that did not even require a college degree.
I recommended (and I got laid off from the community college because of the demise of college enrollment) that EVERY AA program (and I do mean EVERY) in CS be discontinued. I have NO problem with AA programs such that allow YOU to meet your first two years of basic general educational requirements PRIOR to transfering to a four year college or university of your choice with the AA coursework being completely transferable. (California does a pretty good job in making sure that the AA coursework transfers over to either the California State University or University of California system). Needless to say, I did not make too many community college deans happy when I told them that a standalone AA degree in CS was totally worthless.
I wouldn't disrecommend IT specifically, however, I would say that it's not a field to go into if you don't love it. Mean career life of a software engineer is 9 years, and that's a lot of student debt (and training) for a career that short. I know only one person who's been in the field as long as I have.
The mean for someone starting out TODAY is probably much less than nine years. Many can't even start off with a CS job after graduation.
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