Successful Without College

BOP

Well-Known Member
The oldest had to take a geography class this semester, he is not interested in geography but it was a requirement. In this class he had to write a paper about food inequalities in other countries in relation to geography, climate and socioeconomic factors. He will be the first one to tell you, he is NOT interested in social issues, he just wants to design and build stuff, he doesn't care about, and I quote, "I'm not too interested in that social justice stuff, it's a bunch of crap." #TearInMyEye
 

RareBreed

Throwing the deuces
My son got involved in ROTC his 2nd semester his freshman year in college. He got the free tuition and books deal. Each semester when he came back home, I could see the maturation process taking place. He got better organized. He also learned valuable lessons. A few of the cadets lost their scholarships because of DUIs. And they almost force you to finish on time.

1 winter break they sent him to Georgia to jump out of airplanes and earn jump wings. Another break they sent him to some other training. Once he graduated, it was off to flight training. He got paid to train for a year and a half. Plus he learned a valuable skill.

Fast forward a decade and he's already commanded a company, been deployed, traveled the world and he's past the half way point to retirement.
My son started his Freshman year in High School and stuck with it. He will be a Senior in the Fall. He is the type of kid that needs structure and basically told what he needs to do so I think the military will be good for him.
 

PeoplesElbow

Well-Known Member
Of that I have no doubt - my first job I knew almost nothing about relational databases or - shudder - COBOL. But I had done programming and I adapted quickly. Ditto all of the other computer aspects I would learn over the next few years - never written in a script language like KORN or Bash - and so forth.

On the other hand - without SOME form of accreditation, my future employer could in no way get a good idea of how good I'd be at the job. Not unless I'd ALREADY had a job doing something like that. Which leads me to support the idea of internships with the intent of a commitment to stay with an employer somewhere down the road.

And although my wife disagrees with me - I'm in favor of undergraduate programs in college completely dropping the courses totally unrelated to the sought degree. And I'm unclear on the fuzzy ones. But if you're going to get a degree in engineering, you're better served taking more courses in your intended career, and not waste 40-50 hours in history and literature. They don't do that in grad school - EVERY CLASS is for your degree, none of this extra crap to fill out 120 hours. If you can satisfy the engineering curriculum with fewer hours but a complete course - then that's what it should be. You shouldn't take all those extra irrelevant courses - they exist solely to keep you in school and make more money for the school.
The number of unrelated classes I had to take were fairly minimal, in addition engineering degrees required more hours than say chemistry or physics. I also welcomed the chance for an easy A and to actually meet girls in a class. The additional hours made it almost impossible to earn the degree in the regular 8 semesters, most took 5 years or 4 with summer classes.

For my masters I did have to take two bullshit math classes that I never used for anything. For engineering graduate degrees the real work isn't so much the classes it is the research work that leads to your thesis, I spent my last year getting my MSME with zero classes, and that was fairly normal. A PhD student can spend two or three years after their classes are over. I knew one guy that took 7 years to get his PhD, but his research ended up so breakthrough he was immediately hired as a professor there.
 

LightRoasted

If I may ...
If I may ...

There's a handful of reasons why skilled tradesman make the big bucks - some good and some bad.
I like to call these somewhat of "service industry" trades, (not the waitress and the like, service type jobs). For the most part, in good times and in bad times, good economies or depressive economies, there is always work for these skilled individuals. Not so for those working in a non-governmental office job. People will always, or must, pay for what they do not know how to do themselves, or are unable to do so.
 

LightRoasted

If I may ...
If I may ...

I will say this . I have watched them building these stick built apartment buildings and they look like fire traps to me.
Yup. Made with the cheapest of materials. Crap OSB for structural framing and roofing. Thinnest sheetrock possible that's code compliant. Chinese made wall switches and wall outlets. Etc. And with the ever rising lumber prices adding up to $36,000 to the cost of a new build home, you can bet these builders are cutting corners somewhere along the line.
 

Hijinx

Well-Known Member
^yeahthat lesson learned by the 3 little pigs.

When I was first married we moved into an Apartment, but it was built of Masonry. I made a couple of dollars more and we moved to a nicer place and it was built of bock and brick. Today they build fire traps no Fire stops and wood everywhere. They seem confident that sprinklers will save lives. It might for a small fire but if it gets going they will lose the whole building. They shouldn't be allowed.
 

black dog

Free America
When I was first married we moved into an Apartment, but it was built of Masonry. I made a couple of dollars more and we moved to a nicer place and it was built of bock and brick. Today they build fire traps no Fire stops and wood everywhere They seem confident that sprinklers will save lives. It might for a small fire but if it gets going they will lose the whole building. They shouldn't be allowed.

Wrong, firestops have been around since ballon framing went away.
The only buildings I ever worked on that didnt have wall firestops had steel studs and concrete floors and ceilings with rockwool as insulation and noise suppression.
 

Kinnakeet

Well-Known Member
Wrong, firestops have been around since ballon framing went away.
The only buildings I ever worked on that didnt have wall firestops had steel studs and concrete floors and ceilings with rockwool as insulation and noise suppression.
Fire stops do you mean blocks of wood in between the 2x4 walls?
 

GURPS

INGSOC
PREMO Member
Patton Clayworks were world renowned .... residents fighting in WW II found Patton Paver Bricks in Germany
 

Hijinx

Well-Known Member
Let's see , building a new home. A regular home, not a McMansion.

$50 to $100 Thousand for a building lot with a perk
$1,000 for a surveyor.
$4800 dollars for the impact fee.
$6,000 for a well
$20,000 for the mound ---may be more.
$10,000 for sprinklers.
$150,000 for materials.
@20,000 for the contractor.
$2,000 dollars for the surveyor to plot everything out for the health department.
Did I miss anything?
 
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