What Is Your Education Level In Terms Of School?

[KittyWampus]

If you left school before high school, please just use that option.

And suggestions for organizing this poll are greatly appreciated.

I got two Bachelors in different subjects :)

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Nine years of "college" and three degrees, two of them advanced.

[Honeycombe8]

81. Did you ever go to work? (just kidding!)

Your history reminded me of a former brother-in-law. He went to school and got a degree. And went to school. And went to school. And got another degree. And went to school.

He avoided actually growing up and getting a real job for a looooong time that way.

[ZombieHorde]

2. Currently in college, but I don't see an option for that situation. nt

eta: What if someone went to high school but not college?

[KittyWampus]

4. Just Added Option. Hope it's worded okay.

[ZombieHorde]

6. OK, I voted, "Currently In College & Fairing Well."

[rebel with a cause]

63. I have a better one. What if someone went to college but didn't graduate HS?

That was me. I quit school before I turned sixteen. Went to work in a factory when I was seventeen. Got my GED and went to college for my Bachelors in my forties. Worked for awhile, then went back for my Masters in my fifties. By the time I finished with that degree my health was so bad I could not work.

[Speck Tater]

3. Other: Skipped BS and went straight for engineering Masters.

Got into master's program based on 15 years of real-life engineering experience. That was at Cal State Univ. back in the 1970's. I don't know if they do that sort of thing any more.

[KittyWampus]

5. just changed poll to read "Earned Masters Degree".

[Common Sense Party]

11. "Faring"

not "fairing"

[KittyWampus]

14. Sorry. It's Changed & Please Insert *Blushing* Smilie

[Common Sense Party]

16. It's a fair cop.

[Cant trust em]

13. Yeah. I'm not sure that it works that way these days. nt

[old mark]

7. Left college a few creds short of BA - found a steady job when it was sorely needed.

Had to support my wife who got very sick, disabled, unable to work and needing care. Spent 10 years fighting employers to be able to provide that care, as well as through serious illnesses of my own.
No regrets - I'm retired now.

mark

[KittyWampus]

9. Changed wording to reflect work

[old mark]

15. KW - I meant to add that I returned to college in mid life - I had dropped out

for the first time in the 1960's.

Been a weird few years - um - decades.

mark

[dionysus]

8. BS in IT

[cali]

10. fairing well? um, nope. that would be faring well.

[KittyWampus]

12. Oops

:blush:

[JimWis]

17. How about 2 year college or tech school - associate degree.

[rvablue]

18. This should definitely be included in the poll

being that our President the and Dr. Biden have been pushing this on the administration's education agenda!! :)

[KittyWampus]

19. I added it. Sorry

[supernova]

20. Have done post-bacc work

I may complete my masters before I retire. :rofl:

[Critters2]

22. That's my goal for my doctorate.

Just about the time they can start calling me "The Reverend Dr.", they'll stop calling me Reverend.

[Undercurrent]

21. BS

RN

[YOY]

23. One can be both in service/military and have a degree.

Just pointing out the obvious.

[TheCoxwain]

24. We have an amazing number of advanced degree holders ( relative to general population)

But we are the smart ones, aren't we?

[YOY]

25. Sadly education does not make one smart...just less ignorant.

The smart part of being democratic has nothing to do with anyone's educational level.

[TheCoxwain]

30. mmmm .... I disagree ...

...actually depends on what you think of as smartness...

To me it is as simple as the ability to engage in a conversation in an intelligent manner, and on as many different topics as possible. That would include the ability to absorb and analyze new facts, concepts and ideas.

So,I think there has to be a positive correlation between education and smartness.

[BlooInBloo]

46. Self-selected poll.

[cherokeeprogressive]

26. I have no Bachelors, and am not ashamed to say so.

Got out of high school, went to work full-time. Joined the Navy, served 10 years. Went to work in an oil refinery. Got hurt. Went to a vocational school, and was offered a job as an Educator. Attended Long Beach State to clear my teaching credential, but only for three semesters. Got out of teaching to go into real estate in 2002. Made a killing selling houses in South Orange County, CA.

Now I'm semi-retired, and ONLY because the lake and golf course are closed during the winter.

Happy as a clam. Got all the toys, as well as the money and spare time to make good use of them.

[Berry Cool]

50. Who says you should be ashamed?

Then again, not everyone goes to college just to "get the toys."

[DailyGrind51]

27. Two Masters in different fields

[bigwillq]

28. 3 bachelor's, five masters, 2 doctorates (nt)

[TheCoxwain]

31. Have you ever stepped out of grad school???

my phD took me 4 years .. they were the longest 4 years of my life ...

How long did it take you?

[bigwillq]

33. I'm just joking.

These threads make me laugh.

"I have more schooling than you."

"No, I do."


:rofl:

[Jackeens]

42. Jeez, I was going to suggest this for your avatar:

:rofl:

[bigwillq]

67. ha ha

:rofl:

[ipaint]

29. Self taught visual artist.

I never stop learning so the "level measurement" is meaningless for me.

[backscatter712]

32. Working on second Bachelor's degree.

First one's in computer science, now I'm working on a political science degree, and likely to go for a Master's.

