|
"But does a diploma have the same meaning in America, too?"
Being an American, I took 'Diploma' in this context to mean "General Equivalency Diploma" (GED for short).
In the US, education is generally free, as in Germany. But unlike in Germany we aspire (or, rather, pretend to aspire) to give all our students "the best" education. We pretend, for as long as possible in each student's academic career, that all students are really interested in learning more than the bare basics and that each is destined for university.
At the same time, our "educationists" tend to actually teach (I use the word advisedly) the vast majority of students in their charge by the lowest common denominator. Heaven forefend that Little Johnny's delicate self-esteem should be bruised by actually having to strive to accomplish (which would mean the risk of failure to accomplish exists) anything which might justify his possession of that carefully nurtured self-esteem.
Consequently, US high schools are full of students who don't want to be there and/or don't see that they're getting anything of value from their education. It's a fact of human nature that we tend not to value as highly those things which are "free" as compared to those things which we earn.
At the same time, once you're 16, you can legally emancipate yourself from the education bureaucracy. And, a very high percentage of our students do just that.
A few years later, they often realize that high school wasn't quite as worthless as they'd thought at the time. Perhaps they finally realize that education isn't something which happens *to* you, but rather is an on-going process that you do to yourself. Or, perhaps mere economics is the motivation -- generally, lack of a high school diploma limits one's employment options to the lower paying and/or more physically demanding jobs.
So, most (if not all) States have the GED program. The now older, and one hopes wiser, former students take a test. Success at the test earns them the legal, if not quite socal, equal of the high school diploma they could have had earlier.
-- modified at 18:56 Monday 6th November, 2006
|
|
|
|
|
I am a Chinese. In China, it maybe the meaning 'GED' as Ilíon said.
That is to say, someone will get 'Diploma' after he finished courses as which is opened in university.
|
|
|
|
|
I'm from Quebec,Canada and here we have the option to specialize in college. We don't go straight to University after High School.
I did my 3 years of computer programming in there and been working since.
What option do I check? "Other" ???
Dewm Solo - Managed C++ Developer
|
|
|
|
|
bachelor probably...
V.
Stop smoking so you can: enjoy longer the money you save.
|
|
|
|
|
Diploma? You have more than High School, but not enough for a bachelors degree - Is that right? In some places 3 years additional is enough for a degree, so perhaps that may be a better option.
|
|
|
|
|
I finished school and got a job straight away. The only problem I have come across for not having a degree is getting work permits abroad.
|
|
|
|
|
I have a diploma, on the down side, I'm from South Africa so abroad that means less than toilet paper.
|
|
|
|
|
I did freelance web design for about a year after Matric, then got a job with Telkom's ISP in Midrand (awesome salary for a 19-yo :->). About 3 months later my family dragged me over to Australia .. but that turned out for the better, didn't have much trouble getting work without a degree there - portfolio & experience was proof enough.
I got some telephony training in Kuala Lumpur. And this year I passed one of the MCAD exams for the hell of it.
You're right, not having a degree does give you more hurdles at some point - but offset that against the 4 years lost time & missed earnings - whether it was worth it (for me) in the long run, time will tell.
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza ~ Web SQL Utility - asp.net app to query Access, SQL server, MySQL. Stores history, favourites.
|
|
|
|
|
Currently working for small software development company in Midrand, give me half a chance and I'm outa here
|
|
|
|
|
Here, take this 'half a chance'.;P
We made the buttons on the screen look so good you'll want to lick them. Steve Jobs
|
|
|
|
|
You really shouldn't have
He who laughs last is a bit on the slow side
|
|
|
|
|
Good luck. I remember the highway to joburg was a nightmare during peak hour. But it was my first salary-job, so I was pretty stoked at the time. Moving country is always a setback, but in the long run it's probably worth it. (But I'm not originally from RSA).
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza ~ Web SQL Utility - asp.net app to query Access, SQL server, MySQL. Stores history, favourites.
|
|
|
|
|
|
NeroToxic wrote: blow-up dolls in the car
LOL. sounds like a jeremy mansfield type stunt (BTW is he still on the air these days?)
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza ~ Web SQL Utility - asp.net app to query Access, SQL server, MySQL. Stores history, favourites.
|
|
|
|
|
It was his side kick, Wackhead, he still on the morning timeslot
He who laughs last is a bit on the slow side
|
|
|
|
|
What's the chances of you being Afrikaans speaking, name sounds English but the surname is very Afrikaans
He who laughs last is a bit on the slow side
|
|
|
|
|
Dutch actually. Spent Std 7 thru Matric + a year or so in RSA (mostly joburg). But yeah, I did learn Afrikaans in school.. forgot most of it by now tho (that was about 7 years ago).
"For fifty bucks I'd put my face in their soup and blow." - George Costanza ~ Web SQL Utility - asp.net app to query Access, SQL server, MySQL. Stores history, favourites.
|
|
|
|
|
Shame on you... Such a beautiful language.
You can always catch jerramy on streaming.
He who laughs last is a bit on the slow side
|
|
|
|
|
Paul Watson wrote: I finished school and got a job straight away.
Same here, apart from a few night-school courses to pass the time.
School didn't teach me much about how to write code and develop software properly, all the important skills I've learnt either on the job or in my own time.
|
|
|
|
|
I'm working real hard to get my bachelors degree done by august 2007. There's one positive side: I got a job already, the company that I contacted offered me a final years project with a job. So if everything goes as planned I won't be unemployed after I finished school.
I wished more people had that luck, because from what I have heard and read it's much worse in other countries. Lets hope it improves in the next few years.
WM.
What about weapons of mass-construction?
|
|
|
|
|
Paul Watson wrote: I finished school and got a job straight away. The only problem I have come across for not having a degree is getting work permits abroad.
Right. However, I can see another problem - http://thedailywtf.com is getting more and more popular. Even more popular than CodeProject is.
|
|
|
|
|
What does no-degree and the daily WTF have to do with each other?
|
|
|
|
|
Paul Watson wrote: What does no-degree and the daily WTF have to do with each other?
He is probably suggesting that no degree == more chances to create WTF code. I have to say that I've learnt more since leaving university than I ever did in university. I also learned that some of the things I was taught were just plain wrong.
|
|
|
|
|
I think the computing they teach in varsity is great for one line of computing but horrible for any kind of business computing. They seem to think students are going to go out there and code weather simulators and research data analysers. It is all very scientific which is great if that is what you are going to be programming when you leave varsity. But most don't go into scientific computing.
|
|
|
|
|
Paul Watson wrote: I think the computing they teach in varsity is great for one line of computing but horrible for any kind of business computing. They seem to think students are going to go out there and code weather simulators and research data analysers. It is all very scientific which is great if that is what you are going to be programming when you leave varsity.
Actually, I got very little in the way of scientific computing. My course was more business oriented.
However, some universities (e.g. The University of Edinburgh) do a more scientific course.
There is a joke in Edinburgh about the 3 universities there that if you give a 6 month project to a group of graduates from each of the universities the results will be that at the end of the six:
* The group from the Universrity of Edinburgh will still be discussing the relative merits of using an OO language.
* The group from Napier University will deliver the project a month late but it will look funky
* The group from Heriot Watt university will delivery the project on time and to specification regardless of what that specification was.
|
|
|
|