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by jlarocco 3971 days ago
Agreed. When people say degrees are overrated and there are too many people with "useless" degrees, they're not talking about science and engineering degrees.

Skipping a degree in CS is just making things harder for yourself. Best case scenario you'll just spend that 4 years working up your salary to what you would have had in the first place with a degree.
3 comments
delecti 3971 days ago
> Best case scenario you'll just spend that 4 years working up your salary to what you would have had in the first place with a degree.

If the options are 4 years making okay money or 4 years likely accumulating debt, after which you're at the same income level either way, why would anyone in their right mind go to college?

I'm not saying you're entirely wrong, I just think that that's not the best way to highlight it. For example, college is quite useful for the connections and career placement assistance.

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jlarocco 3971 days ago
> If the options are 4 years making okay money or 4 years likely accumulating debt, after which you're at the same income level either way, why would anyone in their right mind go to college?

I can only speak to my experience, but most of my friends in college worked while they were in school, and eventually got decent paying internships their junior and senior years. I think most of us had to take out loans, but I know I was able to pay mine off less than 2 years out of school, and I think most people did. 4 years in school isn't necessarily accumulating a lot of debt. And it wouldn't surprise me if the person with the CS degree still enough extra money to account for student loans.

Of course that's assuming the person in question is pretty smart (and they better be if they're considering skipping college) and can get at least some kind of financial aid or scholarship money. It's also assuming they're not insisting on a big name school.

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delecti 3970 days ago
If you took 2 years to pay it off at dev salaries then that's probably a fair bit of debt.

And besides, that really just deflects my point by saying "well it's not that much debt".

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madeofpalk 3971 days ago
I think it's also worth noting that I think there is a huge cultural difference when it comes to the value of a degree.

In IT in Australia, I've never had a problem with lack of degree, and I'm doing pretty well for myself - getting paid a decent amount of money in a place I love working in. I'm involved in a hiring process for new developers and I cannot remember the last time we've looked at or considered their educational background.

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xiaoma 3971 days ago
>Best case scenario you'll just spend that 4 years working up your salary to what you would have had in the first place with a degree.

Wouldn't the best case scenario be more like founding Apple, MS or FB or becoming the president of YC?

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