F... School Work

[Ruhskins]

Just wondering if anyone out there is dealing with end of the semester school work. I have three papers due in the next week and a half. And to top that off, I had a job interview today (good stuff, but it meant more work since I had to do some research and prepare a presentation).

Well good luck to everyone and feel free to vent your school work frustrations here :cool-smil

[DynamiteRave]

I have 1 take home exam and... That's it. lol

Well tomorrow I have a group project where we're recording our group doing a 1-1 counseling session. But other than that and the take home exam, I'm done for the summer!

[Daseal]

Tomorrow I wrap up my last presentation. Team projects + everyone having a full time job = tough. Once I finish that presentation one more take-home lab project which is probably only 5-10 hours of work.

The farther I get in my masters program, the more I want to quit. Two classes left!

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by Daseal

Tomorrow I wrap up my last presentation. Team projects + everyone having a full time job = tough. Once I finish that presentation one more take-home lab project which is probably only 5-10 hours of work.

The farther I get in my masters program, the more I want to quit. Two classes left!

Two classes, come on man, you're very close. I have 8 classes left in my PhD program and I am hoping to finish that up in a year and a half (I'm doing the program part time).

[ArtMonkDrillz]

I would give up my right arm to be back in college complaining about end of the year school work!!!!!

STAY IN SCHOOL! STAY AS LONG AS YOU CAN!!!

[Daseal]

AMD -- have you ever worked, then gone back to school? It's awful. You have the 40+ crowd that asks terrible questions or prefaces each statement with "As a mother", when everyone is working syncing schedules is damn near impossible, you have little/no time to really hang out with friends. I just hope it opens some doors for me in the future. My faculty is really top notch (learning about managing a government program from a 2 star general who ran some high profile projects is damn interesting.)

As much as I complain -- I may end up forking more money over for a PHD eventually.

[ArtMonkDrillz]

Originally Posted by Daseal

AMD -- have you ever worked, then gone back to school? It's awful. You have the 40+ crowd that asks terrible questions or prefaces each statement with "As a mother", when everyone is working syncing schedules is damn near impossible, you have little/no time to really hang out with friends. I just hope it opens some doors for me in the future. My faculty is really top notch (learning about managing a government program from a 2 star general who ran some high profile projects is damn interesting.)

As much as I complain -- I may end up forking more money over for a PHD eventually.

Nope, I've been considering going back for a masters for some time now, but I can never make up my mind as to what I would want to study (same reason I didn't go right away after I graduated). I can imagine that some of your classmates can be a real pain in the ass.

My other post was mainly about the fact that I would love to go back and be an undergrad. I can honestly say I was better at being a college student than I've been at just about anything else I've ever tried.

[cpayne5]

Originally Posted by Daseal

AMD -- have you ever worked, then gone back to school? It's awful. You have the 40+ crowd that asks terrible questions or prefaces each statement with "As a mother", when everyone is working syncing schedules is damn near impossible, you have little/no time to really hang out with friends. I just hope it opens some doors for me in the future. My faculty is really top notch (learning about managing a government program from a 2 star general who ran some high profile projects is damn interesting.)

As much as I complain -- I may end up forking more money over for a PHD eventually.

Say what? Dr. Daseal; who'd have guessed that one?

[MTK]

I don't regret going back for my masters, but I don't miss it either!

[Ruhskins]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

I don't regret going back for my masters, but I don't miss it either!

I regret taking a year off between my master's and PhD. Although the year off was nice.

[mredskins]

I know three people with Master's none of their careers flew off the charts after or since they got theirs. My wife included.

I always say experience trumps education.

[MTK]

Originally Posted by mredskins

I know three people with Master's none of their careers flew off the charts after or since they got theirs. My wife included.

I always say experience trumps education.

Gotta think long run.

Experience is definitely really important, but education can open some doors. And if you can bring experience and education to the table, bonus.

[mredskins]

Originally Posted by Mattyk

Gotta think long run.

Experience is definitely really important, but education can open some doors. And if you can bring experience and education to the table, bonus.

Hmmm maybe, but I have seen networking carry folks pretty damn far as well.

