Education level?

[Writer]

Hi! I think this will be education questionnaire #356 in the lounge, but I have a theory I wanted to test. I know we on DU are fairly well-educated, but I have a feeling that so many more Americans hold Bachelor's and Master's degrees that the educational market has become saturated. That depends, of course, on how many answer affirmatively to the below questions. Let's see what happens. :)

So: What is your current educational level?

[NewWaveChick1981]

1. Master's degree.

:hi:

[jpgray]

2. I made it all the way through McGuffey's readers.

[deucemagnet]

3. PhD

:hi:

[Writer]

6. How are you currently using your PhD?

[deucemagnet]

13. I'm currently using my PhD to look for a job!

Not that there's a shortage of jobs, it's just that I was a bit burnt out after grad school and haven't been looking too hard. I'll be getting serious about the job hunt after the holidays.

[Writer]

15. What are you looking for?

[deucemagnet]

44. Right now my preferences are:

1) A teaching position, or

2) A government job.

I'm a veteran, so I could probably use the hiring preference for vets to get a position at the NIH, CDC or DHS. I'm a little conflicted about working for the government, but a brother's gotta eat.

[gr8dane_daddy]

59. What was your PhD concentration?

I'm planning to take the doctorate plunge in '08. I could sure use some advice.

[PRETZEL]

4. bachelors of science in Public Administration,

which in the early 80's did me absolutely no good.

Went back to school about 15 years ago. Got a "Certificate of Professional Studies" which did qualify me to sit for the CPA exam. So, it's not a master's and it's not a bachelors.

[eyepaddle]

5. Master's here

Well, almost. Maybe I should get off DU and plug away at the thesis...maybe.

[Kerrytravelers]

7. Master's here. But, I am one that doesn't think a degree means everything.

It is one form of education. But also, being a life-long learner is education. For example, bush has a MBA and he's a total idiot.

[SPKrazy]

10. Yes, Our "Business pResident"

is a total fraud

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[Kerrytravelers]

12. Isn't it just sad. I have a MPW (Master's of Professional Writing), with no

brain for numbers at all and even I can see the fallacy in our "great economy."

[Writer]

14. Yes, and a degree likley doesn't mean as much now than it ever has.

In Bush's case, he got in due to legacy and connections. There is no doubt about that. He likely wasn't qualified for either of his ivys, frankly.

But today I believe so many universities have discovered the economic potential of offering graduate degrees that many, many more are earning them than before. Couple that with a weakened, globalized job market, and it's somewhat common now in many professional sectors to encounter someone with a Master's. Especially MBA's which you can now acquire from any fly-by-night institution and are now so ubiquitous that the average starting salary for one is less than before. (I don't want to knock DU'ers with MBA's - I have part of one, myself!)

The problem is we are in D-E-B-T up to our eyeballs and have less means to pay back that debt. Ask anyone with an MSW.

[SPKrazy]

17. Yeah, Ask Me!

I'll tell ya!

we're in debt up to our eyeballs

and we won't get it paid off before we start another war somewhere I'm certain of it!

:evilfrown:

[Writer]

18. Hey, Southpaw...

I'm sorry to hear that. :(

I hope it gets better for you, and doesn't necessitate another senseless war.

[SPKrazy]

19. Well I Meant Our Country's Debt

but personal finances could always be better too!

I hope it doesn't take another war, but war seems to be the way these neocons make their money investing on both sides of a conflict.

:mad:

[FedUpWithIt All]

8. 9th grade education....

:hi:


Oh well...

[chknltl]

69. Huh?? Could've fooled me....you don't sound like a freeper.....

Oh, right...most freepers don't get past the 5th grade. Welcome to the DU FedUpWithIt All :hug: :grouphug: :hi: :toast:

[Ariana Celeste]

108. 10th here.

Well, I had to repeat my sophomore year a couple of times. Sigh. :hi:

[FedUpWithIt All]

113. ...

