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Comment by AnIdiotOnTheNet | Hacker News Reader

I object to the labeling of Associates Degree programs as 'shitty'. In my experience, AS programs are just far more practicality oriented than academic BSs.

You want to learn how the math behind Dijkstra's algorithm works, get a BS. You want to learn how to build a network, get an AS.

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You might be right regarding computer associates: but getting a degree in something like welding is just increasing the number of firey hoops someone has to jump through to do a job he can be trained on the job for, or in a union apprenticeship program.

I myself learned welding on the job: at a muffler company, and again later in a government lab. The answer to social problems is not always "more school."

This is in fact quite common in the welding world. Several other comments mention companies that hire anyone and train them to weld. I've also read articles from the oil field companies that they do the same. So does the military, if you pass the aptitude test at least. That said, my community college will teach you to run a CNC laser welding machine, a CNC plasma table, a robotic arm MIG, etc. Getting into all of that off the street is rare.

The trade skills degrees have their place, but the 'shitty' descriptor really applies to AS degrees in academic theory-- an AS in CS from University of Phoenix or Full Sail or whatever will cost way more than a BS from a proper university and the credits only selectively transfer to other AS-level programs.

It's such a waste of money it should just be considered fraud.

My experimental concept for post-secondary schooling goes as follows:

Spend four years at junior college(s) taking useful sounding classes. German, welding, programming, calculus, jazz band, EMT, with no intention of getting an associates degree (which is of little value in any case).

Cheap, and you might actually learn something. In the modern era, I'm not so sure that following the obvious path is the right idea anymore.

That AS probably doesn’t cover anything complex like BGP, right? You can teach yourself how to “build a network” with a couple of books and a few hundred in equipment off of ebay.

Yeah, sure, or you could spend the same few hundred on classes instructed by someone who works or worked at that job and receive a piece of paper saying you did so.

I could say the same about a BS couldn't I? How was it put in Good Will Hunting? “You wasted $150,000 on an education you coulda got for $1.50 in late fees at the public library.”

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