[Odin2005]

34. Currently taking college classes part-time.

B.Sci. In Biotechnology with a minor in Linguistics.

[KittyWampus]

35. One of my majors was Anthropology and Cross Cultural Linguistics was incredibly interesting stuff!

[Odin2005]

36. My interest is more historical and comparative linguistics.

Basically the different ways languages work and how they got that way.

Languages come in 3 basic types:

Isolating: like English and Chinese (few or no word endings)
Agglutinating: like Turkish, Finnish, and Swahili (one word ending per grammatical element)
Fusional: like Latin, Russian, Arabic, and German. (world endings and vowel changes encode many grammatical elements)

I am actually working on a bit of a thought experiment that is a projection of English 2000 years into the future:

http://conlang.wikia.com/wiki/Eridanian

[Hosnon]

37. What is a J.D. considered?

It doesn't seem to be on par with a Ph.D. or M.D.; however, it seems more advanced than a Masters.

ETA: And the fact that it has "Doctor" in the name isn't determinative, in my opinion.

[iceman66]

38. "Technical School" is the option that best fits.

Coming from someone who has one.

[Writer]

39. A J.D. is a "Doctor of Jurisprudence."

It's on par with a PhD.

[Hosnon]

74. I disagree.

A Ph.D. seems to imply a study of the field itself, rather than its practice.

[Writer]

76. The professor under whom I'm working this semester was able to move...

directly from his J.D. into a PhD program. No Master's necessary.

Both degrees are considered on par. In fact, J.D. graduates wear a "tam" during graduation as a doctoral graduate wears.

Furthermore, Pres. Obama taught as a law school professor at the Univ. of Chicago with ONLY a JD.

Edit to add: Some info. from wikipedia:

There has been a minor debate in the United States as to whether J.D. recipients may use the title of Doctor and refer to themselves as "Doctor". (See debate section) ABA Informal Opinion 1152 (1970) and Disciplinary Rule 2-102(E) permit those who hold a Juris Doctor (J.D.) to use the title.<115> Some local bar associations in the U.S. have released opinion papers stating that J.D. holders may use the title of "doctor" in those jurisdictions.<116> The J.D. is not considered by some to be a terminal degree, which causes questions about the status of the J.D. as a doctorate and the ability of J.D. holders to use the "doctor" title. (See debate section below). However, the degree is the highest level professional degree in law in the United States, and is treated as a terminal degree in U.S. academic practice. For example, the highest degree of some university presidents--a position that typically requires<117> a Ph.D. or comparable<118> (i.e. terminal) degree--is a J.D. (e.g., former Harvard president Derek Bok, and the presidents of Columbia and Johns Hopkins universities).

The J.D. is a professional doctorate degree,<119> and some J.D. holders in the United States use the title of "Doctor" in professional<120> and academic situations.<121> In countries where holders of the first law degree traditionally use the title of doctor (e.g. Peru, Brazil, Macau, Portugal, Argentina, and Italy),<122> J.D. holders who are attorneys will often use the title of doctor as well.<123> The J.D. in Japan is known as Hōmu Hakushi (法務博士)<124> and in China it is called 法律博士 (Faat Leot Bok Si in Cantonese, or Falü Boshi in Mandarin).<125> The characters 博士 in Japanese and Chinese mean "doctor" and this is the same title given to holders of both professional and academic doctorate degrees.<126>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juris_Doctor

[iceman66]

85. Until fairly recently it was called an LLB

or "Bachelor of Law" degree.

They only changed the name to juris doctor to make it SEEM like a PhD.

Then again, not all PhD's are created equal. An advanced degree in liberal arts might be roughly comparable to a law degree, but a PhD in a hard science is a hell of a lot more impressive, IMO.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

40. PHD.

[BlooInBloo]

44. Bullshit. It's a professional degree, (very) roughly comparable to an MA/MS.

[Number23]

47. Bloo, my mom has both an MA and a JD. I remember the hair pulling she went through

to get that JD. Don't think the two are even close to being comparable.

[BlooInBloo]

48. The hair-pulling your mom went through is completely irrelevant to what level a JD is...

If there's not a dissertation, it's nothing remotely close to a Ph.D. Done.

EDIT: There are, naturally, a bunch of official things that back me up on this. But the functional notion, of (no dissertation) = (no Ph.D.) is really the important one.

[Number23]

52. I never said a JD was the equivalent to a Phd. Why so damn snippy?

I said a JD was not comparable to a Master's. Even crappy old Wikipedia says that a JD is higher up than a Master's.

Edit: Took out the "no need to be an ass" part. Not necessary.

[BlooInBloo]

53. Yes, it is comparable to a Masters. Ask the United States government....

EDIT: And I'm snippy because I'm talking to people who think "mom's hair-pulling" counts as evidence as to what level a JD is at.

And congrats to your mom by the way (I assume she completed her degrees).

[Number23]

54. You really are being an ass. Don't know why, don't really care.

I pulled out more hair during my Master's than during my BA. Why? Because the program was more intensive, even though my Bachelor's was a longer (4 year) program. It's really not that hard to understand.

