Originally Posted by swimbody

In the end, the grades speak for themselves. If you really did drink and party your way through school but somehow managed to get someone to take tests for you at the critical moments like Dan and others are suggesting sometimes happens, the transcripts are going to tell the tale. So telling everyone here that there is a majority of idiots with degrees that daddy paid for that work at the elite level in all aspects of American business just isn't true.

At some point in the college experience (at least in my experience) you have an epiphany if you've been acting like a screw off to straighten up and fly right. I bailed out of a Div 1 school for four years once my grades and my attitude in my early 20s started to sour. I finished my degree after putting myself in the military and it was the best experience I had going back to school, in love with learning, focused on completing what I started years before.

Honestly, most kids have no business being anywhere near a college campus at 19. I was one of them, BUT I was an athlete and had a "job" to do for the university. If I could do it all over again I would have spent at least four years in the military or the peace corps or some kind of volunteer service before heading to college as NOTHING motivates you like working with a bunch of total idiots day in and day out while in the lowest ranks of the enlisted division. Once again, not everyone was an idiot but those who have served know that a lot of folks aren't Rhodes Scholar material in the enlisted military.

Dan sounds very disgruntled. If he had taken the military or volunteer service route, he would have run to the nearest four year university and signed up when his commitment was over, completed his four years, and would gladly have taken any job that his degree prepared him for. He wouldn't be hating the spoiled rich kids with daddy's money. Who cares what they do with their lives anyways Dan. I'm only saying this because while you have some good points in your argument, it sounds like the whole A.A.S is an albatross around your neck. Some folks hear their parents' voices in their head about the degree thing. I felt an unnecessary pressure from my peers. I eventually piled the pressure on myself. I'm glad I did and finished my degree as an honor student.

So I have been in job interviews where my education has come up. In aviation it has been brought up more times than not. It has been said to me several times, "its refreshing to meet someone with a different degree, who is a communicator and has a different view." I always have something to talk about in my interview, the early years of college, the realization that I was being a phuckup, the military and the return to finishing what I started. Its a good story to tell an HR rep. I can laugh at myself and the interview always goes well.

So if you are on the fence, get a degree for yourself in an area that YOU like. Whether its a degree in Acting or Aviation, make sure you do something that makes you well rounded. I fly with a lot of guys who live inside a one dimensional box because of their degrees. You need to get off the computer while you are in school and go out and meet a lot of women (or men), learn to socialize and develop a healthy self image and be empathetic of others. College taught me a lot about that. Take some "weird courses". Become diversified and college will be the greatest thing you have ever done.