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Anon is an engineer (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 2 years ago by [M] to c/greentext@sh.itjust.works
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[–] 22 points 2 years ago (1 child)

I've got 3 degrees and have a Gold Duke of Edinburgh award (if you do bronze, silver, and gold, you get to shake hands with a failed king)

  • Never went to any graduation ceremony
  • Never went to Buckingham Palace to shake hands with Prince Philip.

I am right now, sitting at home in my jammies eating burritos. I regret nothing.

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  • [–] 5 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    How do I become smart? All I do are online courses for tech and such. I have an established career. Good money, house family and shit....but I want the prestige of at least having a degree. But I'm functionally retarded with math.

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  • [–] 16 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    How do I become smart? All I do are online courses for tech and such. I have an established career. Good money, house family and shit

    Congrats, you are smart.

    The challenge you have now is to acknowledge and feel it.

    but I want the prestige of at least having a degree

    So here's the problem. you want the prestige, not the intelligence. You can get a degree in various ways if you want, and have the time. You can attend a university course part time, or through their online facilities. Choose a topic you've done a lot of online courses for and try for a degree.

    But I’m functionally retarded with math.

    There's resources online to help with this, maybe the new methods will help you understand math concepts better. Common core, khan academy, and the sponsor of this lemmy post, skillshare

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago* (1 child)

    For some tracks there are even speedrun/lower-cost guides for online degrees through places like WGU. They except transfers from online courses as well. You can do it cheap, especially if you get tuition reimbursement.

    I just found out my state (Massachusetts) offers associates programs at any state CC for anyone who doesn't already have a degree. For adults over 25 the program is called MassReconnect. I'd have to look into transfers, but I imagine those could be transferred to WGU towards a 4yr or post-grad degree. Some of the CC programs can also be done all (or mostly) online.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    I do want to earn the degree. Not fast track my way through or anything. Im 33. I skipped higher education for CS, MS, Networking certs. The general ed courses are my only stopping block. And widdling that down more it really is math.

    I won't commit until I put my money where my mouth is most of the time. I've learned that from burning myself out with certs.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    The general ed courses are my only stopping block. And widdling that down more it really is math.

    It sounds like you're from the US. Some of the international universities might have paths that don't require strict maths... maybe a logic course? Not sure.

    Anyway, part time education doesn't fast track, it's usually the opposite. Check out some courses to see if they might offer you a path that's more suitable.

    For example, this course from London Met doesn't have any maths requirements :

    https://www.londonmet.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/computer-networking-and-cloud-security---beng-hons/

    However, part time/remote options aren't very clear on that website.

    You can do this course remotely with the Open university , but it has maths requirements

    https://www.open.ac.uk/courses/computing-it/degrees/bsc-computing-it-communications-networking-q62-cnet

    most important is that you enjoy it. Not having the degree didn't stop you achieving before, so it should be for self fulfilment. I also don't have a degree per se (more a diploma/dropout) but it's fun to look into this stuff and play pretend with a stranger's life from time to time.

    Best of luck with everything, dear stranger.

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  • [–] 7 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    You don't need to be smart. Back in my uni, there were student initiatives to record the questions and answers of previous exams. The Math department itself gave out previous years exams to study from.

    The key to remember: exams aren't written my professors, they're written by the postdocs who have better things to do, and so they just rehash the same stuff from the year before.

    If you want to get a useless piece of paper that tells you that you are an expert in topic X, then don't learn X, learn to pass the papers for the X exam, and learn X later in your free time if you're still interested in it.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (1 child)

    Something, something judging a fish by it's ability to climb a tree

    I think you're a smart person that's terrible at math. It's ok to be bad at math, I am too and I have a degree in computer science with a union job. Now that I've thrown away a bunch of money, I've learned that CS is awesome and I love it but I don't feel like I can qualify myself as being smart with it. With age I learned that I'm really smart with labor militancy and history, and if I could go back I'd get a degree in labor studies. I think you just need to find your topic.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I also think I can be a smart person that is terrible at math. I have so many niches of hobbies that I've gotten into, and my boss has already reiterated that a degree isn't going to help my tech ical skills at this point. But it's something I'd like to earn for myself. So the sky (and my wallet) are the limit on the degree I'd get.

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