# I am wasting my money on my BA degree **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [July 6, 2010, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651 "2010-07-06T00:30:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/21 "2010-07-06T02:49:59Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > One of your professors used “alot” in an email and that has you questioning the value of you going to college at all? I think you need to read the OP again. He is questioning whether the degree from the CSU he is attending is worth the money they charge, not the value of any college education. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/22 "2010-07-06T03:01:12Z")
[This blog has everything.](http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html) ---
**Author:** ![Rand\_Rover](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/db5fbb/32.png) [@Rand\_Rover](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rand_Rover)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/23 "2010-07-06T03:02:25Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > I think you need to read the OP again. He is questioning whether the degree from the CSU he is attending is worth the money they charge, not the value of any college education. OH, OK. I would like to revise and extend my previous remarks to reflect that I originally meant the following: Wait a minute. One of your professors used “alot” in an email and that has you questioning whether the degree from the CSU you are attending is worth the money they charge? You may want to re-evaluate how you make decisions about your life choices. Please mark me down for a “meh,” a “get the fuck over it,” a “shut the fuck up,” a “get back to work,” and two helpings of “WTF.” Thank you. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/24 "2010-07-06T03:02:25Z")
> [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Because they got their degree from a CSU? Actually, plenty of professors at second-tier state schools like the Cal State system got their PhDs from incredibly rigorous and prestigious academic programs, including top-flight state schools and world-famous private colleges. My wife teaches in the CSU system. She got her Doctorate from Johns Hopkins. Other members of her department received theirs from places like UCLA, Stanford, and UC San Diego. We know other CSU professors who went to grad school at places like Emory, Harvard, Columbia, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Cornell. Most PhDs in the United States, at least in the humanities, are granted by the top 100 or so universities in the nation. Many perfectly decent public universities, including the CSU system, don’t even offer the Doctorate. Even with the relatively limited number of PhD programs, those programs produce far more PhDs than necessary to fill those same top 100 schools, so other universities benefit from those top-level programs and are able to fill their faculty positions with graduates of very good programs. ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/25 "2010-07-06T03:35:23Z")
I’m working on my masters degree at one of the top programs in my field, at the University of Michigan. Most of my classmates have their undergrad degrees from other universities at similar rankings, but one of my best friends in the program has a BA from CSU Northridge. A CSU degree is not worthless. And hey. My mom has a degree from Cal State Hayward! Don’t go talking shit about my mom! ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/26 "2010-07-06T04:46:31Z")
I’m going to echo what mhendo said, but I’m also going to tell you that many second-tier schools aren’t research institutions. They attract professors from top universities who don’t necessarily want to focus on research. They want to teach, and there are plenty of schools that will let them do that full-time, without the added burdens of supervising grad students and conducting original research. Believe me, there’s nothing more aggravating than a professor who would rather spend his time in a lab than in a classroom; it’s one of the reasons why I wanted to go to a second-tier school in the first place. That said, please don’t dismiss your entire education on what is most likely a typo. It’s not worth it. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/27 "2010-07-06T05:01:12Z")
OP: Are you talking about a California university? CSU is not a community college. The state of California has three public post-secondary school systems: [ol][li][Univeristy of California](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_California)[/li][li][California State Univeristy](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_State_University)[/li][li][California Community Colleges](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Community_Colleges)[/ol][/li] Check the rankings for the various CSU campuses, I don’t see a reason to denigrate that system. Also, there’s nothing at all wrong with a community college. It’s simply the lower division of post-secondary education. FTR: I graduated from both Monterey Peninsula College (a community college) and University of California, Davis (a UC university). ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/28 "2010-07-06T05:15:55Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Wait a minute. One of your professors used “alot” in an email and that has you questioning the value of you going to college at all? You may want to re-evaluate how you make decisions about your life choices. > > Please mark me down for a “meh,” a “get the fuck over it,” a “shut the fuck up,” a “get back to work,” and two helpings of “WTF.” Thank you. Well, great. Now I agree with **Rand Rover**. Thanks a lot, OP. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/29 "2010-07-06T09:13:49Z")
**moejoe** , when I took the usual battery of tests in high school, I scored in the 99th percentile in English. After a degree in language arts from a very good university, I taught English for twenty years. When I came here about eight years ago, I was _still_ misspelling the word _allot_ as **a-l-o-t**. Someone was kind enough to point it out and I went on to misspell other words. If you are good at spelling, I envy you. But I suspect that there are other things that are still to be learned from this school. You won’t be wasting money if you let your teachers know that you want very much to be well-educated when you leave that school and that you will appreciate any reading lists that they might give you so that you can continue to educate yourself beyond the classroom and after your degree. Also, when you run across very good professors, ask them out for coffee and pick their brains. Let them know that you want to do just that. You also may find that your judgments about who is a good professor may change over the years. Chin up and enjoy learning _everything._ Don’t ever stop. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/30 "2010-07-06T09:19:42Z")
> [@Rand\_Rover](#): > > Please mark me down for a “meh,” a “get the fuck over it,” a “shut the fuck up,” a “get back to work,” and two helpings of “WTF.” Thank you. Savor it Randy, you’re right on the mark here, for once. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/31 "2010-07-06T14:31:45Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > I know lots of people who got good educations in the CSU system, and who are successful in their careers. Me, for one. And when I’m in a bit of a hurry, my spelling gets iffy. Just ask my students. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/32 "2010-07-06T16:49:55Z")
