Degree Regret

Discussion in 'General Distance Learning Discussions' started by Kizmet, Jul 12, 2019.

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  1. Kizmet

    Kizmet Moderator

  2. TEKMAN

    TEKMAN Semper Fi!

    Some people regret their degree because they were taught in high school to go with their passion. After college graduation, they realize that passion does not pay the bills. I have been people who have Chemistry degree but worked as County Park Ranger. I have been people have a Psychology degree and working at Starbucks. People who start a job right after high school have better employment chance after 4 years comparing new college graduates.

    I do not regret my degree major, but I regret the school I attended. I wish I could attend school with more prestigious.
     
  3. cookderosa

    cookderosa Resident Chef

    How does someone get into a situation where they can feel regret? This won't be a long and winding muse, but I've often read philosophical and psychological analyses (granted, pseud-science) about such things, and it seems to me that people feel regret when they believe they missed an opportunity to either do or not do something. What I'm most interested in, is what they think they would do differently TODAY. Is it that they regret their student loan debt as the article suggests, or that their major didn't lead to the occupation they imagined, or that they spent any money or time in college at all? I mean to be fair, there is no "one right path" that everyone should follow - we need a diverse representation of skills and occupations to make this world work. So, they don't like what led them to where they are.... ok, so what wisdom can they share from that? Or is it just something to bellyache about over a beer on Friday at 5?

    I think that I have very few regrets because there is always something to learn from a decision - nothing is every ALL good or ALL bad. Every time you turn right on the street you've missed the entire world of what happened from not turning left.... getting hit by a car or finding a $100 bill. So the point of regret is to learn moving forward, as I see it. I do hope that the regretful in the article share their wisdom with their kids, which is really the best any of us can hope to do!
     
    sideman likes this.
  4. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    I don't have any regrets. I pursued my passion - criminal justice (B.S., M.S.) through to my current doctoral level and it is paying the bills. I pursued an MBA for no specific reason but here I am teaching business and criminal justice.
     
  5. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    Visible minorities must pursue higher education to be competitive. I don’t think there is any research that can persuade me otherwise. Visible minorities makes less with a college degree than those with a high school diploma. So having just a high school diploma if you are a visible minority may lead to a life of poverty.
     
  6. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    I agree with you. Someone in another group shared that black people don't network and I'm inclined to believe. I think getting a degree is only part of the solution. I think networking is a bigger part of it.
     
  7. Phdtobe

    Phdtobe Well-Known Member

    There may not be that many people to form a network. I don’t have one because I have not met that many of us to form a network.
     
  8. LearningAddict

    LearningAddict Well-Known Member

    With tuition as high as it is and wages that don't cover life expenses well enough for most, I can see how many people would regret this. That makes sense. It's the people who wish others to regret their degrees that I find completely bizarre... and quite frankly, pathetic.
     
  9. JoshD

    JoshD Well-Known Member

    I wish I had gotten into the business field sooner but I do not regret my biology education. An undergraduate degree to me is just scratching the surface. In our world today it is almost always a requirement to have a masters for well-paying positions and I am thankful to have an MBA and about to pursue my MS.
     
  10. chrisjm18

    chrisjm18 Well-Known Member

    Why not? Sure some fields will be less represented but there are over 4.6 million black people with college degrees in the U.S. Of that figure, over 150, 000 have professional degrees (law, medicine, etc.) and over 136, 000 have doctorates.
     
    Phdtobe likes this.
  11. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    One nice thing about the US ( not limited to the US) is that for the MBA program you don't have to have a BBA degree.

    My friend's daughter earned a bachelors degree with a major in Spanish. She loved it and was also an exchange student for some period in Madrid.
    Yet after graduation, her employment prospects were very limited. Not having a teaching credential in her state she was able to get substitute teacher jobs or TA jobs. She tried interpretation on demand services but the Spanish agents mostly outsourced to Lima Peru. She started regretting that she had the wrong major. Didn't want to become a teacher - with another year for credential study + 6 months as a student teaching class.

    Well, I mentioned to her that she can go to a grad school and earn an MBA in one of the fields she may like. She went to a grad school for an MBA in Public Admin.
    She has now a very fulfilling career in local government.
     
    Phdtobe likes this.

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