Your educational level?

[XFILE36]

Are you guys familiar with the Great Courses?

http://www.thegreatcourses.com/

thank you for the link.  After literally recovering from where I live in sticks and bricks, I plan to learn more so this could help.

 

[Lj Unlimited]

After graduating HS, I had no desire to ever set foot in a classroom again. Two years down the road I was offered a tool and die apprenticeship. I have been in the trade ever since. It was one of the best decisions I have ever made. It allowed me a solid middle class life. Twenty years down the road I went to community college and earned an associate in associate in mechanical design. It hasn't really increased my earnings by much, but it got me off the floor. And a little less overtime. Now 30 years into the trade, I cant wait to be out of it.

 

[Gunny]

While convalescing after Vietnam I took two years at a community college and tried to join the Marines Platoon Leader Class but couldn't get a medical waiver. Got the waiver when I reenlisted at my previous rank, Sgt E/5, go figure. I hated college with a passion. Every flower child tried to lecture me or critique me. I don't do critiques well, then or now.

Finished my BA while stationed at Camp Pendleton. Several different courses in linguistics. Many non credit courses to try and keep my mind sharp and aware. Many computer classes in a variety of subjects.

I read many books and have a eclectic taste in reading.

Rob

 

[Florida boondocker]

7th grade Tennessee education, moved out when i was 16 years old

Never had help from anyone, only money I've ever had i worked my azz off to earn

now at 58 years old i have a successful home service related business for the last 10 years with 4 full time employees who i pay a very good  living wage
and teach them the trade.

BTW my crew is all female, been with me from the day i open business

while a good education is great nothing wrong with good old hard work

 

[Gary68]

i haven't been right since the moment i popped out

a student,half way through 7th they wanted to move me to 9th but my dad was in jail and my mom was a crack/meth head and wouldn't sign the papers so i manipulated the system,should of never told me that the final was 1/2 my grade,barely showed up,aced the final,finish with a c+
made it 1/2 way through 10th,new i already has passing grade,skipped the rest,went to one week of 11th but was living in the back of a broken down truck at my parents drug dealer's house and said screw this,out into the world i went

 

[slynne]

I have a BS degree in Economics (Psych minor) which I got when I was 38 years old. I just went to the local University while I worked full time. Because I already had a job in tech, which I fell into quite by accident, after managing a short term residential crisis program for mentally ill adults, I can honestly say that my degree hasn’t helped me much in my career. I probably could have earned more money over the years had I gotten my degree earlier but money isn’t my main motivation. I mostly finished up the degree just so that I wouldn’t be the only person in my family without a college degree but while I was doing that, both of my siblings went to grad school and I just decided that it was ok to be the only person in my family without an advanced degree. That decision was based on my interests. I would have gone for an MSW but if I did, I would have had to take a significant pay cut. The only other advanced degrees I had an interest in were a JD or an MBA, both expensive degrees and demanding. I would have had to take out loans and quit my job if I wanted to go to law school. There is a surplus of both lawyers and MBAs so finding a job, especially as someone in my 40’s, would not necessarily have been guaranteed and I would have had big loans to pay back.  Oh, Cornell has a great Industrial and Labor Relations degree that I would have been interested in but the return on investment in our era of declining unions made me decide not to pursue that one too.

Education is pretty valuable though in its own right. I was exposed to a lot of different ways of thinking while in school. I loved it. And you know what, a good working knowledge of Economics has been a great asset when talking Economics on the internet. It is amazing how ignorant people are on the subject even as they love to talk about it. I am just having a discussion on a neighborhood site about a proposed high rise apartment complex in the town where I live. There are lots of people who think that will raise housing values in town and make our town less affordable when actually this housing development will do the exact opposite as well as help grow our town’s tax base.

