Bachelor of Arts in Biology. Gogo liberal arts schools, people still wonder about the BA (vs BS) thing. Graduated '99 and have been working in some flavor of biological research since.

And my Nerd Score is 41.

there was no way my parents could have ever afforded for any of their children to go school. Not only did they not have money to pay for college but we were under enormous pressure to get full time jobs as soon as we could (i left school after landing a decent one).

while i did earn some money from our state (something our governor had just introduced, money for college for high test scores), it wasnt enough. Also looking back i now know that i could have taken on loans (or even worked my way through as so many have), but my family needed the extra money i could bring in.

thank god neither me nor my parents had drug/alcohol/gambling problems, or else i would have a first hand experience in what seems to be pretty standard practice for many low income people (sadly): failure.

Hmm, I went with "some college" since there wasn't an option for "diploma in flute from classical music college, dropped out, retrained in computer operations, retrained again in computer hardware installation (on the job), joined a folk music band, did okay, moved to Wales".

Understandably, I feel

I agree. I think it's highly unlikely for you to "pick up" knowledge of the sort that is taught in universities. Hence, why employers value degrees. Masters and Phd level instruction can only be found there 99% of the time. Oh there are all kinds of things that generally aren't taught in universities but the most important thing that comes from a university education is logic, problem solving and seeing things from every conceivable angle. This what uneducated people sometimes refer to as a "lack of common sense". Generally problem solving skills of that nature aren't something you can pickup without going to college. I'm sure any standarized test of non-college students vs. graduates can support that. Just me .02.

being a history major i feel i could learn out of books just as easy without the tuition but being trained in mandarin chinese and japanese is not something you can pick up from a book or tape (without sounding like a tourist). so college is essential to high lvl language study , beyond that what ever floats your individual boats

I´m just a wannabe according to that test. I´m not sure about that though... Even though I really respect the extreme, expert knowledge of supreme nerds, I just lack that level of ambition. I guess I´m a slacker more than a nerd. And I´m happy with that.

What actual score though? I want to know if I'm still the least nerdy one to have posted a result.

Well, you are still the least nerdy. I´m the second least nerdy (I think) with a score of 28%. Thought it would be higher to be honest.

Wonder how low your score needs to be for you to be concidered hip? (A pitty you can´t expect to ever get the answer to that question if you´re the one who asked it )

I used to be hip, but then I got older and had to get it replaced.

I'm so hip I have trouble seeing over my pelvis.

~J

9 here.

"Despises Nerds"

"...except on days when there's a Shadowrun game"

Well those of course. I was thinking more along the lines of police academies and whatnot.

Police Academies? Sure. I'd even go so far as to say other civilian tech schools count. A grad still gets some sort of certification. If you want to split hairs over it, schools like ITT Tech and the lot could be given a sperate catagory in the next poll like this that shows up.

There is an awful lot that can be learned if you have the desire to do so. Cutting edge technology, maybe not.

I attended one of the top engineering schools in the world and got passing grades without help from any faculty. The reason was the professors did not teach a class, their teaching assistants did. All the TAs for my math and science classes spoke a language other than english as their primary language. I do not think they could even converse in english, much less explain a damn thing. For reasons other than academic, I transferred after a year.

I graduated from what was/is supposed to be one of the top 10 business schools in the US. I paid my own way after the first year, so every course I took was one that was supposed to be meaningful in some way. No bowling, billiards, or basket weaving classes. My blow off classes were business courses, law courses, and creative writing courses. I dual majored and could have triple majored with one more semester in another business course.

My first semester at this school, I went into a final exam in a required math course and could have failed the exam with a high "F" and still had the highest point total of anyone enrolled in the course that semester. This was without really opening the book and blowing off a lot of the lectures about midway through the semester.

So the next semester after seeing a textbook that cost about twice what any of my other texts were running (co-authored by one of the professors of the Psychology course, another required course), I decided to do my own experiment and not bother reading the text. I did attend several boring lectures until the first exam, aced it, and only showed up for tests for the duration. Wound up with a C+.

The course I had an interest in, I read every book I could find in the library pertaining to them. Many were in a format much easier to understand than a textbook. Many contained the same principles.

I guess the point is, someone with some common sense and general knowledge can pass classes covering general knowledge. People could learn the same things I learned much less expensively by reading from the same publicly available library I read from. What you do get, as someone else mentioned, is the recommendations and introductions to a job market. Well, you get them if you did well in the class or sucked up to the professor. You get an endorsement from an institution saying I made it through their BS. It does not mean you learned anything.

I have made way more money and had way more fun working at a job I wish I had started at instead of wasting time and money going to school. I say working because it is a lot like being on vacation. Especially if you have crappy vacations every now and then. I see guys I worked with for years and try to get them to quit. When I have a bad day now, I say at least I don't work at ****ing *****, and it truly raises my spirits. Learn the secret of money, and you will always find it.

Sorry for boring everyone.

92%??!!

I have a Bachelors of Science in Mathematics and Bachelor of Arts in Economics. I agree with an earlier reply that the best skills learned in college are logic, critical thinking, and problem solving, not necessarily the subject matter of your degree.

You want problem solving?

How do you arrest a 7 foot, 350 lb ex marine on PCP who is standing in a parking lot putting his fist through windshields and talking to god?

Carefully.

Lay out a bunch of twinkies filled with sedatives, and wait? *grin*

start filling in for the part of god in his conversation and get him to eat said sedative twinkies.


"you want the twinkie"

"no god i dont want twinkies, i want to smash windows"

"listen bitch , eat the twinkie! dont make me smite you!"