BF2S Forums First World Problems

Uzique wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Uzique wrote:

come on though... i'd take a free thatcher-era university education over a fancy £600 iphone, anyday

it's not as if you missed technology and conveniences that weren't even invented yet

we however are dealing with huge loans and a lack of opportunity, knowing that our own PARENTS had a much better deal

pretty easy to be bitter

/fwp to the max

Having let industry decline, tertiary education expand to everyone, and millions of worthless imiigrants in the UK is in a fix.
Being reliant on a fickle services 'industry', which has no industry to service, the fix is unfixable.

No wonder young Irish are emigrating like crazy.

all fair criticisms, but not our generation's fault! i wholly condemn the upgrading of half-rate profession polytechnics to universities, too... but what can you do about it really? other than try to play a flawed system as best as you can.

Why are you bitching about polytechnic's? How would their upgrade impact your piece of paper? Hint: they don't.


Also, congrats on joining the rest of the first world that long ago adopted the French style polytechnic institute that elevates engineering to its proper position.

Jay wrote:

Why are you bitching about polytechnic's? How would their upgrade impact your piece of paper? Hint: they don't.


Also, congrats on joining the rest of the first world that long ago adopted the French style polytechnic institute that elevates engineering to its proper position.

But, but, according to media's portrayal of engineers and scientists like in the Big Bang Theory, JPL rocket scientists and engineeers are poor, having to share apartments to live in Pasadena.



/sarcasm.

Dilbert_X wrote:

Science has really never been good, except for a select few who are top of their game and take decades to get there, engineering and technology development are usually where the money is.

Unless you've done a ground-breaking PhD and have immense further potential you're not going to be getting a six figure starting salary.

We have as many drugstores as Starbucks here.  All of them are required by law to have at least one Pharmacist, one of the easiests MD's to get.  Starting salary is six-figures here, and they regularly get headhunted.

Ilocano wrote:

Dilbert_X wrote:

Science has really never been good, except for a select few who are top of their game and take decades to get there, engineering and technology development are usually where the money is.

Unless you've done a ground-breaking PhD and have immense further potential you're not going to be getting a six figure starting salary.

We have as many drugstores as Starbucks here.  All of them are required by law to have at least one Pharmacist, one of the easiests MD's to get.  Starting salary is six-figures here, and they regularly get headhunted.

Ha, most of the people I knew going for pharmacy degrees had drug habits

it has absolutely nothing to do with engineering, you mong. polytechnics in the uk were institutions where ACTUAL plumbers and engineers and building site guys and working class men went to get a training/apprenticeship/education that would directly benefit them. they were practical centres of learning, non-academic and accessible to all. it was part of a socialist/labourite drive for education. eventually as part of massive government over-pushing of higher-education, polytechnics were given full charters and upgraded to full degree-granting university bodies. the thing is with modern polytechnics in the UK is that they offer a range of courses identical to traditional, research-focussed academic universities. so you can go to an ex-polytechnic to study english, or physics, or law, only it will require the most basic of entry grades and will have no academic rigour or standards at all. technically, you can get a 'degree in science' or a 'degree in english' from an ex-polytechnic-cum-university. that's why i complain about them (as does mostly everyone else). they have hugely devalued the 'worth' of the university degree qualification by loosening all standards and requirements and blowing the traditional hierarchy out of the water. so when you say

Why are you bitching about polytechnic's? How would their upgrade impact your piece of paper? Hint: they don't.

i must inform you that they sadly and very much DO.

so quit tripping over yourself in a hurry to queef about your beloved engineering and some french bollocks. me and dilbert aren't even on about that.

think of the polytechnic in the uk as the 'state college', or whatever. cheap, shit schools, easy to get into, mostly for the lower classes or the terminally stupid to still get token access to 'higher education'. still grant degrees, but it's basically a second class of degree. still, they are responsible for pretty much tripling the number of young people that are technically 'graduates'. not every graduate employer will bother distinguishing between an academic degree of some achievement/prestige and a degree from one of these freebie accept-everyone schools. which is why it very much affects me.

