Maher calls college a 'grift,' compares it to Scientology

[TheBlackAdder]

88. This discussion should probably move to HR people as there are best practices and metrics they use.

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There is an entire Human Resources industry that evaluates and comes to these decisions.

I was speaking to one HR manager of a moderate firm, and they said that the primary job of an HR team is to weed out false applications, choose from the best pool available and then make sure they aren't the type that will come into the office one day and kill everyone. Yes, it's come to that. Contact your auto insurance and life insurance providers. Most of them discount based on education levels, though it's merged in some nebulous term. I forget the actual name that is used, but most do this. Your auto policy might mention it in the renewal packet you get. Even these industries see some worth in a college degree.

When managers submit requirements to HR for a position, they are rarely notified of the purged applications. Intake of a prospect is time and resource expensive, so they choose wisely.


Now, I question the purpose of school as the way put forth. Those puzzles actually rework your brain wiring and develop cognitive skills that a primary education can not perform. I have that shit developed already. I went back for an English Major and PoliSci Honors minor. While that sounds lame, it's one of the best educational foundations as it introduces students to a multitude of divergent world thought. I had to pay full boat for my degree, which required 3 years of study, as it was a vast change from my prior studies. Work would only pay if it was work-related, so I foot the bill myself, taking two classes a semester, a Winter and Summer sessions.

My kids do school on the cheap. Community college and transfer to a top 60 school for some. My one daughter was HS class president Junior year with a class size of 950. When she graduated, kids laughed at her because all her friends went to Ivy schools and she went to a Top 45 school, but she asked for late admission after clarifying that they take a year and a half of transfer credits even after being matriculated. On her HS graduation book, listed her name and our county college. Well, she took Winter & Summer county courses and transferred them in, but she made sure she had written authorization that they'd be accepted. She graduated that school after 2.5 years of being there with a double major. Before being admitted, she took it upon herself to pit a state school and a private in-state school against one another and was offered an $18K scholarship offer from the private school. She took that offer to her desired school and they matched it. So the $63K tuition, room & board was knocked down over $25K right off the bat with other grants she received. Her cost there was around $38K a year, but she only did 2.5 years there. Her degree shows that college, not the community college she went to.

She would tell me that friends of hers and other classmates contact her and are kicking themselves, because they went all in to the top schools and were in debt up to their eyeballs after the second year. We paid a little, she had savings, and in the end it resulted in about $30K in student loans.

Then, she went to a Top 3 university in the UK, globally ranked in the Top 10. It was $35K for her Masters, including a private studio apartment. Brexit hit and she received a refund check to the tune of over $8K, so her Masters degree cost under $28K.

The community colleges in NJ have transfer agreements with various state schools. I have 2 in community now and one in a SEBS science program at Rutgers U. and she's planning on getting her Masters. She's already working for an environmental firm and is trained on specialized science research software tools from Rut.

People get out of college what they want. Some can drift and get by, others take it serious. I guess as I am older, I was on the more serious side, as I was paying for it and had a goal. Community & state schools are effective. After seeing a lot of the Ivy grads over the years, their educations are not that swift--highly overrated. I had a contact at a large software firm tell me that a Rutgers degree is look upon better than one from one of the Mass Ivy schools, and those candidates don't perform well and are under-educated for the positions they are applying to get.

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