:hi:

Eventually i got my GED but yepper, ninth grade. Woohooo. :P

::sigh indeed: lol Big :hug: to you!

[SPKrazy]

9. Masters Here

MSW to be exact.

Whoopie! :sarcasm: (edited to add)

:hi:

[FedUpWithIt All]

40. LOL

:hi:

[huskerlaw]

11. BA, MLS, JD...

I'm overeducated. ;)

[SPKrazy]

16. But Ya Got That Spirit!

Good to see ya!

:hi:

[huskerlaw]

20. That's cuz 2 of the 3

came from the Land o' the Husker! ;)

[SPKrazy]

21. Yeah Yeah Yeah!

What's an MLS

I keep thinking Major League Soccer! I know that's not right.

:rofl: :rofl:

Masters of ....?

[huskerlaw]

22. Major League Soccer

:spray:

Masters of Library Science. I got that one from the University of Missouri-Columbia, without ever having to step foot in the state of Misery. Thankfully.

[SPKrazy]

52. Gotcha!

Library Science and law, good combo?

I have a friend who got a Masters in Public admin and a JD

she practices law, don't know that the MPA helped anything, but maybe someday!

:hi:

[huskerlaw]

53. It is a good combo...

if you want to work in a law school library!

There aren't many people willing to get the dual degrees and there are a lot of librarians retiring. Which means the job market is WIDE open. There are far more jobs than there are applicants (how's that for a rarety?).

:hi:

[ulysses]

23. just finished the first semester

of work towards my masters in behavior & learning disorders.

[RetroLounge]

24. Master's Degree

MA in English / Creative Writing...

:hi:

RL

[Left Is Write]

25. I suppose I should be embarrassed among the general DU population.

I have some college, but no college degree. I have a certification in radio broadcasting from a dorky trade school.

My education has largely been through life experiences, work experiences, and "independent study" (fancy lingo for reading lots of books, magazines, and other publications).

[billyskank]

28. Nope

Formal education isn't a measure of worth. :hi:

[Left Is Write]

29. No, I know.

But some people use it as a measure of intelligence and knowledge (I'm not saying anyone on this thread does so; I've just encountered it before).

[Writer]

32. That's because we are preached to since elementary school...

that degree = money. And because in our society we equate money with worth, we are mistaken to believe that degree = worth. It's an errant syllogism.

[BarenakedLady]

43. Same here

And I wouldn't have even mentioned it if you didn't. :blush:

[SPKrazy]

76. Why Be Embarrassed?

a sheepskin (diploma) is just a piece of paper

real life is more education than getting that is

[reyd reid reed]

79. It is just a document...

it says next to nothing about how much you've actually learned. But we're taught that in order to be successful, we should have it. To qualify for this job or that, we should have it. To be any good at anything at all, we should have it.

It's bullshit, but it's pounded into our brains from the time we're little. We can rationalize it but underneath, we're still...I don't know if 'embarrassed' is the right word, but there's a stigma attached to the lack of a degree.

"I'd be good at that job."

"So why don't you send in your resume?"

"Because I don't have a degree."

Sad thing is, the lack of a degree really does make a difference. There are quite a few things that I'm fully capable of doing and would be good at...but without that degree I won't even be considered for the job.

:shrug:

[SPKrazy]

81. That's True, But I'd Hire You

in a heartbeat!

:pals:

[reyd reid reed]

84. Awwwwww....

:pals::hug::pals:

[SPKrazy]

85. One Can Tell These Things

you are a smart cookie

;-) :pals:

[Left Is Write]

86. It's a piece of paper I'd like to have, for lots of reasons.

[BarenakedLady]

89. So would I

:(

[Maine-ah]

92. yep me too.

high school graduate. Couldn't afford college. Hubbie has a couple of years, but no degree.

[SPKrazy]

105. It's Not Impossible To Do BNL

where there's a will there is a way.

I know you are a bright person who would have no problem doing it given the opportunity to do that.


