Acumen vs. Curriculum

Glenn has another post in a continuing series on the higher education bubble, this one asking if bypassing college might be a better deal.

My wife, as it happens, is an object example. She is an excellent Java programmer, beloved by IT directors and VPs everywhere she goes. She is also fluent in two languages and literate in a third. Her English vocabulary is in at least the 90th percentile despite it being her second language. She does not have a degree... but she does have around 12 years Java experience, and she never had to pay back a college loan.

In the Philippines, because the country is very poor, she started out being paid next to nothing by our standards (around $3,000 a year) for consulting work. Apparently their system is very much "sink or swim" -- those who can do the work are given raises and bonuses that can be around 40% of salary. Of course, once she was able to emigrate she was immediately able to almost double her pay again, despite our atrabilious job market (which is even worse in our area than the U.S. average).

The lesson here, I think, is that you can learn marketable skills without college. Now, if you're in a highly cartelized profession like law or medicine, it may not be a good choice to do so because the prestige of a college may have a large effect on your earnings. But for jobs that are more about technical skills and professionalism, the question of where you went to college is usually secondary to what you're capable of accomplishing.

(Oh, and yes, dating professional women is where it's at. Women who are intelligent and capable are far more interesting to be with. They just get it. Though I can see why nonprofessionals may find them intimidating or difficult to be with.)

posted by Dave on 09.10.10 at 10:24 AM





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I loved the Philippines. Beautiful country and beautiful women. When I was in the Navy I had a girlfriend from Quezon City. When she wasn't working as a bar girl she took me to meet her room mates. We corresponded for about four or five years after I got out of the Navy. I have since lost track of her. Her name is Olympia Mella.

Dani Molintas, who is from the PI, and I worked on this article:

http://powerandcontrol.blogspot.com/2006/11/history-of-addiction.html

She wrote it and I did a bit of editing.

And yeah. Smart women are the best thing going.

M. Simon   ·  September 10, 2010 11:45 AM

you can learn marketable skills without college

Auto mechanics, high tech welders and plumbers can easily make over $100,000 a year. If you embarked on such a career out of high school, you'd be living well and you could take pity on your friends who majored in Comparative Literature at PostModernist U.(and struggle with lifelong debt, no job prospects, and are forced to live in their parents' basements).

Sooner or later, people are going to wake up and realize they're being had.

Eric Scheie   ·  September 10, 2010 11:55 AM

Wow, that article is truly excellent Simon! A gold mine of information.

(BTW, I think you used "needed" in place of "needle" at one point. I only mention it because I'll probably end up linking that post now and again.)

TallDave   ·  September 10, 2010 12:41 PM

I would suggest most of the bubble is in useless degrees and law school.
Law school because you have 7 years of loans to pay back. The fuzzy sciences because they're useless.
The "fuzzy sciences" are not a good way to spend tens of thousands of dollars.
The old joke is funny cuz it's true.

A scientist asks, "How does it work?
An engineer asks, "How do you make it?"
An accountant asks, "How much does it cost?"
A social scientist asks, "Do you want fries with that?"

We are hearing so much of that because our journalistic betters all have SS type degrees and only hang out with others who do.
They don't like the engineers, mathematicians, scientists and accountants because they have the annoying habit of actually trying to figure stuff out. They much prefer people who accept what they're told from on high.
Just ask any global warmmonger who's acting like you're an anti-scientist freak two questions.
What is the average temp of the Earth right now?
What is the Sun doing?
Very few of them will know the answer to the first, almost none will know the answer the to second.
You know, cuz studying the Sun when talking about the temp of the Earth is for wingnuts.

Math and science types might not be making it rich, but they're not starving or living in their mothers' basements.

Veeshir   ·  September 11, 2010 10:49 AM

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