Jumping through hoops
I have been reviewing my degree requirements. Twelve classes to go if my composition class at Carnegie Mellon will transfer as the composition class at UTD. I am not worried about that, because either it transfers, or I take one that will transfer online at a local community college. Here is my remaining degree plan.
I was also looking at CMU’s degree plan. Yep, I cried. I had a director at Motorola ask me why I would spend all that money to go to school, when I could go to school locally for a 7th of the price. Of course, at the time, I was shocked, dumbfounded and had no answer. Of course I should have gone to a state school. A degree is a degree.
A degree is still a degree, but let me point out the difference in how you go about getting your degree. At CMU, if you review their plan, you have about 6 core classes. After that, you have different areas with breadth, deepth, capstone and other fancy names. They usually give you 4 to 8 choices to complete these. Finally you have your in major, upper level electives. Lots of choices, only the first 6 are actually set in stone.
UTD on the other hand has the similar 6 core classes. These are your calculuses, physics and other classes no one really likes, but everyone has to take. Then fun should being, but at UTD, their are major core classes. No choices, no alternatives. Instead of a group of classes to choice from, you have 8 defined classes that everyone has to take. No substitutions without going to the dean, which I can tell you from experience, is pretty much a waste of time. Finally, you have your in major, upper level electives. If you are in CS, this is great, but if you are in SE, you have 3 tracks to choice from, 3 to 5 classes per track. So instead of choice what to take, you are choosing the class you are least interested in.
UTD treats their student body like they are just advanced high schoolers. You should have seen the look on my advisors face when she came across a grad level class taken during my sophmore year at CMU. “But a 500 level class is usually considered a grad level class.” Man I really wanted to say, “No shit lady, CMU doesn’t baby its student like UTD,” but I held my tongue.
CMU has just as many hoops as UTD, I have no doubt. CMU offers the same piece of paper as UTD. The ROI from UTD’s piece of paper is significantly higher than CMU’s because CMU costs 7 times as much in tuition and there is no way to complete your degree while working full time, unless you are working for CMU. But if I was returning to school just for my own intellectual benefit, with no concern for money whatsoever, I would take the much more difficult task of going back to CMU.
Of course, if I would have thought about the financial consequences of going to CMU from the beginning, I would have never seen what I would be missing out on.