cy@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Cyrus Foughty) (11/18/88)
I originally posted an article about how I thought It was
unfair for colleges not to give me credit for my experience.
I also queried for schools that did provide such a service.
Expectedly, the replies that came in were very vicious and some
sympathetic. I did presume that the majority of the replies would
be negative and prepared myself for those type of replies. I really
received some extremely decadent email, and some thought provoking
comments. Let me sum up the responses:
Of the total replies,
82.1% Were from professors, graduate students, junior and senior
undergrads.
12.3% Were professionals working without degrees, much in the same
boat as I.
4% Were in college but did not reveal their level.
1.6% Did not reveal what they did, but gave opinions and help.
The professors and grad students were ALL attacking me. The main
point they got across was,"Whom do you think you are! Experience
is meaningless, school is the only place to learn!". Several asked
to pass along any info I found. One person brought up the old
argument,"10 years of experience is not necessarily 10 years of
experience but could be 1 year repeated 10 times!". I say bunk!!!
If anyone is inclined to enter the programming field without a degree,
he would not be the type of person who would sit still for 10 years
and not be yearning to learn something new!! You must needs a certain
stupidity and personality type to enter this field without a degree.
Everything is stacked against you!
I did receive one special reply that gave me a reason for really
going to school. He made the statement,"You don't know what you don't
know without going to school". I understand that, however, I devour
books like crazy and try to keep up with every new thing. I did come
up with a solution to my problem. I recontacted San Jose State Univ.
and found out that I could enroll in a course and in the first three
weeks take the final. Of course if I passed I got the credit. I can
do that up to 60 units. I also contacted DeAnza College about the
same type of arrangement. I can take all my lower division courses
at DeAnza and test out of quite a few of them and then transfer to
SJSU and start testing out of the rest. I will not be forced to take
a course in something I already know!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thanks for all the good replies and !#$%^& to all the academic snobs!
P.S. There were a few in the 82.1% that were really great!!!
--
cy
{ames,decwrl}!killer!cy
MaBell: 408.255.5990
Don't Panic.shirley@m.cs.uiuc.edu (11/18/88)
Before you are too harsh on your attackers, remember that you are challenging the foundation of academics. When somebody graduates from college, it is because she has accumulated a certain number of credits. She has also learned, but this is not why she graduated (correlation != causation). If knowlege were the basis for credits, then more credit should be given to a student getting an "A" than a student getting a "C". Just because you learned ten times as much is irrelevent. The credit is for the hours of mind-numbing boredom spent in class. You and your radical ideas are scary. Are you a member of the ACLU or something? If we didn't all have to do the full four years, the administrators would be denied their constitutional right to bleed us dry. If you can avoid taking classes where you already know the material, you are lucky. If you can get credit for that material you are blessed. Peter "L. Ron" Shirley
dan@ivucsb.UUCP (Dan Howell) (12/03/88)
In article <6149@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> cy@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Cyrus Foughty) writes: | The professors and grad students were ALL attacking me. The main | point they got across was,"Whom do you think you are! Experience | is meaningless, school is the only place to learn!". Several asked Ok, I'm a grad student, and am not going to attack you. I hope this proves that not all of us are academic snobs... I have a friend who had been working for about 5 years as an instrumentation engineer, and he had only an equivalency test diploma, and a few electronics courses at a junior college. However he had much practical experience outside of school. It was suggested to him by his boss and a few others that he should go to college, and they figured that based on his experience, he should be able to go to grad school. He was able to get an honorary bachelor's degree from Northrop University, without taking a single class there (I think he took a few tests), and now he is a grad student there. So experience definitely can count for something in school. -- Dan Howell <...!pyramid!comdesign!ivucsb!dan> <dan@ivucsb.UUCP> -- The Heineken Uncertainty Principle: -- You can never be sure how many beers you had last night.