:pals:

[SPKrazy]

104. Yes, But No Need To Be Embarrassed

and I bet there's a way to get it

:pals:

[unsavedtrash]

26. working on my master's degree

[billyskank]

27. Batchelor's degree, physics

In the UK that means a 3-year course at university after leaving school at 18.

[Writer]

30. Three years for a Bachelor's?

Is that standard for most undergraduate degrees?

[billyskank]

31. I'd say all British bachelors' degrees last three years.

A fourth year usually makes it a master's.

[Writer]

34. That's interesting

So far, I have six years of school under my belt and hold a BS and an MA. For my PhD, it would be another four years. I wonder if that's systemic or economic? (AKA schools make more money by requiring more time at the university.)

[Q3JR4]

122. Lucky.

I got my B.S. in physics and it took me six years.

That's how it goes sometimes though.

[Kat45]

33. Master's degree in journalism

Sadly, it's never done me any good in the job market.

[Writer]

35. From which school, if I may ask?

[Kat45]

55. Boston University College of Communication

Do you have a journalism degree too?

[Writer]

56. No...

I have a BS in Radio-TV-Fim and an MA in Mass Comm.

I ask because my MA was technically in the J-school, and I know journalism has become an incredibly popular major to choose, as of late.

[Kat45]

62. I think journalism became a popular degree after Watergate.

Everyone wanted to be Woodward and Bernstein. Made for too much competition to get jobs in the field; makes me wonder how the standards in the profession have sunk as low as they now seem to be. Maybe because the journalism outlets have been swallowed up by mega-corporations who only care about the bottom line, rather than performing the service of keeping people informed as to what is actually going on in the world.

Where did you study Mass Comm?

[Writer]

64. My BS is from UT - Austin

My MA is from CU-Boulder.

From what my prof's told me, there's been yet another resurgence in journalism majors because of the press failures preceding the Iraq War.

[Kat45]

67. I'm glad to hear that more people are noticing the press failures,

particularly young people.

[Kerrytravelers]

93. My BA is in Journalism.

I went to J-School at USC. Most of the professors there were telling us that is we wanted to do actual reporting, we should either go overseas after graduation, or work for a foreign press here in the states. American journalism is basically dead. So, congratulations on your graduation and good luck!

[MrCoffee]

36. JD, so i voted for doctorate. it says so in the name!

[dropkickpa]

37. Associate's

In Veterinary Technology. Though, given what I actually do, I should be earning buckets more!!

[sir_captain]

38. Currently working on my MD

We'll see how the 9 exams I've taken over the past 5 days went to see if I'll still be working on it in January. ;-)

[ForrestGump]

39. PhD (Piled Higher and Deeper)

And, anticipating your potential question, I was actually on the fast track to be a hot shot in my field but my personal life (my wife, specifically) fell apart and I needed a hiatus, that by now may have taken me off that fast track forever. I just walked away from it all. I was burned out on academia, anyway, and now have a very narrow range of jobs in my 'primary' career field that I'd be interested in. I've got to do what makes me happy, not just what I'm qualified for and have at least a chance of securing. In the meantime, I'm (mostly) enjoying and benefiting from my 'break'....I really, really needed (after most of my life knowing what I wanted to do and working toward it) some time without a real plan, some time just to have no particularly well-mapped goal, career-wise.

But, contrary, to what my Beverly-Hills-ethnocentric in-laws would hold, my formal education was not wasted. No education ever is and, besides, (i) I will likely return to that field at least part-time (as it is, I've got a book slated to write on my specialist research topic) and (ii) the experience with communication (I gave a lot of talks and other forms of communication with specialist and nonspecialist audiences, and became well-known for my abilities in doing so), self-promotion, and other aspects of my work have direct application to what I'm doing now and probably everything else I ever will do.

The PhD is an endurance contest more than it is anything else, and I made it through. I wouldn't trade some of it -- especially the places I went and the things I saw and experienced while conducting my PhD (and beyond) research -- for anything, as worn down as I was by the time I finished the degree.