One thing I will say though that in terms of jobs, having a degree is less important than social class. In every job I have ever had, everyone always assumed that I had a degree even though I never lied about it on my resume or anything. Other than teenaged jobs, I never even went job hunting until I got my current job. My social network has always gotten good paying jobs for me. One of my friends told me about the crisis program and I worked my up to the management positon. Everyone assumed I had an MSW even though I didn’t and when it was our customers, I just never bothered to correct them unless I was directly asked. Then, the tech job happened when I was venting about how stressful my job was at a party and one of my friends said that she had an entry level job at her company doing technical support and that she thought I could learn the tech stuff and that my experience working with the mentally ill would be a plus. It was. I got it and again worked my up by studying computer science and how things worked on the side even while also attending college.

I got my current job just after I had taken my last class but before the audit for my degree was completed so I left it off my resume. It didn’t matter. Job experience means more than a degree. A LOT more. The only thing is that a lot of jobs require a degree but even then it is just so they can have fewer resumes to consider.

 

[eDJ_]

Well educated grad level with business schooling and trades. 

How did I come by that?   Started working when I was about 8 selling Grit Newspapers. (it's now a magazine)  I did that cause I was too young to get a paper route with the local newspaper.  Later got that paper route,  mowed grass, shoveled snow, and a bunch of other things.  By 14 I got a job in a good sized gas station doing cleanup until later when working as a mechanics assistant.  Got to the point I could do mechanical work and opened my own small garage when in college and and got work farmed to me by my former boss when he was covered. 

Got into driving a night delivery truck and went to College.  Paying as much on my education as I could help supplement it.   Yeah, my folks could have paid the whole thing.  

Worked as a steel worker before getting out of College graduation.   Picked up several trades along the way by this point. 

Later after Grad school where I studied Industrial Design, I worked in that field and also Advertising Design/Outdoor Advertising.  

Most recently I learned to Webmaster as I could do graphics design,  and paid for a Certification School where I get cert's in Central Office installation/Telecom and Fiber Optic. 

I've done a bunch of Volunteering over the years and got into cooking at my Fraternal Lodges and am presently trying to get on a River Boat as a cook.

I believe the more you can do the better off you are.  Education is like buying tools to bulld a tool box to work with.   Had I married and had kids,  I'd not had the opportunity to study and learn.  I'd have taken whatever skill I had and gone to work, and continued working until I could retire or death would retire me.

Since I don't have any top dogs to answer to now,  I do as I wish.  I'm not mad about money, prefer to live
simply.

As for School,  I think that there needs to be a point where people leave it behind (I spent too much time there) and go do something useful.   Jr High/Middle school are the hardest years.  They almost have to draft teachers to teach those years.  Substitute teachers cringe at having to sub in middle school.  

But:

I also learned a lot in school that I hadn't had the time to learn on my own, but I think if I'd had access to the internet, I'd have made a great dent in that since I was ridiculously motivated to "know stuff".  Bought a used encyclopedia set when I was just out of high school and used to spend hours reading those, and the dictionary.  More than anything I wanted to be educated, I wanted to be able to intelligently discuss all the things running through my head.

.....yeah,  something like that.   But if I were starting all over today I go to a 2 year Jr College and get something like an associated degree in Business or Nursing where I could work and go back and get 2 more years for the BS degree.   Then 2 more years later for the grad degree.   In the meanwhile I'd look to find a
Trade School where I could pick up a Trade in something like a Machinist,  HVAC worker,  specialized welding,
and any of these trades that are going begging today.  So I could move into management of a trades shop as i get older.   But that's what I would do and it may not work for everyone.


Free Online Courses and how to find them

https://www.lifewire.com/free-onlin...cn_nl&utm_content=9671121&utm_term=bouncex18v

10 Colleges you can go to for free


http://www.thebestcolleges.org/10-best-colleges-with-free-tuition/

 

[Queen]

Now that the whole career thing is behind me, I'm back to enjoying learning for the pure joy of it. Today I learned about surgical practices in the 1700's, fascinating stuff and super glad I didn't live back then!

