College...

[hemmy]

Wish I would have went to school in California, Malibu is a great city.

Would have had to get a loan though, vs paid for tuition @ ksu

[Kat Kid]

ut is fantastic but waaaaaay intimidating.  get a fashion consultant before heading down.

[pwrcat1]

Florida State.

Not a bad campus there. 

Love it. 

[cas]

get a fashion consultant before heading down.

It is kinda distrubing how well dressed I am.

[kougar24]

if your grades/scores are good enough and the money is available, go to an ivy, or one of the faux ivy schools (but a real faux ivy, not just some tard school that represents itself as almost ivy).  seriously, it will make a huge difference in your life.

"I went to a lil' place called Cornell. Ever heard of it?"

[Skycat]

Almost went to Carnegie Mellon.  But decided that I didn't want to go to college in Pittsburgh.

[Rick Daris]

I used to really like illinois for some reason. think it had to do w/ their bball team of gill, bardo, anderson, etc. but going out of state was never an option though (too expensive). i did go to cloud county for one glorious year. 

[WillieWannabe]

I used to really like illinois for some reason. think it had to do w/ their bball team of gill, bardo, anderson, etc. but going out of state was never an option though (too expensive). i did go to cloud county for one glorious year. 

Hang out at "The Rock" a lot?

[Rick Daris]

I used to really like illinois for some reason. think it had to do w/ their bball team of gill, bardo, anderson, etc. but going out of state was never an option though (too expensive). i did go to cloud county for one glorious year. 

Hang out at "The Rock" a lot?

you better believe it!!! 

[LimestoneOutcropping]

I used to really like illinois for some reason. think it had to do w/ their bball team of gill, bardo, anderson, etc. but going out of state was never an option though (too expensive). i did go to cloud county for one glorious year. 

Hang out at "The Rock" a lot?

That's a pretty stupid question.

[AzCat]

Rational advice found in this thread:

Free school is the best school.  So if that means going the juco route, that's cool.  (Just make sure you're out on your own..nobody likes living with Mom and Dad while going to school.)
After that, cheap school is the best school.

QFT, particularly in that an undergraduate degree these days is moderately less impressive than a high school diploma was a few decades ago.  Thus if you plan to stop with an undergrad degree incur as little debt as possible while realizing that your degree is going to be next to worthless or recognize that:

just a handful of schools that you could argue are worth the additional cost over an in state public.

Specifically:

if your grades/scores are good enough and the money is available, go to an ivy, or one of the faux ivy schools (but a real faux ivy, not just some tard school that represents itself as almost ivy).  seriously, it will make a huge difference in your life.

Also if you're one of the very very rare college bound kids who knows exactly what they want to do and will never consider changing your major it might be worthwhile to consider prominent programs at non-prominent institutions.  But since most people change their majors a few times it can be dicey to choose a poor institution based on a good department that's probably not where you'll be by the time you graduate anyway.

Also very rational but not a primary concern:

Though the best advice is go to school where you want to live.  Employers typically recruit near by schools.  Unless you want to major in engineering, pre-med, accounting or some other hard science, choose a school near where you want to live some day.

That matters for the first job, maybe the second (depending on the tenure of the first) but after that either you'll: have accumulated decent track record, have washed out of your profession, or you'll be doing your own thing.  It's absolutely true that it'll be easier to find your first gig close to your college but it's far from impossible to do it far away, it just takes a bit more effort. 

[Panjandrum]

Virginia, Duke, North Carolina, UCLA, or UC-San Diego.

I love Charlottesville, the Triange, and San Diego.  UCLA is an absolutely mesmerizingly beautiful campus, so I'd love to spend four years there.

Ultimately, had I not met my wife, I'd be living in one of those three areas.

I was going to apply to Duke in high school, but my Dad said, "If you go in-state, we'll pay your tuition because we have savings bonds set aside for your education."  I said, "Sold."

[Leyton]

Coming out of HS, almost went to Illinois but was not big on ridic. tuition or incredibly annoying people from Chicago suburbs who would have surrounded me there (one dude used the term "clusterfrack" to describe roughly 80 different things during my visit) on the boring campus in the small town surrounded by corn fields.  Was bitterly disappointed to find that the drug of choice was alcohol - very weak and unadventurous form of youthful rebellion.  Felt like I was in the middle of an exceptionally bad Roseanne episode.

Almost transferred to UT after my freshman year at KSU. 

