# 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:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**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, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/41 "2010-07-06T21:27:41Z")
> [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](#): > > Even if your finger misses the space bar, won’t spell check pick it up? It depends on how you use spell check. At my last assignment in the Navy, there was one civilian worker who always selected “Add to dictionary” when the program found a misspelled word. ---
**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 7, 2010, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/42 "2010-07-07T02:53:22Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Well, great. Now I agree with **Rand Rover**. Thanks a lot, OP. > [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Savor it Randy, you’re right on the mark here, for once. Welcome to the correct side of history. ---
**Author:** ![Baffle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/dec6dc/32.png) [@Baffle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baffle)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/43 "2010-07-07T19:01:34Z")
> [@moejoe](#): > > The CSU I attend is local, which makes it possible for me to work and go to school. It’s a CSU though, so it’s not really an education worth the money I’m spending on it. > > For proof I submit a quote from an email I received from an instructor today: > > “…give you a heads up on this assignment because you only have 5 weeks of class with me and it is not alot of time to find and complete the project.” > > argh You’re wasting your money on a BA regardless of your professor’s spelling ability. ---
**Author:** ![Algher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Algher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Algher)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/44 "2010-07-07T20:09:25Z")
I think you should be thankful that the prof is emailing you a heads-up on an assignment, instead of just letting you crash and burn. ---
**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 7, 2010, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/45 "2010-07-07T20:31:54Z")
> [@billfish678](#): > > 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 🙂 And my mother always did have excellent penmanship, even if she couldn’t spell the word “occasion” at all. ---
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2010, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/46 "2010-07-07T22:50:33Z")
> [@mhendo](#): > > 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. Understood, and Lord knows my professors were still busy with articles and other projects. It’s just that second-tier universities are good for PhDs who don’t really want the publish-or-perish atmosphere that top-tier schools often have. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/47 "2010-07-09T18:02:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Well, great. Now I agree with **Rand Rover**. Thanks a lot, OP. Me too. **moejoe** , have you ever had 50 emails to respond to in 30 minutes? It’s a freakin’ email, not a paper or essay. Would you have rather had her carefully proof read the 20 she did before yours and never even have sent it to you. BTW, check out the costs of other colleges. You are still getting a bargain, even if not as much of one as it used to be. CSUs, as have been mentioned, are plenty good. I assume you are snarky about their quality from having turned down offers from Harvard and Yale, right. Not to mention CSU professors are getting screwed by the state (UC profs also.) As for bad spelling, I took a systems programming class from a pretty famous MIT professor. He said that to deal with his bad spelling, he wrote his Fortran compiler to take alternate versions of Dimension and the like. ---
**Author:** ![moejoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@moejoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/moejoe)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/48 "2010-07-09T18:54:47Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Me too. **moejoe** , have you ever had 50 emails to respond to in 30 minutes? It’s a freakin’ email, not a paper or essay. Would you have rather had her carefully proof read the 20 she did before yours and never even have sent it to you. > > BTW, check out the costs of other colleges. You are still getting a bargain, even if not as much of one as it used to be. CSUs, as have been mentioned, are plenty good. I assume you are snarky about their quality from having turned down offers from Harvard and Yale, right. > > Not to mention CSU professors are getting screwed by the state (UC profs also.) > > As for bad spelling, I took a systems programming class from a pretty famous MIT professor. He said that to deal with his bad spelling, he wrote his Fortran compiler to take alternate versions of Dimension and the like. Whatever. It was a mass email to the whole class a week before the class started. The “alot” thing ticked a nerve for me, as I’m sure some equally minor thing ticks the nerve of everyone here getting on my case. As I said WAY upthread it probably would have been better placed in MPTIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2010, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651/49 "2010-07-09T19:15:19Z")
> [@moejoe](#): > > As I said WAY upthread it probably would have been better placed in MPTIMS. MPSIMS. And this way we got to yell at you. 😃 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-am-wasting-my-money-on-my-ba-degree/545651.md?page=2)