While it might be great as a precursor, by itself, it isn't worth the roll of Charmin.

They don't have to because the price of failure has been reduced.

Several of my cousins work for the Department of Water and Power for the city of Los Angeles.

My oldest cousin got hired first after he go out of the Navy and had nuclear submarine duty. He eventually worked his way into management, and now makes over $200,000 / year, and has a pension guys like me in the private sector can only dream about.

It is this cousin who got his brother and nephews in (my first and second cousins). They are all linemen and make well over $100,000 / year with overtime.

Not a bad gig.

You can add communication to that list too :rolleyes: I gots me one o' those.

My friends who are in philosophy (or recently graduated) all intend on going to be professors. At least in my school, it is fairly well communicated that there isn't a great future in the "traditional" job market for philosophy majors. That being said, it is one of my school's only liberal arts PhD programs so they really believe in it. For my degree in communication, they give you the impression that you can go just about anywhere with it from journalism to PR, but in reality you have to have the work experience to begin with or you are useless in this competitive job market. I am lucky to have scored a business internship several years ago or I'd have been totally lost when graduating.

For the record, I'm one of the bunch who wants to be a professor too, and my studies in media & culture stray VERY often into philosophy.

So can I ask why you pursued that line? I went into computer programming because there was a market for it then. I was 16 and already did the research so I can't understand why these 18 yo kids are unable to do that.

As a student of philosophy I managed to get a job doing AI research and research on complex systems. It's actually quite a good degree.

I am just fascinated by the way in which media shapes cultures and affects our everyday lives. My main focuses are music and the internet (and the combination), and basically a digital revolution that we were fortunate enough to live through. When I chose my major I knew that I wanted to be a professor and perform research for a living, I wouldn't have chosen the path if I wasn't sure about that. The vast majority of my classmates in the program were the students who were in college because their parents wanted it/paid for it and it was seen as an easy major. It bugged me to no end, but now in grad there are only people with similar drive/motivation/interests, most of whom know the value of their education--huge relief.

Edit: I did mention I was in business. I work to pay the bills...can't wait until I can actually get into a funded PhD program and not have to worry about being a cog in the corporate machine anymore. Its working out for now, and if I wanted to pursue business I could definitely have a pretty good future but I don't think it is a normal career path for someone with my degree, and I can't see myself working in a corporate environment 9-5 my whole life. If I were to look for a new job right now I'd be competing mostly with those who carry business degrees.

That is seriously awesome.

Fair enough. I believe your classmates were there to score an easy A, keep their parents happy and thus they can party having paid their "cover charge", aka college tution.

What's the difference? Whether you are a cog in this machine or that, what is the difference? I look at it like a hooker john relationship. The hooker isn't having fun and has to do something she doesn't want to do if she had a choice. She gets paid. The John is wanting to get laid and have fun, he pays.

It worked out for you but what about for the most part?

History major. Sociology minor. 2nd minor in philosophy (or close to it). A&S VU70;). Only biz courses that go round were bz law & econ. prin.I & II. :o How'd I ever end up a CPA ?
I guess it was like what the great philosopher Yogi once said: When you come to a fork in the road, take it! :P:confused:

Back to on-line universities... We had a woman here take on-line courses at U of P (NOT U of Penn). She did this for a few years and eventually got a degree - BA in Accounting.. I really don't think it did her any good from what I could observe in her work performance and expanded knowledge base. If she was representative of the average acheivements and development, I don't think much of the structure. I was disappointed in her lack of progress during and after finishing the program. She didn't measure up and we eventully parted ways. I think we paid a good chunk of her tuition too. Disappointing.:(

But we also have people who go to traditional universities and even well known ones whom we would look at and wonder who she "Monica"ed to graduate.

Zactly... we had another woman with a U of Penn. (night degree) accounting degree. Totally clueless & inept., but her resume was 4.0 in education and work experience. :rolleyes::eek:
Isn't anyone raised with or educated to instill common sense any more??? How is that imparted in young minds? I don't know but strong math training is a likely place to start in primary and secondary schooling.
One of the best courses I ever had was Aristotelian logic, but that was 2nd year college. Helped me tremendously over the years. Believe it or not, my prof's name was George Bush.;) Seriously.