Last edited by Uzique (2011-12-07 17:25:41)

I click on a thread about first world problems expecting a laugh, and it's full of people having a serious debate
#fwp

the problem is that not everyone bothers to distinguish between ex-polytechnic and academic university. not everyone is that familiar with the history of universities, you know. the plain fact is that these schools which require like a 2.0GPA and the most shitty work/research standards still technically reward a 'bachelors degree' or whatever, according to the paper. so two people with a first-class degree (summa cum laude) could apply for a job: one from an ex-polytechnic that required a low entry score and gives out good marks like candy, the other from a competitive, rigorous and demanding university that only awards top-class degrees to maybe 5% of a graduating class. the employer doesn't always bother to look into that, so of course it creates a problem beyond "snobbery" as you call it. it's two entirely different calibre of applicant (according to intelligence/academic merit, anyway) but that's often forgotten because the university system here now is so muddied and so YEAH EVERYONE COME GET ONE!

and how was a proper degree a serious waste of time and money? fees in the UK cost the same everywhere. yet more /derp

Last edited by Uzique (2011-12-07 17:30:16)

Jay wrote:

Well, your degree is watered down for precisely the reason that you champion it: it is purely academic and doesn't lead directly to a job. That means whatever company hires you has to train you, and where a person went to college, or what they studied is irrelevant at that point. You could be a history major, a swimming pool science major, or an astrophysicist, they have to put time and effort into teaching you the job, and you all start from the same place knowledge and experience-wise.

you know you're talking out of your ass. why do people from top colleges generally tend to succeed over people from state colleges? it's precisely because they're more 'talented' and 'promising' on paper. so what if it's purely academic? there's plenty of other things to put on a resume to advertise yourself in other ways. of course employer's are snobby and will want to filter out the wheat from the chaff. distinctions like 'high standards university' and 'anyone accepted polytechnic' serve their purpose here. i dunno how it is in america but in the uk where you went to school kinda matters. you have this ideal vision that "a degree is a degree is a degree" but that's just not-so.

Last edited by Uzique (2011-12-07 17:33:50)

I need to get home and start up my online traffic school for my speeding ticket.

Jay wrote:

Uzique wrote:

jay you don't even know what we're talking about so stop fucking blathering

No, it was discussed in a previous thread. You and your countrymen see the word 'engineer' and associate it with the guy that fixes your dishwasher. The French Polytechnic's were designed to function towards applying science and mathematics. Central schooling, central standards. Britain instead used an apprenticeship system that led to sloppy results and a degradation of the profession. I'm glad that polytechnic's finally received the elevation they deserved.

I clicked on this thread and found a post which demonstrates the author knows nothing whatever about the history of the UK educational system
/fwp

Uzique wrote:

jay that's entirely your own bias though, cause you have a total chip on your shoulder. kids that went to private schools have "baggage"? lol. you act as if kids applying from top private schools demand their own office and VIP treatment or something. more often it's just simply the fact that they're more confident, more imbued with a sense of drive/motivation, have initiative, and are good socially. lol suggesting private school kids are like brats that don't want to work. 99% of the privately educated people i know here have FAR more work-drive and ambition than people from state schools, because a) they have pushy parents to please and b) because the private schools here are pretty relentless and instil kids from a young age with a full-day. i had school start at 7:30-8:00am (depending on term) and ending sometimes at 6-7pm, with mandatory clubs. state schools don't have that. you're always full of this bias, "boo my life" bullshit. it's funny.

They pretty much do.

aaron and jay are fighting and I don't care enough to read it

i don't find that at all. kids from private schools here work damn hard. they're closer to the 'kid with asian family' stereotype than the 'boo give me the top-salary NOW daddy!' shit that you spout. i went to private school and go to a college with the highest percentage of privately educated people in the country-- higher than oxbridge. i share classes and social lives with them every day. you were raised blue-collar and went to a military college. wonder who has the most reliable experience? hmm. i'll go with the ghetto kid with the chip on his shoulder!