[Call Me Wesley]

42. I guess you weren't taking Philosophy then? :(

I wouldn't trade some of it -- especially the places I went and the things I saw and experienced while conducting my PhD (and beyond) research ...

That's just not fair.

:hi:

[ForrestGump]

111. Said it right on that there piece of paper they give me...

Doctor of Philosophizin'' :D

[deucemagnet]

45. I'm going through the same thing!

I wonder how common it is for a PhD to burn out and want to walk away for a year or two?

[Writer]

47. Are you guys feeling a burnout post-dissertation and graduation?

Or before completing?

[deucemagnet]

49. For me, it was post-graduation. n/t

[ForrestGump]

114. For me it was post-postdoc

Following a PhD with two or three two-to-three-year-long postdocs is typical, these days, in my field.

I did start to lag toward the end of my internment in grad school (not the field work, but everything else), much of which was probably the result of my adviser going off the deep end and also of finding myself (a few others were in a similar situation) in the middle of a departmental split that pitted faculty in one subfield against those in another, with some of them using each others grad students as pawns in the silly academic playground politics that ensured. All of that is also one reason why I so totally burned out on academia as a job setting.

My walking away from my primary career (for however long it turns out to be) was partly the result of further personal politics and other negativity among some of the silverbacks who ran the facility I was with but was mostly -- overwhelmingly so -- the result of my wife's behavior and to a lesser extent of related aspects of the location I was in. I wouldn't say it was her fault but, really, it actually was...maybe it was a good thing, in the end.

[ForrestGump]

112. Probably not uncommon

even for those who are on a decent career track.

Better sooner than later, though, huh? :-)

Good luck!!

[InvisibleTouch]

66. I seem to recall you are/were in marine biology? n/t

[ForrestGump]

115. Something like that

I'm too easy to ID to say anything more about that... :D

[InvisibleTouch]

123. I can understand that.

Biology/geology/paleo/herpetology here. But that was in my "college days." Now it's all self-study. :)

[Starbucks Anarchist]

41. College degree.

[Lyric]

46. Didn't finish high school.

And still haven't gotten my GED. It's a sorry state of affairs for the girl who scored 1490 on the PSAT, was an AP student, in the gifted program, and was a co-editor of the school's literary magazine. :(

As soon as things aren't so nuts, I'll get the GED done and go to college. Right now life is crazy enough with ThinkBlue1966 in college as a non-trad student. If I go to college now, my six-year old is going to be stuck in daycare WAY too much.

[Little Wing]

48. I refuse to be lumped in with the Associates Degree riff raff

:hide:

[YankeyMCC]

50. Every time I see this poll at DU

I wish I could compare it to an exact same poll at that other site that starts with "F".

;)

[Writer]

51. LOL

That would indeed be interesting. LOL.

[chknltl]

70. Might be listed under "poles" over in freepville

Has anyone ever suggested spell-check over there or are we leaving that one alone for the additional entertainment value?

[GOPisEvil]

54. I have a B.S. and a Paralegal Certificate.

:hi:

[GalleryGod]

124. Dave !!!! Happy Christmas !!!!!

[femmocrat]

57. Master's plus. Never finished the doctorate.

[InvisibleTouch]

65. Yeah, same here...

...I came to realize there were other things I wanted in life. Am not using any of my 3 undergrad and graduate degrees at the moment, at least not in the business sense, but I'm happy to have had that educational background. And happier still to go my own way and do my own thing.

[u4ic]

58. 3 yrs of a BFA

plus another diploma from a community college.

[DrDan]

60. Ph.D. here

[gr8dane_daddy]

61. Finished my MBA in '04 in Operations Management

Finished my BS in Applied Physics way back in '93.

Currently looking to work on a PhD starting in '08.