I think the black and white answer is education and hard work get you to the top but in reality that is far from the truth; so many other poltics involved.

I have a buddy in Marriott that is very far up same age as me. We started at the same time or close to it. Dude failed out of UMD has no degree but just straight busted his a$$ and if I guessed he is well over six figures.

My uncle was a VP with Gucci just had a HS degree. My cousin (his son) got kicked out of Penn State for selling drugs; he is now a big time player at Couch with their POS machines; making in the $200k range.

IF you got something like actually useable knowledge that you can apply to the real world form a Master's versus just another piece paper with your name then it is of value.

Just my 2 cents. If my wife's degree was not paid for by her company she too would agree it was a waste but she enjoyed the process of getting it.

[Schneed10]

Originally Posted by mredskins

I know three people with Master's none of their careers flew off the charts after or since they got theirs. My wife included.

I always say experience trumps education.

I find this is largely true. The down economy caused a lot of people to go back for their masters just because of lack of job opportunities. So many people have a masters these days that it gets hard to differentiate one MBA from another.

Experience and skill set. More skill set, at least in my line of work.

Of course, I'm going to look at MBAs before I'll look at non-MBAs. But if I see someone with a good quantitative/analytical skill set, I'll be quite interested in hiring that person regardless of whether they have an MBA or not.

But, the degree still does open doors. It gets you interviewed, and then if you interview well, you can get the opportunity. But once you're in, it's still a matter of what you can do, the degree stops meaning something. Getting promoted takes the ability to juggle a lot of tasks and do them all correctly and quickly, and at the same time effectively communicate with superiors and colleagues. That combination of abilities usually comes from a God-given skill set, it can't be learned in classes, you're born with it and then you hone it over time.

[mlmpetert]

I completely agree with mredskins in that a college degree is almost a high school diploma by today’s standards. I read this from Peter Morici of UMD (anyone have him?) a couple days ago and it kind of addresses this:

Why Americans can't pay their student loans | Fox News

The fact is going to college doesn’t mean anything if everyone else goes to college. And if some day everyone has a masters or phd than those degrees become marginalized too.

As to how far you go in education I think its all related to what you want to do and who want to work for. If youre in government the only way to obtain higher pay may be through education. My mom teaches in Fairfax; when she got her masters she got a big bump in her pay, she got another increase when she added on 30 credits. The private sector is usually more flexible but large companies with very structured hiring processes may tie advancement in with education requirements.

For business grad school ive heard a lot of people say masters are a waste of money and time unless theyre from certain schools or combined with a certain degree. Unless youre employer requires it a BS in Business Admin from “state” and a MBA from Strayer probably isn’t gonna do shit for you. However, a BS in Engineering and a MBA, even if its from Strayer, will probably help you become a boss at your engineering firm.

As Peter’s Morici’s article alludes to, employers want skills and many college degrees no longer provide them. However, designations do. I work in finance and the big ones are CFA, CFP and CPA. A masters in finance would probably do less for me in my field than any of those designations. Even for highly skilled college degrees designations may be more highly valued than graduate degrees, my brother studied electrical engineer at VT but became LEED certified because of the value it offers.

I initially wanted to be an accountant, partly because I saw the opportunities available to those with an accounting degree coupled with a CPA. However, during my sophomore year the prerequisite requirements to become a CPA changed in most states from just an undergraduate degree to an undergraduate degree plus 30 credit hours. I knew I couldn’t do another year of college and take on the additional debt so I changed my major to finance partly because VCU offered a CFP “fast track” program.

I think designations offer the biggest bang for your buck by far. Some can be just as challenging or more so then grad school at a fraction of the cost. They should be quantitative in nature and provide you with actual skills or ability. Go with a well know but extremely challenging designation (a CFA will get you a job easy). But a lot of designations are worthless, so unless your employer requires it or youre trying to break into a specific field save your money.

At the end of the day hard work and ability trump everything. If youre motivated and you out work everyone and your company holds you back because youre without a certain degree you have nothing to worry about, youll get your chance somewhere else. But if youre just a middle of the pack dude a masters or designation will help set you apart.