On Thu, 19 May 2005 04:42:26 -0700, Frank Gilliland
wrote:

On Thu, 19 May 2005 06:44:10 -0400, Dave Hall
wrote in :

snip
Dave would know that already if he actually attended college.

Heck, you can earn a college "degree" these days without ever setting
a foot in a classroom.


Sure. Just send a few bucks to a PO box listed in an advertisement in
the back of Rolling Stone magazine.


But 20 years ago, that just wasn't the case.
You had a certain amount of credits that you had to earn, and a
required course curriculum. Yes, it was possible to do it in less than
four years, but that required an overly ambitious fast-paced schedule.
Most people are not up for that.


It depends on the person. For some people, three hours a day in the
lecture halls is mindbogglingly slow. For others the challenge is
overwhelming. The trick is to choose classes each quarter/semester
that make the most efficient use of study time required -outside- the
classroom. And not to waste your time at keggers.

It should be that simple. But you forgot to consider, that not all
courses are offered each semester, pretty much forcing you to do
things "their way". Trying to transfer credits from other schools was
also sometimes problematic. Sometimes they would refuse to give
credit, other times they would only give partial credit. Colleges are
somewhat competitive, and have no incentive to have students give
another school money, and then accept that as credit in their school.
At least that's the way it was 20+ years ago.


Also, some colleges and most Universities offer equivalency tests as
well as credits for prior experience directly related to the field. I
cut down my time by almost a full year by testing out of first-year
electricity courses, math all the way through calculus, and was given
credits for being a radio tech in the USMC.

Yes, I am aware of "testing out" I did similar things, with my
previous tech school credits.


Night school allowed people to avoid many of the "nonsense" courses,
which were unrelated to your major, that the full time day programs
usually required you to take.


Those "nonsense" courses have very legitimate purposes.

Really? I don't think you understand what I refer to as "nonsense".


Suppose your
major is electrical engineering. You need to study economics so you
can do a cost/benefit analysis for a design project, as well as be
able to run a business if the opportunity arises. For the same reason
it's a good idea to study a little business law and accounting. There
is no substitute for good communication skills, -especially- English
composition, and because my objective required strong communication
skills I decided to minor in the field. Along the same lines, a few
courses in humanities and history are also a very good idea since a
lot of current events either revolve around cultural differences and
issues, or require some understanding of the history surrounding the
events. Etc, etc, etc. You pick any course required for a BS and I'll
explain how and why it's related to your field of study.

Ok, then explain to me the necessity of phys-ed courses? Those are the
ones that I was referring to as "nonsense". The examples you gave
above I totally agree with. It's interesting that you'd think I was
referring to them as "nonsense".


Or is it that you don't like the idea of a liberal education because
it's 'liberal'?

A liberal Arts degree is basically useless if making serious money is
one of your goals. Seen on a bumper sticker: "I have a Liberal Arts
degree, Do you want fries with that?"_

Dave
"Sandbagger"