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Old 3rd November 2008
drhowarddrfine drhowarddrfine is offline
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My nephew went to ITT and he very much enjoyed it, just graduated a couple months ago with an AA in "Computer Engineering", whatever that is. In the past, an ITT education was considered crap, but either the quality there has gone up or the bar has been lowered since they are now accredited to hand out degrees. At one time I taught at Control Data Institute, an ITT-type tech school, and despite the best efforts locally, few people ever left there that I would hire.

I told my nephew not to go to ITT, or at least make sure I went with them when they visited the school but they went on their own. At his graduation party, my son said my nephew was still looking for a job and the only potential offer he got was from some unknown oil company far out of town.

His knowledge of how computers work is much more advanced than in the past. I no longer have to run over there and fix their Windows computers anymore, but I haven't had a chance to interview him, and I'm a little nervous about saying anything to my brother.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TerryP View Post
I've been home schooled since I was 7 years old, but between work and other stuff, never got a diploma out of it.
Both of my sons were homeschooled. Do you have to take a test with the state to get a diploma? Few, if any, do.

What a lot of people in my area do, who are concerned about expenses, is what my son did and go to community college for the first two years. We weren't that concerned about the cost but:

1) It was a heck of a lot cheaper than any other college, including the state college

2) He can get there in 5 minutes from our house

3) He's a bit shy and not used to the routine of regular school so this gives him some time to settle in. It's worked out well now that he will finish his AA this semester.

4) In Missouri, almost all the colleges guarantee transfer of your credits from a Missouri community college.

Once you get past high school and need more training, it's hard to do such things at home. I can teach programming but I can't teach other areas.

I'm surprised that mhd doesn't look at education. I have not interviewed in many years but almost everyone I knew would not talk to anyone who didn't have a degree. I sat in on one such interview where the guy had experience in the area we wanted, and could give good answers during the interview, but was rejected based on that alone. Very, very foolish on their part.

Anyway, you sound like you know what you want to do but need help getting it organized and presentable. School can help you do that. As far as cost, you don't have to take a full load at any school. Some homeschooled kids, who can't get into their preferred school, will go in the "back door" by going part time. You can do that for as little as one semester and most schools will take you full time automatically. (Which displays some of the questionable screening processes of colleges.)

My other son was one of 25 accepted out of 850 applicants to a theatre school in Chicago but that was based on auditioning so not the same thing.
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