ensign_beedrill

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Posts posted by ensign_beedrill

  1. Posted

    Oh, man, this worked! Thank you! I don't know how long it would have taken me to have thought to go to a book store. Heh.

     

    Went to Border's during lunch and there it was. I was also able to pick up a copy of Star Trek: Countdown, so I was a happy clam. Put the CD in my car, skipped immediately to the last track (because that's what has been really bugging me and in my head for the past few weeks) and grinned like a stupid idiot the whole way back to work. First time that's ever happened. Listening to it now.

     

    Thanks!

  6. Posted

    You can have "experience" without going to college.

     

    True, true. But it is a very nice little isolated laboratory to experiment in. It's not something that everyone needs, but it was certainly something that I needed. When I first got there, my dad told me, "It's like a little city where everyone is your age!" And for the most part, it was true. I was surprised that none of the organizations were run by adults. It started in Fish Camp (it's a three day camp you can go to to learn about the school and traditions and make friends and stuff). I was so surprised that there wasn't a single "adult" at camp and it was all run and planned by college students. Fish Camp is a really, really big undertaking with many sessions and tons of incoming freshmen. And there are other huge projects and organizations that put on big things that are all entirely run by students. It was my first taste of actually being able to do something big without adult supervision... without asking mom and dad first. I was also going through some serious mopey times my last two years of high school and I think college really helped to pull me out of that. Like WWII and the Great Depression. It really was a big change in me, and I don't know if it would have happened without the experiences and attachments I made there. You pay for everything you do, whether in dollars or time. College is more pricey than most, but for me at least, it was well worth it. Even if a bachelor's degree isn't all that meaningful anymore.

     

    And you can't beat the Aggie Network!

     

    And many people don't ever get that particular college experience - they attend night classes while working full time or go back later in life. I don't beleive their degrees are less valuable.

     

    You are, of course, correct; I didn't mean to imply this at all. I was speaking strictly of the traditional four year program as referenced in the article. In fact, I think earning a college degree in such a situation is much more difficult and admirable. It shows you were really serious about it and willing to make the sacrifices and do what it took, as opposed to a lot of the high school kids who graduate and go to college because that's what everyone else is doing. It is too bad a degree does not show how hard you worked, or what you learned, or how difficult it was to balance school and other life challenges. I graduated with some people who are way smarter than I am or ever will be, yet we have the same degree. Is that very fair?

     

     

    Tax Dollars! You bring up a good point. Perhaps the universities shouldn't be funded by tax dollars. This would make tuition more expensive, but perhaps it would also limit enrollment to those who really want to/need to go. I'm not sure of the numbers comparing the amount of college graduates fifty years ago and the amount of grads today. But I'm sure they've increased quite a bit. And I wonder how much of that is due to the fact that it seems to be a trend. Coming out of high school today, it is pretty much expected that you go to college. Was there a time in the past when that wasn't true, and where was the tipping point, I wonder. And if tax funding was pulled and suddenly everyone had to pay all of the tuition themselves, would there be a drop in the number of college grads again? Or would everyone just suck it up and take out even larger loans? It is of course a hypothetical question, given that once the government starts spending money on something, it is very hard to get it to stop!

  7. Posted

    Well... why? I've tried Target, Wal*Mart, Best Buy... I even found a little label for it at Best Buy but there were no CDs. I asked a clerk and he checked, but told me he didn't think they were out yet. But I checked Amazon and they have them.

     

    Are they just so popular that they're flying off the shelves? I'd rather not have to order online and pay for shipping. This is very distressing.

  9. Posted · Edited by ensign_beedrill

    You can get a Bachelors degree in 4 years - but only if you don't work, don't participate in activities, don't take a hard major, and don't mind a C+ average.

     

    Well then I may be in the minority!

     

    As for the worth of a college degree, I went to the school rated number one in value for your dollar. And some degrees carry more worth than others... certain liberal arts and humanities degrees (not trying to put anyone down here!) don't necessarily carry the guarantee of a high paying job. Medical and technical degrees often times do. Some majors are harder than others and some majors have a lot more job availability. Compare something like English to mechanical engineering. What jobs are available for the English major? What jobs are available for the mechanical engineering major? I have a sister who's going to a high priced private college to major in art. Luckily she's gotten some pretty good scholarships. But still, is the cost worth the product? What is she going to get in return for her degree?

     

    I stand by my argument that while learning does take place in college, the real value is in the experience.

  12. Posted

    The next movie will either be "Star Trek XII: The Wrath of Porthos" or they go back in time and rewrite Beastie Boys lyrics to remove the Mr. Spock references in Intergalactic and remove that temporal paradox.