[Redstone]

63. Never made it to college. Except to visit for the purpose of chasing girls.

Redstone

[RetroLounge]

90. A man after my own heart!

:hi:

RL

[Manifestor_of_Light]

68. overeducated and unemployed for some years

A.A.S. in Court Reporting from a community college. Did this job for 20 years until I got completely burned out, from nasty lawyers, backstabbing judges and the occasional nutty pro se litigant. Was burned out before I was forty years of age. Only degree I got that was good for anything. My mom had made me take typing my senior year in high school and I had had 12 years of piano lessons by then, so I was perfect for this job. Graduated with straight A's.

B.A. in Biology. Was an art major and music major for a while but got science degree due to parental pressure. They didn't think liberal arts, or god forbid, fine arts, was a REAL degree. Never used it.

Dad was a lawyer. So I decided within a year of finishing the BA to start law school. Worked at the courthouse and went to law school at night which took five years, and earned Juris Doctor. Law school is 90 semester hours of pure difficult hell. Looked for a good paralegal job with no luck, after I took off about five years after I burned out on court reporting. Turns out they want recent experience in the law, and the law doesn't change that much.

Looked for a job the last year and a half, and got one interview and no job. Couldn't find anything temporary either. Fell out of middle class like millions of us. Always felt like an outsider, even though I got acquainted with as many people as possible in law school. Don't know if it was sex or money that kept me from being an insider. Never had a mentor, we were all competitive. Decided I was thrown on the scrap heap due to age (51). Now I'm calling it early retirement.

Spent 12 years in college, thinking I could use an education to get a really good paralegal job in the legal field. Didn't happen. They keep saying the legal field is growing. I don't believe it, or else they don't want to pay anything.

The farce of our leaders saying that Americans can get jobs if they only go back to school, is a lie. That's not the problem. The problem is the upper class destroying the middle class. If there is no middle class to buy stuff, the economy screeches to a halt.

[Writer]

71. Overeducated and unemployed...

that's me at the moment, too. :hi:

Also: there are fewer and fewer "middle class" jobs now.

[billyskank]

88. Has the utilitarian view of education always prevailed in America?

It is getting like that in Britain too nowadays: everybody thinks you go to university so that you can get a good job. For that reason, nobody does physics (for example) because the career path is not clear, whilst all the media studies courses are oversubscribed.

It was not ever thus. Not too long ago education was viewed as a good in its own right, and not valued for the economic premium it may (or may not) have conferred. That, of course, was a different time, when approximately 10% of the population went on to study at university.

It was, of course, elitist. Not that I personally see anything wrong with elitism in principle. Nowadays the government has a vision of 50% of the population going on to university, and it is quite close to achieving it: I think the figure is something like 40% although many drop out after the first year.

The trouble is that the government is economically illiterate. Why does it think that the demand for graduates will increase as does the supply? Of course it doesn't. One view holds that the graduate's degree is devalued as a result, and maybe to a certain extent this is happening, but the result is segmented. What actually happens is that degrees get separated into "good" degrees and "bad" ones. Many graduates find themselves saddled with debt and a worthless degree. They may as well not have bothered.

[Writer]

100. Hey, billyskank...

I don't want to represent the opinion of 300 million rather diverse individuals, but here is my own humble take on this:

I think the utilitarian view of education is a twentieth century, post-agricultural and post-industrial phenomenon here in the US. Especially in the second half of the twentieth century Americans abandoned the principle of "making things," leaving manual labor to Mexico and Southeast Asia. Instead, the value of the white collar job became paramount, hence the growth in popularity of JD's and MBA's.

So education has grown much more utilitarian. American students identify a college education with increased earning potential. In fact, we are preached this from elementary school onward: if you go to college, you will earn more. Money is our language of the day, and going to college is now pretty much an engendered trait in every class above the lower class.