 

[Richard]

What is your educational level, and did you find that it helped or hurt you in the course of your working or personal life? ...

(For those who prefer a TL;DR version: I don't know what my educational level is but it mostly helped me in my personal and professional life).


As I begin to answer this question I feel guarded. It's not anything wrong with the original post, or the original poster. Nor is my unease related to my answer. It's more an awareness that the words 'educational level' feel like one of those descriptors that's too vague to be useful. Before I feel comfortable sharing my answer, I want to unpack that descriptor a little, if not in actual intent than at least in potential scope. Here's why:

Not all degrees are equal except in the meaning of the words to denote a duration of time: "Associate's" suggests 2-years, "Bachelor's" suggests 4-years, etc. Beyond that, the simple math that "4-years is 'better' than 2-years" seems a prevailing metric for many people. Is that a useful metric? Subjectively, it can be. Objectively, hardly at all in any way that matters. Consider:

What of the actual time spent attaining the degree? If two people get the same degree in the same subject domain from the same university but one person gets it in half the usual time while the other person gets it in twice the usual time... does this necessarily imply anything about either the degree, the degree program, or the person? No. If this was a point of interest, we need more information even to begin to make a useful distinction. A 40-year old person who got a 4-year degree in 2-years might seem less impressive than a 16-year old who did the same thing because, presumably, the 40-year old had decades of experience and informal learning that contributed to their fast-track completion of a degree program. In contrast, the 16-year old might be presumed to be a prodigy or even a savant.

Bear with me while I explore a bit more.

What was the GPA (grade point average) of the degree holders? Same degrees in the same subjects but one person was 4.0 and another 2.7. What shall we infer from the difference between those two GPA's? That the 4.0 person is 'smarter' than the 2.7 person? Not necessarily. Perhaps, like many here have shared, circumstances may have prohibited or interfered with optimal academic performance. Is a single parent of 3 who goes to school part-time while working full-time, and who graduates with a 2.7 GPA less intelligent or disciplined or motivated than a single young adult who attends full-time, doesn't have to work, and graduates with a 4.0 GPA? Again, no.

Ok, I'll raise one more point for consideration and then wrap up. There's also the matter of which university granted the degree in question. In the whole Princeton vs. MIT vs Johns Hopkins debate, it often devolves into positions that rest upon what one knows, and who one knows, and whether the university in question is 'renowned' for it's curriculum in a particular subject domain. Does this actually convey anything useful to us about the person who holds the degree? I'll go on record with yet another 'no'.

All that said, what's really meant by 'education level'? Is it the just the duration of the degree program (2-years vs. 4 vs. 6, etc.)? Is it how long it took to complete that duration, and the age & experience of the person when they completed it? Is it subject domain (law vs. physics vs music)? What about GPA? Does the granting institution matter?

And with that I'll say "Welcome to the world between my ears!"

As for me, I most identify (so far) with ArtW's reply:

...
I was one of those kids who aced tests, ignored school and homework, and considered school 'jail'

Getting good grades wasn't something I had to work for. That's not a boast. I had nothing to do with the level of intelligence with which I was born. It just is what it is. And, I'll say this: the 'shadow side' of innately high intelligence has been an enormous hardship for me, even in spite of any imagined 'benefits'.

If my mother's account of my earliest childhood are true (no reason to believe otherwise), I loved books long before I could read. She says I began reading early, and often. So much so that her doctor at the time told her that she had to 'slow me down'. I never met that doctor but to this day I hold a slight grudge against him for having advised her in that way.

Nevertheless, books remained my greatest joy and best 'friends' through a very difficult home life. I quit school just before I turned 16 because the bureaucracy of formal education, even at the level of high school, demanded a level of conformity I was unwilling to grant. Quick explanation here:

I've only ever stayed in a single school for an entire grade twice in my life. Every other year I attended 2 different schools; twice, it was 3 different schools over a single academic year. My dad wasn't in the military and neither parent ever offered a satisfactory answer to my question about why we moved around so much.

