[AXGreg]

I nerver went to a university. I went to CEGEP. Same as college in the states right?

Spec.

[Wezfyowk]

Originally posted by DanS
Did you go to college? Are you happy with your education?

I ask because the US is considered to have excellent colleges, and many other countries are considered to be lagging. But does this perception bear out in actual fact for you personally? The US spends a very high amount on its universities compared to everybody but the Koreans, but does that lead to good educations?

By way of background, my alma mater is ranked about #120 in the US -- i.e., second or third tier. Private, with tuition in the $30k range. I think that I got a good education. Yes and Yes, but then I didnt attend university in America, I just worked there. Although the sample size is limited to 4 universities (1 canadian, 2 swedish, 1 american) I can say that I've been less than impressed with the graduate students in the american universities (who're mostly americans) compared to other countries - especially the level of knowledge and experience when entering grad school.

[urbalatte]

Originally posted by PLATO
Wow! I'm gettin' old!

My last quarter in college I paid $183 in tuition. Yep...college used to be an affordable thing... Well truth be told $183 inflation adjusted since 400BC is quite a bit of cash in todays dollars. I don't care if your professor was Socrates or not thats still a huge bit of coin. (like $9.0+ *10 to the 27th power assuming 3 percent inflation i.e. more than the entire world economies put together)

[portoskins]

Undergrad gave me a chance to grow up and got me a entry pass to better things. But so far as getting a good education? Naw, not really.

At that time, I wanted to be a writer, so I took a lot of writing classes...which took me a least ten years to unlearn. IMHO, a college degree just shows you're willing to eat sh|t for years on end, a quality most employers are looking for in their recruits.

Part of the problem might have been me. I was one of the faceless hoards that finishes high school and goes onto college just because I was out of high school, and once you're out of high school, you're expected to go to college. Big whoop.

Grad school was much better. I went there years later because I wanted to. I had a goal and a reason for being there. I also learn a lot of stuff that was applicable to my later life.

[usadatronourl]

Originally posted by Asher

Huhhhhh? Don't you have this backwards?

Waterloo students are batshit insane. College students are simply dumb. All depends on the program.

I was not part of 'little Hong Kong' at UW and my college program was more than remedial reading.

Did them in that order however, which was backwards.

Btw Asher - You want to talk about batshit insane students... I did a year at Trent. I never saw so many nose rings in my life.

[mbaueee]

There are a number of meanings to the word "college". I can think of at least 6

[nursopoutaras]

That's one of them.

The others are:

subschool of a university (synonym for faculty of engineering etc)
college of physicians, cardinals etc
technical school
at british universities colleges are associations of students within the university. My friend attended Oxford to get his Math PhD and he was in "St. John's College", IIRC
And in the old days, some groups of monks were called "colleges"

[furillo]

Several of those are related, and are similiar to my earlier statement (about their being a college of engineering/business/medicine/etc in my universtity).

JM

[mymnduccete]

btw this thread has motivated me to have a look at some of my photos from uni

[sirmzereigMix]

Originally posted by Kuciwalker
Only three years? Silly English people So we do better degrees in less time and pay substantially less for them as well.

Silly Americans.

[Carol]

Where as the rest of us just got loaded. :beer:

[AngelinaTheElf]

I knew I should have applied for some.

[eduptultyt]

@Neutrino

Subscribed since 2002, you have 3 post!!!

Wow, what a lurker you are...

[MatueHarton]

Thinking back some more to my college days I can remember some of the following. The professor who taught me freshmen chemistry later got a Nobel prize for chemistry, my plate tectonics yracher (a vital part of geology which was only originally thought up in the 1960's) was not the person who originated the theory but she was a grad student under the person who thought up the theory while he was doing his work plus she did most of the work on the geophysics behind what drove plate tectonics, the professor who taught my advanced physics class also later won a Nobel prize, and as a geologist I was powerfully impressed by the number of highly published geologists they had in the department. As an upper classman our classes were just 15-20 students per class and we were studying with some of the industry legends. It was a great school to study at.

I truly believe the University of California is a one of a kind institution.