The utilitarianism, however, hasn't stopped individuals form majoring in English or in history, but those students always encounter the question, "So, WHAT do you plan to do with THAT?" :eyes:

The rates of those attending two and four-year universities also stands at around 40%. Even in the incredibly non-scientific poll above you can see how high the college attendance rates are in this country. Now that the employee market has saturated with degreed job seekers, those not able to find work are returning to school for their Master's at higher and higher rates (and more debt). So soon, in my opinion, the rate of Master's degrees in the US job population will become saturated. At that point, then, many of us will be stuffed ;)

What I think we're also witnessing is yet another example of the stripping down of humanities by capitalism. Many states since the 1990's have made dramatic cuts in funding for higher education, prompting those universities to dramatically raise their tuition to compensate. In turn, students attending college acquire a heavy amount of debt (they didn't tell us about THAT when we were in elementary school) that they are less able to pay because of the stagnation of middle class jobs in the country. So no longer are these institutions run for education's sake, but run for profit's sake.

So that's my primer on the state of higher education in the US.

On edit: Science and engineering degrees are still fairly honored here. My brother-in-law, for instance, is a rocket scientist for JPL at NASA. (Although he needed to acquire his PhD for that.) My husband has been (and will again) be paid well as a computer scientist, sans Master's or Doctorate (although I'm encouraging him to get his Master's... want to guess why? :eyes:)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

116. Yes

I would vote for a broad liberal arts education, for lifelong appreciation of books and culture, and also some sort of utilitarian skill. Of course you can get utilitarian skills at a vocational two year junior college. That was the only degree I got that got me jobs. That and a semester of typing in high school.

Knowing that the Renaissance started with the egg-shaped Florence Cathedral dome and the competition between Brunelleschi and Ghiberti to design the Baptistry doors is fun, but it won't do much as far as getting me a job. I went to a true four-year liberal arts university; they only offered athletic scholarships in tennis. So much so that I got a B.A. in Biology because they did not offer a B.S. I remember an interviewer snarling at me over that one; I informed him my school did not offer a B.S. degree at that time in that major. The fact that it was the best pre-med school in the state would have meant nothing to him.

A lot of the problem in the U.S. is that the companies are full of cheap-think. They refuse to invest in R & D. The Congress cuts off funding for NASA and the supercollider, and other projects that require long term thinking and planning. So lots of scientists are unemployed, unless you are in the oil business. Many former oil business engineers have left because it's a roller coaster. No job security and they are always whining about how expensive the labor is, even if they are marking up services three or four times. The U.S. does not subsidize the arts, so you can't be assured of an audience or any income if you are in the arts. Generally oil money will subsidize the symphony in places like Houston, and they attempt to buy good taste, and are basically tacky. Houston has grown up a lot in that respect.

Even a law degree doesn't guarantee any sort of employment that I can see, such as an office underling, so I guess learning slash and burn accounting is the ticket to a job.

[MikeH]

72. Master's degree

M.S. in Computer Science, 1979
B.A. in Mathematics, 1972

Both from San Diego State University

I had a good job for many years, into the late 1990's, until I was part of a large layoff.

Since then I have been doing consulting work, off and on.

[Dastard Stepchild]

73. Masters completed... PhD student currently...

Looking to be a postdoc after that. It will never, EVER end. :)

[Manifestor_of_Light]

117. T-shirt I saw at Rice University

"Graduate Studies: It's Not Just a Job, It's an Indenture"

playing off an Army commercial slogan of the time.

:rofl:

A/K/A "college bum" or "professional student".

[Dastard Stepchild]

119. I can completely appreciate the humor of that shirt :)

It does get to a point where I simply have to say "STOP." I keep telling myself that, after the postdoc, I will slowly back away from the syllabi.

Of course, not really, though, since the whole reason I am doing the PhD is because I love academia and want to stay in it. :)

[chknltl]

74. BA well almost

I am 5 credits shy of a BA in Anthropology. I confess that I have almost double the credits required in Anth. with plenty of 500 level classes but I lack one stinkin' history GUR! Knowing me as I do, that class would not have made a difference. At 52 my only incentive for going back to school would be to "check out them college chicks".

well seeing as how nobody else is likely to see this post I'll do it to myself: :spank: there happy now?