     

    You say that, but what I find even more pressing is when Voyager went back in time, they started watching the TV shows. Why didn't they ever come across an episode of Star Trek?

  14. Posted

    I just recently watched the special features disc for season 4 and in it there was mention that there were plans to make Shran a member of the Enterprise crew in season 5.

     

    Way to start my day off on the wrong foot. Thanks. :)

     

    Although Shran was a captain and a very strong-headed command kind of guy. I would have a hard time seeing him being a subordinate to Archer! And T'Pol. They wouldn't knock her out of the first officer's spot, would they?

  17. Posted

    You bet. Starfleet Academy was where I wanted to go for college. I want to be an engineer on a starship.

     

    But here's the thing: some of this stuff is purely theoretical and might never happen. Transporters? Slightly more possible but still out there... holodecks? Faster than light travel?

     

    I don't know... somehow I wonder even if I was living 500 years into the future, would we be regularly traveling between stars?

  22. Posted

    Ummm... if people can't even do it in four years now, what makes 'em think they'll be able to do it in three? I graduated last year, and the only reason I was able to do it in four years was because I did do a lot of those AP and CLEP tests. I didn't even get credit for a few of them (well... useful credit). And I knew a lot of fifth and even sixth year seniors. And some colleges will have more fifth year seniors than others. Engineering and architecture are two colleges off the top of my mind where it is more the norm to stay five years.

     

    If universities want people to start graduating in three years, they are going to have to lighten the course load. I was a computer science major. I had to take two chemistry classes, two physics classes, two U.S. history classes, two political science classes, an anthropology class, two health/kinesiology classes, an art history class, an electrical engineering class which could easily have been integrated into the computer architecture class I had to take as well, an engineering ethics class that had nothing to do with computer science and everything to do with civil engineering, and five classes in a supporting area (I chose a business minor). That's not to mention the math/calculus classes I took. While comp sci is very mathematical and I love math and I love to learn and do math, statistics, calc III, and differential equations were really not necessary for an understanding of what I was doing. In fact, the only non comp sci class that I took that actually helped me and that might help me in the workplace was a speech class. Actually, I had several comp sci classes that were quite unnecessary. (I tested out of five of the classes in that list.)

     

    The universities would have to pare down these classes and have students stick to the basics. The problem is this would kill just about everyone in the college of engineering. (I can't speak for the other colleges, since I wasn't a part of them.) Some of my favorite classes each semester were the non comp-sci ones. And anyone will tell you that taking more than two core classes in your major per semester is pretty much suicide. Plus, those extraneous classes really help get you out of your comfort zone, help you to meet new people in other majors, and give you a sampling of everything that's out there. I believe that to be an asset. What if you're in a certain major and you take an elective class that you wind up liking and discover that that's what you really want to do? Add to that, there are certain classes that you can only take once you've finished others, and you can see why reducing a program to three years will be difficult.

     

    Besides, I learned that the purpose of a four year institution is not necessarily to impart knowledge. There is some learning going on, certainly. But with some classes, there was a lot of overlap with what I learned in high school. (Poli sci, chemistry, English, math.) The classes that I did learn something in, I will probably never be able to apply to any use in my profession. On-the-job training and learning takes place. Right now, my job has me doing something that I never learned about and am having to read up on a lot of stuff and ask a lot of questions. Especially in a field like software engineering, things are changing all the time. My lead has told me on many occasions that the things he is doing now are things that he never learned in school.

     

    No, the purpose of a four year university is to go to football games. Join organizations. Volunteer. Make friends. Take a road trip to see your team play. Network. Become a leader. Learn to adapt to new circumstances. Face adversity. Become an independent, productive member of society. Have fun. My school called it "the other education," and I think it is so much more important than the education you receive in the classroom. I believe I was happier and more proud the day I got the class ring I wear on my finger than the day I received the diploma that hangs on my wall. I value both, but I value what the ring represents more. I loved the time I spent in school and wished I had more years there. College is so much more than just the classes. And if you cut that to three years, I think you're robbing students of some great experiences. My junior and senior years were the best because I'd finally figured this out. As an underclassman, I didn't have a sports pass and I wasn't in any clubs and I didn't do much more than go to class. But my last two years, I went to so many athletic events and joined two clubs and made friends and had a blast. It took me two years to figure out what the experience was really about. If I had been in a three year program, I would have only had one year to enjoy that.

     

    OK. That was a little more than two cents. More like two dollars.