Re: Student-Degree valuable or not?

[Paul Ledin <paul_ledin () yahoo com>]

Well statistically speaking a college degree of any
variety is worth about $500K(computed using average
salary for someone with a 4 year degree over 40 years
or something along those lines), so your return on
investment is something like 1,250% assuming a cost of
$40,000.  

I've read the other poster's gloom and doom about H1Bs
and the mass IT outsourcing to the 3rd world, but IMHO
it's overblown.  If everybody's outsourcing to
India(or whereever) then why are American IT job loss
projections over the next 10 years only like 10%? 
It's not like it's some tightly guarded secret that a
3rd world developer makes 1/10th what an American
does.  If your good, you'll find work.

Besides dude your 22?  Most 22-year-olds I know are
either in school, or slinging tacos.  If I were u I'd
rejoice in the fact that u can pay for school w/o debt
and say bring on the beer, babes, etc.  After studying
of course.  Plus I kind of doubt that M$ or Google
would even look at u w/o a degree, even if big Bill
doesn't have one.

As far as the security thing goes, I'm of the opinion
that in 4 years time the market will be swimming in
*security engineers*.  Don't they make like $100K with
no experience? And unlimited frapachinos! ;-)  I
definitely think that security knowledge is a must in
the IT field, but I'd be careful not to pigeonhole
yourself.  I'm holding off till either (a) Teach
Yourself IT Security in 24 Hours is released, or (b)
that dude hawking learn Windoze98 CDs, *guarantees* me
that he will make me a security professional to make
my prediction final.

If your so worried about cash, then why the private
school?


--- DANIEL SIMPSON <DANSIMPS () uat edu> wrote:
> Hey,
>
>
> I just retired from a 4 year stint in Silicon Valley
> where I was a
> System Administrator/Technical Engineer for a couple
> start-ups. I
> started getting more and more into Information
> Security and finally
> decided to quit my boring job and move to Arizona to
> enter a 4 year
> program at a private university. I'm getting my B.S
> in software
> engineering with an emphasis on security. How
> valuable will this degree
> be and what are the forecasts for the job market in
> this field in about
> 4 years. The program is REALLY expensive and I
> cashed out all my
> investments/savings to pay for it (roughly 10k a
> year). I might even go
> to law school afterwards. Is this degree worth the
> estimated 40-50k? I'm
> 22 btw, my dream is to work for Microsoft or Goggle
> for a couple years
> and start my own security firm.
>
>
> Any suggestions would be awesome.
>
> Dann
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=====
I can't die until the government finds a safe place to bury my liver.
                -- Phil Harris

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