Anyway, in my sophomore year of high school we moved from New Jersey to Arizona. Though I was placed in honors classes (that's what we called them in the 70's), I'd already learned what was being taught. I asked for advanced placement and was denied. I asked to skip a grade and was denied. As the only means of protest a 15-year old could imagine, I stopped going to class except to take tests. Passing grades every time, but when the semester's report card arrived, I was failed for... attendance! That, combined with the stresses I was dealing with at home, pushed me to a decision: I wasn't going back to school. Either my parents could sign the papers and 'officially' withdraw me, or I'd simply refuse to attend. Mom signed. There's more to the story but I've already written a wall of text here so, that's all for now.

My subsequent experience with 'education' included joining the Navy, again with parental permission at age 17. I took the ASVAB (armed services vocational aptitude battery) and qualified for anything I wanted, including an emerging nuclear technology program. I chose computer programming. During boot camp, when it came time to choose our rating (job), I was told that I couldn't select computer programming. Why not? I qualified on the ASVAB? As it turned out, computer programmer was only available to people with a high school diploma or a GED. I asked if I could select programmer and get my GED as soon as boot camp was over. The answer was no. That experience, combined with the earlier year's refusal to skip me ahead a year so that education might be an engaging learning experience (vs. a rote matter of compliance in attendance) soured me from formal education and the societal prejudices associated with it.

People who teach themselves are sometimes referred to as 'autodidacts'. It sounds cool and all but it's really not a big deal (to me, anyway) because that's pretty much how I've been all along. Again, not something to boast about because I didn't do anything to make it happen. It's innate and, really, feels like a default way of being to me (What do you mean not everyone loves to learn? Are you KIDDING me?!? LOL).

In conclusion, what is my education level? I have no idea how to answer that question. I'm reasonably well-read in many areas of interest. Would I presume to say that I've got an Associate's or even a Bachelor's level education? Probably not. Without a formal curriculum as a basis for my learning, it's a pretty eclectic mix of subjects. I feel I can converse pretty well with others who have formal education unless/until that conversation relies on a domain specific vocabulary with which I'm unfamiliar. Sometimes it's the case that I understand the idea behind an unfamiliar term and I just needed to expand my vocabulary a bit. Other times, talking with people who know more than me about a subject feels like just another opportunity to continue learning, which I love.

I like being this way. It's been mostly helpful to me in my personal and professional life. I don't think it's a better (or worse) way to approach learning, and I don't think I'm better (or worse) than anyone else for having declined a formal path of education.

THE END (finally, right?  )

 

[ZoNiE]

I got an AA degree in Electronics after High School with plans to start working part time and continue to get my EE. The very first job was full of upwardly mobile positions for me which culminated in a six figure income in the mid 90's. Soo, I Didn't go back until 2007 when I took two more years of college and got a Bachelors degree in Business. My wife got a similar degree. Once you are past 45 or so, it doesn't matter. We're too old.

 

[sephson]

I've got a BA in Drama, specifically Stage Lighting.

These days I earn my living doing Stage Lighting.

 

[decodancer]

I was one of those kids who got beat up at the bus stop on a regular basis.  Smart, chubby and didn't fit in to any of the cliques.  Could get a B without looking at a book so I got lots of Bs.  Spent most of my time in art classes and got a scholarship to a good art school.   I graduated early and had just turned 17 so was just not ready to leave home.  Ended up becoming a dog groomer but did go to collage at age 40.  Did well but couldn't afford it long enough to get my degree.  My Mother got her BS at age 65, so still time to go back.