Grad school - went to UW (first winter in Seattle had me in a physiological well - it's called S.A.D.S.). UW campus is an architectural travesty (undergraduate library = UGLY) redeemed only slightly by the gorgeous cherry trees on the N side of campus.  Amazing foresight building a massive plaza in the middle of campus using the slickest bricks known to man given that it rains nearly every day during the fall/winter/spring.  I didn't enjoy Seattle much.  It's good that Seattle has successful industries.  It's bad (for Seattle) that 1/3 of Seattle's creative class has migrated to Portland because they couldn't outbid Microsoft employees and people in the biomedical field for housing.  Seattle has amazing water recreation options, though, and stunning views of the Cascades/Olympics (not just Mt. Rainier) on the rare clear days.

I should have gone to Michigan or UCSB ( ) for grad school.  Still don't know why I didn't go to UCSB.  Campus is a weird mixture of trailers/modular buildings (not joking), stunning classical architecture - not the best, but hey...it's on the fracking Pacific Ocean and right next to a nice little airport.  Santa Barbara is expensive but soooooo beautiful and...sunny.  People live the good life at UCSB, man.

[hemmy]

Undergrad degrees are not worthless, just don't do a retarded major

[ArchE_Cat]

Undergrad degrees are not worthless, just don't do a retarded major

exactly

[kougar24]

an undergraduate degree these days is moderately less impressive than a high school diploma was a few decades ago.

Love ya Az, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's ridiculous in the vast majority of cases.

[AzCat]

an undergraduate degree these days is moderately less impressive than a high school diploma was a few decades ago.

Love ya Az, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's ridiculous in the vast majority of cases.

Actually koug I think it's more the rule than the exception.  Most majors are worthless or almost worthless and even in the solid ones (e.g., engineering & the hard sciences) there are so many folks running around with graduate degrees that the traditional undergrad degree has been somewhat devalued. 

[Catmatt]

Dude, I have a Master's Degree and am not using it, but the biggest things I got from college were learning to discipline myself, stay focused on a job, and work with others.  Unless you know exactly what you want to do, go to college for the experience of being in college.

My story ... When I was an undergrad at Emporia State, the girl-to-guy was calculated at 2.2:1.  Back in those days, SINGLE was an acronym for Stay Intoxicated Nightly Get Laid Everyday. 

ESU did not prepare me for grad school at KSU, where the girl-to-guy ratio was reversed at 1:2.  I did not develop the proper skills for getting laid during the babe scarcity of KSU after having spent 4 years in a babe abundance at ESU. 

So there's that to think about.

[ArchE_Cat]

an undergraduate degree these days is moderately less impressive than a high school diploma was a few decades ago.

Love ya Az, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's ridiculous in the vast majority of cases.

Actually koug I think it's more the rule than the exception.  Most majors are worthless or almost worthless and even in the solid ones (e.g., engineering & the hard sciences) there are so many folks running around with graduate degrees that the traditional undergrad degree has been somewhat devalued. 

Still depends on the engineering degree (which discipline and area emphasis) and what school it came from. I would agree w/ you that many 4-year engineering degrees have become devalued, but not all. It also depends on what you want to do with that degree.

[waks]

Dude, I have a Master's Degree and am not using it, but the biggest things I got from college were learning to discipline myself, stay focused on a job, and work with others.  Unless you know exactly what you want to do, go to college for the experience of being in college.

My story ... When I was an undergrad at Emporia State, the girl-to-guy was calculated at 2.2:1.  Back in those days, SINGLE was an acronym for Stay Intoxicated Nightly Get Laid Everyday. 

ESU did not prepare me for grad school at KSU, where the girl-to-guy ratio was reversed at 1:2.  I did not develop the proper skills for getting laid during the babe scarcity of KSU after having spent 4 years in a babe abundance at ESU. 

So there's that to think about.

I can only imagine what the babes at Emporia State are like. 

[Catmatt]

Dude, I have a Master's Degree and am not using it, but the biggest things I got from college were learning to discipline myself, stay focused on a job, and work with others.  Unless you know exactly what you want to do, go to college for the experience of being in college.

My story ... When I was an undergrad at Emporia State, the girl-to-guy was calculated at 2.2:1.  Back in those days, SINGLE was an acronym for Stay Intoxicated Nightly Get Laid Everyday. 

ESU did not prepare me for grad school at KSU, where the girl-to-guy ratio was reversed at 1:2.  I did not develop the proper skills for getting laid during the babe scarcity of KSU after having spent 4 years in a babe abundance at ESU. 

