I graduated with an information systems degree about a decade ago, and no employer has ever given me any amount of money for that degree. I have never gotten a bonus or higher pay because of it. Now, I’m seeing so many videos on TikTok and reels lately of students who graduated with a computer science degree costing them upwards of 90K, And they are all packed any huge room with like 20 employers who are hiring for like 300 jobs but there’s like thousands of them…
So basically if you want a digital piece of paper that says you’re “educated”, you can pay $40000 > $350,000. But you’ll never get any amount of money for it from employers, it won’t help you find a job. It’s a myth
It’s more of a minimum requirement for many jobs. It sucks, but I think you’re viewing it wrong. It’s not going to get you anything except maybe keep your resume out of the trash.
I have a 4 year degree and it has never advantaged me, ever. These days you need a perfect resume to even get a call. Even then you’re treated like an expendable henchman in a crime syndicate.
You didn’t learn anything at school?
I went to an engineering school, switched majors to biochemistry, and I work an IT job now. My education was invaluable despite being overwhelmingly inapplicable to my current field of work. I learned so much and was exposed to so many people of a similar mindset. Easily one of the most important things I’ve done in life, just from a life experience standpoint.
What advantage do you expect it to give you aside from what you learned and showing you can complete a bachelor’s program?
Yes, let’s not confuse having a degree with getting an education.
Have to chime in. I never completed my CS degree because it got too expensive, and I have natural aptitude for computers. I ended up having to work to survive before I could even get the degree. Literally if I hadn’t taken loans at the time I would have been on the streets. I’m sure it’s harder now than when I did it in 2006.
The degree may have kept me from better jobs, but I kept applying out of my league because I have experience (work) and knowledge (professional and self-taught) which you can’t fake. Someone eventually gave me a chance. Now I work there full time with benefits and I still never finished my degree. It was years of struggling. I even re-trained in medicine at the time and still had trouble getting PAID.
So my original like 40ishK is now 60K, and no degree. Cool! Right? That was only for 2-3 years of school. If it had actually been affordable instead of a pig slaughter for cash, I would have got the degree.
Hindsight, it was good experience learning in college. Not worth the cost though. Especially if you can’t finish. The majority of the money went to tuition, required multi-$100 books, gym fees (forced to every student), parking fee which didn’t guarantee parking availability, and many many other nickel-dime expenses they strong arm students over (fees). I didn’t have time to work as a full time student so whatever was left, went to rent. Food. Electric.
It’s very hard to do this without support from family, and inflation and everything else is worse today. So yeah.
Learn from my experiences if you can. Maybe it can all be worth it for me, if someone does just that. Bless you all and your journeys.