[InclinedPlane]

I have a degree in Mathematics, I think my educational experience has made me a better developer than if I'd have pursued a pure CS degree alone. Does that mean that I think everyone who wants to develop software should get a math degree? Not even a little bit. But I also don't think they should pursue a CS degree either. In the end the answer is "it's complicated, and there isn't one good answer yet", but we don't get from where we are now to a better state by pretending nothing is wrong with the status quo.

Moreover, I question whether or not each of your seven points are worth about $10k each, because a lot of students are paying that much.

[capote]

You're still, in this post, trying to extract the value of a degree in terms of job power. That's what I'm arguing against.

I paid $180,000 to go to university and I think it was 100% worth it, regardless of my job or how much it helped my job. My selection of 7 points was mainly to make a point, that point being that I see a lot of value in university, many people do, and we should all stop trying to fit all of this into employment, because they have very little to do with each other.

[ctvo]

In what world do we live in that a university education has nothing to do with employment? Not all of us are lucky enough to spend 180,000 on an education and not care about its impact on our job prospects.

[twillirvy]

Interesting. I was with you until this post--I'm curious if you haven't wondered, even a bit, if 180k was too steep of a price tag? I'm a fan of university in general, but find the sky-high prices of private institutions hard to stomach compared to similarly-good in-state options.

[capote]

Yeah... it's definitely a high price tag. I should've probably gone to a state school to save that money. But I still find it worth it because I see what I got from school as priceless, as silly and dramatic as that sounds.

As an aside, I am of the opinion that university should be free. But in the US, it's not. It's super expensive. That's a bummer, but like I said, it's worth it to me, money or not, job or not.

[imtringued]

> But I still find it worth it because I see what I got from school as priceless, as silly and dramatic as that sounds.

Okay that means the answer to your question why young people get college degrees for jobs can be described in one word: economics (And that should be obvious given your level of education)

[imtringued]

>because they have very little to do with each other.

Not everyone has $180,000 lying around. Someone has to pay for it and if it's not your parents then you have to do it yourself so obviously people prioritise degrees with well paying jobs and that's how it's supposed to work in an efficient economy. Otherwise if you can spend $180,000 on something without intending to get financial value out of it, you could just as well do something random such as buying a lot of bananas.

[j45]

I remember specifically taking a few equivalent math or stats classes that were equivalent credit to Comp Sci classes and realized I gained a much deeper and more transferable set of mathematical and conceptualization skills in addition to the traditional comp sci experience I was receiving.

And to think... I did took the more gruelling math and stat's courses to get out of doing comp sci labs that didn't interest me so I could work on problems I enjoyed.