So there's that to think about.

I can only imagine what the babes at Emporia State are like. 

I'll scan some pictures from my yearbook to show you, amigo.

[waks]

I'll believe it if it's true. I'm just skeptical because it's not like K-State is bursting with babes. It would seem to be even less likely that Emporia State was.

[kougar24]

I'll believe it if it's true. I'm just skeptical because it's not like K-State is bursting with babes. It would seem to be even less likely that Emporia State was.

Weren't they a prominent education college back then? That would help explain the female abundance.

[cireksu]

Dude, I have a Master's Degree and am not using it, but the biggest things I got from college were learning to discipline myself, stay focused on a job, and work with others.  Unless you know exactly what you want to do, go to college for the experience of being in college.

My story ... When I was an undergrad at Emporia State, the girl-to-guy was calculated at 2.2:1.  Back in those days, SINGLE was an acronym for Stay Intoxicated Nightly Get Laid Everyday. 

ESU did not prepare me for grad school at KSU, where the girl-to-guy ratio was reversed at 1:2.  I did not develop the proper skills for getting laid during the babe scarcity of KSU after having spent 4 years in a babe abundance at ESU. 

So there's that to think about.

I can only imagine what the babes at Emporia State are like. 

I'll scan some pictures from my yearbook to show you, amigo.

will the cow shlt smell come through with the scan?

[hemmy]

an undergraduate degree these days is moderately less impressive than a high school diploma was a few decades ago.

Love ya Az, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that's ridiculous in the vast majority of cases.

Actually koug I think it's more the rule than the exception.  Most majors are worthless or almost worthless and even in the solid ones (e.g., engineering & the hard sciences) there are so many folks running around with graduate degrees that the traditional undergrad degree has been somewhat devalued. 

Still depends on the engineering degree (which discipline and area emphasis) and what school it came from. I would agree w/ you that many 4-year engineering degrees have become devalued, but not all. It also depends on what you want to do with that degree.

In Computer Science (not your "typical" engineering degree) many companies (2) have told me they would rather have someone with their bachelor and let them work, then be without them for a couple years getting your Masters.

In CS tho, going to grad school is good for specializing in diff. areas of computing

[willie83]

Comp Sci very good bachelors degree. If you know linux (or freeBSD) and one of the derivatives of C++ (C#, java ) you will never be out of work for long. Masters is a bit of a waste of time, and especially money, when it comes to programming. I know a lot of very successful programmers that never went to college or have degrees unrelated to programming.

[michigancat]

Most K-Staters view college degrees as freaking vocational certificates.

There are a lot of majors that have a lot of value even if they don't lead to a lot of money.

[kougar24]

Comp Sci very good bachelors degree. If you know linux (or freeBSD) and one of the derivatives of C++ (C#, java ) you will never be out of work for long. Masters is a bit of a waste of time, and especially money, when it comes to programming. I know a lot of very successful programmers that never went to college or have degrees unrelated to programming.

Java is separating itself from C++ rather quickly, at least from what I've seen in my limited time in the workforce.

Besides, the logic you learn in your CS curriculum is the key. Once you have that foundation, you can pick up any language fairly easily.

[Brock Landers]

In the same position you're in cas. 99% sure i wanna go to K-State, but if i had to pick another school it would be Colorado State. Perfect climate, close to skiing, and Ft. Collins is the #1 place to live in the US according to some magazine. also, has alot of the same majors KSU has.

QFT on Colorado State.  Back in high school Brock Landers and another buddy used one of our official college visits to check out Colorado State.  He already knew he was going there and I just wanted a day off from school, so we turned it into a sweet road trip.  Ft. Collins seemed like a really nice town but in the end there was no way to justify the out of state tuition.  I got a good laugh when we ended up pisspounding them in the Holiday Bowl.....although my friend never did pay me the case of Natty Lite we bet onthat game.   

[hemmy]

Comp Sci very good bachelors degree. If you know linux (or freeBSD) and one of the derivatives of C++ (C#, java ) you will never be out of work for long. Masters is a bit of a waste of time, and especially money, when it comes to programming. I know a lot of very successful programmers that never went to college or have degrees unrelated to programming.

Java is separating itself from C++ rather quickly, at least from what I've seen in my limited time in the workforce.

Besides, the logic you learn in your CS curriculum is the key. Once you have that foundation, you can pick up any language fairly easily.

Ya, you could get just a straight programming job without a degree, but they money is mainly in architect, design, managers, etc.