[comp.edu] Hey, any schools that give credit for experience in the bay area?

cy@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Cyrus Foughty) (11/10/88)

	I am looking for a University that will take into account my
	ten years of programming experience and give me credit based upon
	that experience. I live in the San Jose/Cupertino area. I have
	talked to several local unversities and/or colleges and have made
	the request for credit for my experience. One department head
	actually laughed at that thought! I don't understand the thinking
	behind those reactions. I attended one year at an university and
	quit, because I was participating in a small computer company in 
	1977. Business was so good, I couldn't turn down the money! I am
	now moving up in my current company, however, vice presidents must
	have a B.S. in some kind of engineering field. That is the requirement
	and it doesn't matter what I have done for the company in the past,
	those are the rules. Albeit, I am still young (30), I don't understand
	taking classes on what I already know. Is it the educational system
	attacking me for not learning their way in the first place? Frankly,
	I really was bored in school, I was always reading ahead in the books
	and half way thrugh a class I would be finished with the book. So to
	close, I would like to find a school that is not prejudice.
-- 
cy
{ames,decwrl}!killer!cy
MaBell: 408.255.5990 
Don't Panic.

milman@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Vadim J. Milman) (11/10/88)

In article <6048@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> cy@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Cyrus Foughty) writes:
[he tells that he is looking for the university so he can get a degree
because he is working in some company that wants him to have a degree or
he will be out of job. He says:
>	I am  still young (30), I don't understand
>	taking classes on what I already know. Is it the educational system
>	attacking me for not learning their way in the first place? Frankly,
>	I really was bored in school, I was always reading ahead in the books
>	and half way thrugh a class I would be finished with the book. So to
>	close, I would like to find a school that is not prejudice.
>-- 

I suggest he should go to UC Berkeley or MIT and have hell of time suffering
with books and mean professors. Try them and tell me what universities are
like right now.


Vadim 						milman@cory.berkeley.EDU

bsy@PLAY.MACH.CS.CMU.EDU (Bennet Yee) (11/10/88)

In article <6048@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> cy@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Cyrus Foughty) writes:
|
|	I am looking for a University that will take into account my
|	ten years of programming experience and give me credit based upon
|	that experience. [...]
|	One department head
|	actually laughed at that thought!

When I was doing my undergraduate work at Oregon State, I challenged the
basic intro programming classes.  For one class, I just took the final exam
and took that grade; for another, I did one [simple] programming project and
took the final.  No lectures, no homework, no pain.

The University required that some sort of method be available for students
to challenge courses; I think it was up to the department and/or instructor
to decide what form it will take.  You may want to start with the Univ
regulations....

-bsy
-- 
Internet:	bsy@cs.cmu.edu		Bitnet:	bsy%cs.cmu.edu%smtp@interbit
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USPS:	Bennet Yee, CS Dept, CMU, Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Voice:	(412) 268-7571
-- 

mendozag@pur-ee.UUCP (Grado) (11/10/88)

In article <6048@killer.DALLAS.TX.US> cy@killer.DALLAS.TX.US (Cyrus Foughty) writes:
>I am looking for a University that will take into account my
>ten years of programming experience and give me credit based upon
>that experience....

   Sure, the October issue of Computer Magazine has an ad from a University
 where you can get your degree studying at home only. The ad also mentions
 life experience credits. You can even get (earn?) a Master's or PhD.
 The best part is that you could even get interviewed by 60 minutes 
 about your degree. [There was an episode where they talked about the scam
 of college degrees by mail, although not especifically by that university] 

>...I attended one year at an university and
>quit, because I was participating in a small computer company in 
...
>now moving up in my current company, however, vice presidents must
>have a B.S. in some kind of engineering field. That is the requirement
...
>attacking me for not learning their way in the first place? Frankly,
>I really was bored in school, I was always reading ahead in the books
>and half way thrugh a class I would be finished with the book. So to
>close, I would like to find a school that is not prejudice.

  With the number of options available it seems that you did not look
 around for a challenging university. On the other hand, if you only 
 want the degree...

 Victor

maslak@unix.SRI.COM (Valerie Maslak) (11/11/88)

y,

Have you talked to the people at University of San Francisco?
It's a private Jesuit college that has a large extension/continuing
education/external degree program that includes credit award for
life experience based on a portfolio submission. I believe they offer
a BS in Information Sciences. They have an office in Cupertino
and a campus in San Francisco, but they give classes in several
other Bay Area locations.

Valerie Maslak

siegman@sierra.Stanford.EDU (Anthony E. Siegman) (11/11/88)

With regard to getting degree credit for 10 years programming experience:

Why don't you call up "The Woz" (Wozniak), who went back to Berkeley
and got his bachelor's degree AFTER founding Apple Computer?

Seriously...he's reputed to be a kind of unusual guy; might be hard to
establish contact with him; but you might get through to him by some
message that says, "Hey, I'm a guy who's been out in the real world, and
want to go back to school like you did, and could you give me any
advice?".

I can't give you much useful advice myself, except to say that there
really is a difference between the kind of formal education we professors
try to give in college, and real world experience, and they're both
valuable and both involve learning and both are important -- but
they're different, and 10 years programming experience is something
different from an genuine engineering education.  I'm not "prejudiced"
against the real accomplishment of 10 years programming experience, but
I'm not going to accept it as the same as an engineering degree; and I
think you need perhaps to drop some prejudice in the reverse direction.

As a final thought, the real villain in this might seem to be, not the
stuffy schools who won't accept your real world experience, nor you, who
tackled the real world -- but the dumb company that seems to be demanding
an irrelevant credential, instead of looking at your real performance
...???

--Tony Siegman (Prof. EE, Stanford)