 

[Gary68]

i got a BS in BS

 

[Vagabound]

i got a BS in BS

You can say that again!! ;-)

Tom

 

[Gary68]

You can say that again!! ;-)

Tom

i have a bachelor's of science for bull shiting

 

[bullfrog]

Being a veteran and having a 4 year degree makes getting a lower level government job easy as supervisors have to document you turned down the position before offering it to someone else on the hiring cert. Jobs like general ranger in a national park or park guide or fee gate just look on usajobs. Seems strange that the skills I learned in college were seldom used but qualified me for better jobs. I taught school till they found out I didn't have a degree and had award winning students. After going to college I still taught the same way. What the degree is in does matter as do good grades but enjoying what you do is the most important.

 

[MrNoodly]

I went to college to study graphic design. At freshman orientation the design professor said, "Don't tell the department chair I said this, but you don't need a degree to work as a designer. You need a great portfolio. If you can develop one in two or three years, then get out of here and go job hunting." After a year and a half of non-design classes that were required for a degree, I stopped chasing a degree and just audited the art classes I wanted to take. Then I got a part-time job working for the university's design department. It was great. The university was paying me instead of me paying them. I got my portfolio together during what would've been my senior year, thanked that professor, and went off into the world. It was a good career for 30 years, then no one wanted The Old Guy working on their stuff. So I retired and hit the road.

 

[jimindenver]

I made it through high school and the last two years of it I attended a trade school for HVAC. I took it because the trade teaches you all of the trades and even though I have turned down jobs in the field, the knowledge benefited me greatly in the company I ran for three decades. Attending business school would have helped me run the business better and having a piece of paper on the wall sure does validate you to some even if it has nothing to do with what you are doing. The funny thing is if I had to go to school for all of the things I had to do over the years, I'd still be there today.

One of the reasons I never liked school is it teaches you how to do something the way someone else does it. A example is how I handle solar. I was told I couldn't do the things I do now day in and day out. Another is macro photography where the techniques I developed are beyond what they teach in school. I was once asked why I didn't do it for a living and I said because I had never gone to school for it and had no degree. I was told if I wanted something to put on the wall to prove I could do it, all I needed to do was print some of my pictures. A degree says you have been to school and should be able to do it, my pictures leave no doubt. I am one of only a handful in the world that can shoot snowflakes like I do and my technique is completely different from the rest. Now I just have to find the fire to want to do it and make money from the ability.

 

[caretaker]

i went to a trade school, if i would of had kids i would of sent them to trade school, and if they wanted to go to college they could work their way thru themselves. NO WAY i would pay $$$$$ so they have to take required courses about shakes spear,i got nuthin agin the boy,,,,but i aint payin $$$$$ to learn about him!

 

[djkeev]

I too did the expected College after High school thing, after all my three older brothers traveled that path!

I too disliked school. I did well enough at it but there was a life to live and I wasn't clear on a career so I left after awhile.

I got into banking, while staying with it would have been long term very smart financially, I HATED it! Dress up like go to Church Sunday every day?? Count and deal with other peoples money all day? Out of there!

Traveled for a Summer with a buddy, came back and fell into Automobile Dealership Parts/Service.
Ended up as Service manager. I soon realized that if I stayed in this horrible career I would take up Drinking, Drugs or Wife beating to deal with the immense stress! ............ I left.

By this time I was married with kids. Did the College thing again but there were bills to pay and mouths to feed. ( I want to sing a Harry Chapin song here)

Got into Carpentry. Did fairly well at it.
I wasn't driven to get rich or build the giant construction conglomerate.
I made plenty to live on and and raised my girls on a solid middle class income.

We spent time as a family, we traveled, I never missed a school event or sports event that my girls were involved in.
For my family this worked out great!
For my retirement, it was very short sighted!

On the flip side, We raised our girls to be our good friends as they became adults. If the need were to arise, I'll never be homeless or hungry.
Sadly I haven't yet convinced them that they owe me a monthly stipend as a thank you for giving them a great childhood!

My work has always been to support my life. Work was NEVER my life!

Anyway, no idea how much college, a year here, a year there, a few semesters doing this or that.

If I had a "do over" card, I probably should have been a "Shop" teacher.

Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda......... DIDN'T !!!!!

Dave