When A College Ends A Degree Program

[Saint_Michael 3]

Last Tuesday, when I was attending the monthly Adobe User's Group at the college I went to earn my Bachelors and Masters. The manager of the group who was also of my teachers announce that the school was going to end the Information Technology degree (my Masters) due to the fact that many of the web design based courses the school provides were going to be dropped. I understood the reasoning due to the fact a lot of the stuff you learn in these courses you could easily learn online or through the thousands of books that cover all the topics on web design. Of course, I felt the degree was more managerial and business than web due to the fact that I took 3-4 courses relating to web design and spent more time on the business side of things.

 

Either way, I kind of had mixed emotions as Information Technology is a viable area of study because it opens a lot of worlds to a person like it did for me and in some ways has made me a more effective web designer more in the sense of awareness of the process as I am still waiting to apply it. So finding out that I will be one of the last to earn this degree is sad but at the same time somewhat happy that I am walking around with an extinct degree. Though I know it won't hurt my chances in finding a job, but I get that sense of oddness knowing I am walking a dead degree. Of course, to extend on that happiness I am kind of glad I got my Masters there when i did because of how I dealt with my financial situation, student loan free by the way, as I would have gone to a much further school in order to complete such a program at a much more expensive price.

[sheepdog 10]

I can understand you having mixed feelings over this one for sure. Even if you got your degree without going into debt for years, I'm sure you still have a sizeable investment in your degree.

 

In some ways though, I am glad to hear that a person can get an education these days without going to college. With the job market as it is, it would really suck to come out of school with a great education and a huge debt of student loans, and then not be able to find a job in the field you have your degree in.

 

In years past, not that many people went to college. Thre used to be a lot more options available for young people that did not involve them going into hock before they ever got their lives started. It's bad enough if you are a young person starting out in a new job, you end up getting married, buying a car, and maybe a home and that is enough debt with just that without adding many thousands of dollars of student loans on top of your debt burden. It's a shame there are less and less oppertunities availble. Apprentiships, on the job training, and other ways are not so common anymore. Shame our youger generation is gotten into such a bind.