Although there are some altruistic exceptions, as a general rule, if someone’s being paid to teach something and they’re not being paid much, they’re most likely not very good at it and cannot teach you much. Particularly if it’s a skill. The world’s best programmers are all out programming, and the ones that aren’t and also are skilled teachers are getting paid to do it at better schools with name recognition.
People shit on colleges all the time around here and in conservative circles and I completely get that. Some entire fields at any school aren’t worth the money you pay in a financial sense. Speaking as someone that went to a top ranking university consistently at the top of those rankings, however, it is a completely different experience than a rando school and it is worth it for a lot of people. Women’s Studies majors are all wasting their time just as much as they are everywhere else, but even the guys and girls I know that I’d have considered losers in college are all making mid six figures on the low end and are the usual crop of programmers, developers, tech folks, lawyers, doctors, business people, accountants, some famous folks that went the entrepreneurial route, etc. I know people at a wide variety of major companies, and having gone to the same school as many folks at all of them, you get that as an in if you want to work there or work with them.
I also know a programmer from Russia that didn’t even graduate HS but makes 300K+ making things in Python and is self taught.
You can go any number of routes and be successful, but there is something to be said for the value of a top ranking school if you play your cards right. You’re now kind of part of the ‘elite’ in some fashion because you went there and majored in something not fake. Even a lot of the fake majors still do okay because you know people at all the places that have the most money to give away, like your Apple’s, Google’s, Facebook’s, major banks, etc. Granted, a lot of those companies are well hated in some ways for a reason, but you do get a lot out of your degree that’s well worth the inflated price.
Although there are some altruistic exceptions, as a general rule, if someone’s being paid to teach something and they’re not being paid much, they’re most likely not very good at it and cannot teach you much. Particularly if it’s a skill. The world’s best programmers are all out programming, and the ones that aren’t and also are skilled teachers are getting paid to do it at better schools with name recognition.
People shit on colleges all the time around here and in conservative circles and I completely get that. Some entire fields at any school aren’t worth the money you pay in a financial sense. Speaking as someone that went to a top ranking university consistently at the top of those rankings, however, it is a completely different experience than a rando school and it is worth it for a lot of people. Women’s Studies majors are all wasting their time just as much as they are everywhere else, but even the guys and girls I know that I’d have considered losers in college are all making mid six figures on the low end and are the usual crop of programmers, developers, tech folks, lawyers, doctors, business people, accountants, some famous folks that went the entrepreneurial route, etc. I know people at a wide variety of major companies, and having gone to the same school as many folks at all of them, you get that as an in if you want to work there or work with them.
I also know a programmer from Russia that didn’t even graduate HS but makes 300K+ making things in Python and is self taught.
You can go any number of routes and be successful, but there is something to be said for the value of a top ranking school if you play your cards right. You’re now kind of part of the ‘elite’ in some fashion because you went there and majored in something not fake. Even a lot of the fake majors still do okay because you know people at all the places that have the most money to give away, like your Apple’s, Google’s, Facebook’s, major banks, etc. Granted, a lot of those companies are well hated in some ways for a reason, but you do get a lot out of your degree that’s well worth the inflated price.