(07-29-2026 07:14 AM)TripleA Wrote:  

(07-28-2026 09:25 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(07-27-2026 09:19 PM)TripleA Wrote:  College seems to have turned mostly into a joke these days. Heck, even in my era (I went from '65-68, then '73-75, with Naval service in between), I honestly don't recall anything I learned that ever really helped me in life.

I honestly believe it's simply a badge you earn that proves you have stick-to-it-iveness. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot positive about that attribute, but as far as learning specific info that helped me later, no.

Of course, if you need a technical degree, such as for medicine, law, engineering, etc., then of course.

I actually found my advanced degree courses to be much more helpful, b/c I was required to read entire books on specific subjects, then submit full detailed reports over a number of weeks showing that I actually learned the material.

You may have had too much fun during your undergrad years! I learned plenty, and not just in my accounting courses.

No, I was a serious dude, on an academic scholly. Issue was, I studied religion to prep for the seminary for my first 3 1/2 years, then got a low draft number during 'Nam, joined the Navy, then returned home after 4 years, changed direction and got a business degree. By then, I was almost 30.

I repeat, nothing I learned in college had any impact on my career. It was all mostly generic business stuff, nothing directly applicable to my actual work duties. I learned skills, but not specific info that was helpful later.

Well the generic business stuff helps if you have subordinates and are trying to motivate them or select new hires. It helps if you work in a team and are trying to understand the dynamics. It helps if you need to "market" yourself or your department. It helps with budgeting. It helps you when the company is talking about their profits and margins. There was a programming course (in the 70s, maybe they didn't have it much earlier) that helped you understand how computers and software work when they became everywhere. If you had linear programming or Gantt charts, that could influence how you scheduled and got things done. If you are in business for yourself and work alone, pretty much the whole business core helps.

Of course, I was an accountant, so all the accounting, tax and systems stuff was relevant, even if you had to keep current.

Now the Calculus I never used again. I did learn to write creatively and had to unlearn that as at work they wanted simple sentence structure-Noun, verb, subject (but business majors were encouraged to take Technical Writing as opposed to Expository Writing, but I thought that would be boring). But the Petroleum Engineering course I took (I was exploring that as an alternative to Accounting) really helped as I worked with oil companies and worked at 3 places with various levels of connection to the oil & gas industry and auditing many others. The Chemistry course on Energy also helped. And I took several Computer Science courses that I also used, even if the languages I learned quickly became obsolete.

(07-29-2026 07:36 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(07-29-2026 07:14 AM)TripleA Wrote:  

(07-28-2026 09:25 AM)bullet Wrote:  

(07-27-2026 09:19 PM)TripleA Wrote:  College seems to have turned mostly into a joke these days. Heck, even in my era (I went from '65-68, then '73-75, with Naval service in between), I honestly don't recall anything I learned that ever really helped me in life.

I honestly believe it's simply a badge you earn that proves you have stick-to-it-iveness. Don't get me wrong, there is a lot positive about that attribute, but as far as learning specific info that helped me later, no.

Of course, if you need a technical degree, such as for medicine, law, engineering, etc., then of course.

I actually found my advanced degree courses to be much more helpful, b/c I was required to read entire books on specific subjects, then submit full detailed reports over a number of weeks showing that I actually learned the material.

You may have had too much fun during your undergrad years! I learned plenty, and not just in my accounting courses.

No, I was a serious dude, on an academic scholly. Issue was, I studied religion to prep for the seminary for my first 3 1/2 years, then got a low draft number during 'Nam, joined the Navy, then returned home after 4 years, changed direction and got a business degree. By then, I was almost 30.

I repeat, nothing I learned in college had any impact on my career. It was all mostly generic business stuff, nothing directly applicable to my actual work duties. I learned skills, but not specific info that was helpful later.

Well the generic business stuff helps if you have subordinates and are trying to motivate them or select new hires. It helps if you work in a team and are trying to understand the dynamics. It helps if you need to "market" yourself or your department. It helps with budgeting. It helps you when the company is talking about their profits and margins. There was a programming course (in the 70s, maybe they didn't have it much earlier) that helped you understand how computers and software work when they became everywhere. If you had linear programming or Gantt charts, that could influence how you scheduled and got things done. If you are in business for yourself and work alone, pretty much the whole business core helps.

Of course, I was an accountant, so all the accounting, tax and systems stuff was relevant, even if you had to keep current.

Now the Calculus I never used again. I did learn to write creatively and had to unlearn that as at work they wanted simple sentence structure-Noun, verb, subject (but business majors were encouraged to take Technical Writing as opposed to Expository Writing, but I thought that would be boring). But the Petroleum Engineering course I took (I was exploring that as an alternative to Accounting) really helped as I worked with oil companies and worked at 3 places with various levels of connection to the oil & gas industry and auditing many others. The Chemistry course on Energy also helped. And I took several Computer Science courses that I also used, even if the languages I learned quickly became obsolete.

I'm not going by what courses I took. I'm going by what I actually recall learning that helped me. If I don't remember anything specific, then that's a pretty big hint that I learned nothing specifically helpful.

IMO, my college degree helped a great bit, b/c I got a job and had a business career that I could not have had without that degree, but as far as learning specific things that were helpful, I can't recall anything.

If I held an accounting degree and became an accountant, then I would feel differently. And I def supervised a lot of people. I was production manager of a manufacturing plant in MS, and plant manager of another plant in Kentucky, before going into business operations consulting.