> [@MsRobyn](#): > > I’m going to echo what mhendo said, but I’m also going to tell you that many second-tier schools aren’t research institutions. They attract professors from top universities who don’t necessarily want to focus on research. They want to teach, and there are plenty of schools that will let them do that full-time, without the added burdens of supervising grad students and conducting original research. While i agree with the general sentiment of your post, it is worth pointing out that, while the CSU schools do not offer the PhD, faculty members who wish to remain in their jobs and receive tenure cannot do so through teaching alone. All the tenured faculty in my wife’s department have produced scholarly monographs and/or scholarly articles in peer-reviewed journals. While the publication requirements for tenure are not as strict as for a top-tier research school, faculty are still expected to be involved in research and publication as part of their jobs. And they are expected to do this while shouldering a teaching load that is considerably greater than at top tier universities, and without the opportunity for paid sabbatical leave that professors are R1 universities can rely on to facilitate their writing. ---
**Author:** ![Fish\_Nya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@Fish\_Nya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fish_Nya)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/33 "2010-07-06T16:56:33Z")
> [@Inner\_Stickler](#): > > [This blog has everything.](http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/2010/04/alot-is-better-than-you-at-everything.html) I was going to post that. I love Alot. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Excellent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f19dbf/32.png) [@Mr.Excellent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Excellent)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/34 "2010-07-06T17:03:43Z")
For what it’s worth, **moejoe** , I went to a very small liberal-arts school - certainly more obscure than any CSU school. I worked hard, graduated with good grades, and ended up going to a damn good law school. It doesn’t matter how good your college is. What matters is how good _you_ are. If you kick ass, no one will care that you went to a low-end school. If you fail, no one will care that it wasn’t a top-notch college that failed you. And if you’re just mediocre - well, every college produces mediocre graduates. ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/35 "2010-07-06T18:27:32Z")
> [@Mr.Excellent](#): > > For what it’s worth, **moejoe** , I went to a very small liberal-arts school - certainly more obscure than any CSU school. I worked hard, graduated with good grades, and ended up going to a damn good law school. > > It doesn’t matter how good your college is. What matters is how good _you_ are. If you kick ass, no one will care that you went to a low-end school. If you fail, no one will care that it wasn’t a top-notch college that failed you. And if you’re just mediocre - well, every college produces mediocre graduates. Thanks for that Mr. Excellent, actually I do kick ass 🙂 I think even so called “low end” schools can have some really excellent teachers, and I’m not sure I’d call a CSU low end anyway, but it does bother me that I’m paying _a lot_ of money to take a class from someone who doesn’t know that a lot is two words. For some people obviously it’s nothing more than a typo or slip of the space bar, and that’s fine. It’s just a pet peeve of mine that probably would have been better placed in MPSIMS ---
**Author:** ![Drain\_Bead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e47774/32.png) [@Drain\_Bead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drain_Bead)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/36 "2010-07-06T18:35:01Z")
My mother used to call home when I was in the 7th grade to ask me how to spell words in reports she was writing. She’s a doctor. Sometimes people just aren’t good spellers. ---
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/37 "2010-07-06T19:05:33Z")
That’s kind of scary. If a doctor screws up the spelling of a particular word, it could kill someone, couldn’t it? I guess you could say that about other fields, too, though. Also, spelling is one of the most basic forms of coherent communication. Even if your finger misses the space bar, won’t spell check pick it up? Anyway, that’s all; sort of a pet peeve of mine, too. Carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/38 "2010-07-06T19:12:57Z")
You’ve got to be kidding me. Your pitting of the value of your college degree is entirely based on the premise that _a professor’s e-mail_ didn’t have a space between the word “a” and the word “lot”? Holy fuck you are going to have a hard time with life in general if something so small bothers you so much (and I say this as someone who is generally pretty diligent about good spelling and grammar). ---
**Author:** ![billfish678](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7bcc69/32.png) [@billfish678](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/billfish678)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/39 "2010-07-06T19:38:35Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > That’s kind of scary. If a doctor screws up the spelling of a particular word, it could kill someone, couldn’t it? I guess you could say that about other fields, too, though. Also, spelling is one of the most basic forms of coherent communication. Even if your finger misses the space bar, won’t spell check pick it up? Anyway, that’s all; sort of a pet peeve of mine, too. Carry on. Well, certainly DONT look a doctors “handwriting” when it comes to a prescription they give you then. You might go into shock and die on the spot 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2010, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/40 "2010-07-06T21:22:33Z")
> [@moejoe](#): > > It’s just a pet peeve of mine that probably would have been better placed in MPSIMS Well, it’s no wonder that CSU doesn’t provide a great education! Their students can’t even punctuate the end of a sentence! People make careless mistakes on occasion. Even university professors are people. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651.md?page=3)