[reyd reid reed]

75. Never made it to college...

:shrug:

[Broken_Hero]

77. It happens...

But I'm sure you turned out just fine....:D

[reyd reid reed]

78. I like to think so...

my kids aren't ashamed of me and I can even write a decent sentence. Actually, I can write better than a 'decent' sentence. I'm damn good at it. The problem lies with the numb-fucks who won't take you seriously unless you've got that piece of vellum. I can get an agent's attention with the proposal and the work itself, then lose him when we hit the 'credentials' portion of the program.

I have better luck with fiction, but non-fic pays more and has a larger market.

:shrug:

That's okay, though. If at first you don't succeed and all that happy crap.

[Broken_Hero]

80. Here's a big secret...

It doesn't matter if you got that piece of paper either...you could still be out on the street doing a meager job. I got a Social Work degree, and I'm not using it at all....and here, I thought once I got my piece of paper, the job market would look a bit brighter, and I was taught a very sore lesson. It doesn't matter really, I see underqualified people getting hired every day, because the boss is their friend/relative or some nonsense...but its nice having that piece of paper though...looks all shiny hanging on my wall...

I say go for fiction for right now...it might open up some oppurtunities down the road, who knows....

btw, some of the smartest people I've known, never went to college either....

[reyd reid reed]

82. I've got some fiction out there...

but it pays beans. I've got at least two hundred shorts on my hard drive, and I've been published quite a few times. And I've made a grand total of 150.00 on my fiction.

I've got a couple of non-fic projects that I'd like to sell and I think would do well -- at least earn out the advances -- but without the credentials....

They always want to know what my degree is in.

Idiots. My 'degree' is in female.

[Broken_Hero]

83. .....

:spray: My degree is in Female...thats a good one, I gotta tell my wife about that one...:D

[RetroLounge]

91. "My 'degree' is in female."

What a coincidence...

I've done research on that exact topic...

:D

RL

[billyskank]

94. I haven't

it is a great mystery to me

[RetroLounge]

97. Research does not equal Knowledge

We are in the same boat my friend, adrift in a sea of females with no life preserver...

:9

RL

[Lowell]

87. BS in Linguistics

Studied Russian, German and Korean as well. French was spoken at home when I was growing up. I never got to use the degree, but I am pretty comfortable traveling anywhere.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

95. J.D., not using it right now.

[MrCoffee]

103. there should be a "JD but not using it right now" forum

i'd be there in a heartbeat.

[bigwillq]

96. B.A. (nt)

[plcdude]

98. Still learning

haven't leveled out yet. After four degrees, I have learned that I need to learn more from life and from those around me.

[tinfoil tiaras]

99. Currently in HS

sadly.

[deepthought42]

101. Associate's and Bachelor's...

A.A. in General Studies (due to a a glitch (my bad, took one wrong class)) w/a concentration in Music, B.A. in Music History, which is a worthless piece of shit now...(Thanks R-MWC!) *gives alma mater the middle finger* :rant:

[momophile]

102. Masters here

not using it yet but I'm at home with the babe.

[LostInAnomie]

106. Master's

But it's a MAT so it doesn't really count. :evilgrin:

I really feel that the market is becoming so over-saturated with over-educated people that soon many degrees and diplomas will be meaningless. In a few years a Master's will be worth about as much as a bachelors was 30 years ago. A Bachelor's will be worth about as much as a HS diploma, and a HS diploma will be worth about as much as an 8th grade graduation certificate. Eventually, the investment in time and resources to get a degree that matters will become so prohibitive that only the wealthy will have access to them.

[Omphaloskepsis]

107. About six months from my B.S. in Economics.

[DeposeTheBoyKing]

109. JD (Juris Doctor)

Me a doctor? GET OUT!

[Porcupine]

110. NOTA- Perpetual student,,,,,,5+ years college, no degree.

Love being educated, hate schooling. They are NOT the same.

[michreject]

118. Bachelor's

I'm 54 and retired.:)

[Orsino]

120. Some graduate "work"...

...in frankly bogus education courses while I taught high school.

[Q3JR4]

121. Yeah baby, I'm a college graduate as of last Friday.