[ruggerson]

82. you're just discovering that now?

[Manifestor_of_Light]

61. I disagree. I have a J.D.

Even though you don't write a dissertation, it is ninety semester hours of pure hell.
It was much harder than my undergrad school, and I got a BA in biology from the best pre-med school in the state. A few of those biology courses were actually med school, and they ate my lunch.

I was shocked at how difficult law school was, even though I grew up around the legal profession my whole life. My mom was a legal secretary and typed for my dad who was an attorney. I was a legal secretary and also became a court reporter (Two year vocational degree) and watched thousands of hearings and trials. I found out in law school that I had to read the cases, I could not fake it. f

In law, you do not try to do things differently. The rules come from established principles. Judges do not make new rulings unless there is a good reason to change them. This is the exact opposite of science and any other form of research where you want to write a dissertation to show something new.

Also, there is a different way of analyzing a situation when you are trained as a lawyer. In law, you find out that there are two possible answers to the question, and the logic is more important than which answer you get. Engineers and scientists are very frustrated on jury duty because they want there to be ONE right answer possible.

[BlooInBloo]

62. You say you disagree, but then said absolutely nothing that disagrees with anything I said.

:rofl:

EDIT: "Even though you don't write a dissertation..." - whether or not you realize it, that's the end of the "debate" right there.

Merely "being hard" does not a Ph.D. level degree make - besides being completely relative.

[Manifestor_of_Light]

64. No it doesn't.

Original research does not make a Ph.D. level degree. You seem to think that original research is the ONLY thing that makes it a doctorate. I disagree.

I talked to an attorney today that went to the same law school I did, South Texas College of Law.
He worked on an MBA at Rice University.

He also said that law school at South Texas College of Law was MUCH HARDER than the MBA program at Rice.

Twelfth grade is relatively harder than the first grade. College is relatively harder than high school. And graduate school is relatively harder than college, at least in my experience.

[BlooInBloo]

65. It's also relative to the person in question. And contrary to what you, a non-Ph.D. holder say...

yah, a Ph.D. is pretty much coursework + dissertation - the latter being the primary difference between Ph.D's and Masters-level stuff.

[Beacool]

55. I agree, the first year of law school is a killer.

Good for your mom, she must be one smart cookie.

;-)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

78. geez. that was an unnecessary reaction. you can be real asshole for no good reason

and what exactly a jd lines up to, is no good reason.

what an alarming lack of social skils

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

68. Actually, a JD is classified as a professional degree, like an MD. (nt)

[MidwestRick]

70. As is...

a Bachelors in Architecture (a professional degree).

[nealmhughes]

71. That is the correct answer.

PhDs have an additional burden placed upon them that professional degrees do not: namely teaching, the language requirements, and original contribution to research, the dissertation and public defense thereof after the exams that the requirement of professional degrees would also have.

MD and DDS and JD are professional degrees. They are not research degrees. A PhD is a teaching degree based in both classroom/lab as well as original research. The PhD is by definition both a teaching as well as research degree. Most opt not to teach in the sciences, but go into research or a trade based on science or the maths. These days those with liberal arts PhDs substitute teach in community colleges and elementary schools, their older colleagues having no intention of ever retiring, given the state of TIAFF-CREF and state retirement systems.

[Hosnon]

73. That seems to make the most sense to me.

It's obviously not a Ph.D. because the S.J.D. is the appropriate rough equivalent in the legal field. However, trying to equate these degrees is difficult because there are three degrees necessary to pursue an S.J.D. (Bachelor's, J.D., LL.M.) but only two to pursue a Ph.D. (Bachelor's, Master's).

In my opinion, it bumps the legal degrees up a bit (I've never met anyone with an S.J.D. but would likely find it more impressive than a Ph.D.).

[Manifestor_of_Light]

86. I'm baffled.

I have a J.D., and I don't know what the diff is with an LL.M. and LL.D. Do they require research? I've had professors that had them.

And the S.J.D., I have never heard of.

[cliffordu]

41. Finished the tenth grade.

[vadawg]

43. no school until in my late teens, but i got a couple of degrees now

[AspenRose]

45. Other: Completed Bachelors, started masters but yet to finish

[PSzymeczek]

49. Bachelor's in Communication Arts

Dual emphasis in Spanish and linguistics. Master of Public Administration in Administrative Organization and Management (earned enough credits for dual major in Personnel Management). Equivalent of a Master's Degree in German, because I graduated from the Defense Language Institute.

[pipi_k]

51. College drop out while raising a family, then went to a business school

Got a certification...no degree.


Whatever I've learned was from the courses taught in the College of Life.

:)

[dccrossman]

56. Ramblin Wreck from GA Tech

6 years to get an Engineering degree so I could start web programming in '96, and never do anything related to that BSEE.

Escaped from the North Avenue Trade School just before the Olympics in the ATL.

[Colobo]

57. Master's. For now.

[tammywammy]

58. College part-time for a double in business management and finance

I work full-time, I went back to school Fall 2008. I should be done in another year with my Bachelor's and then on to my Master's (my work pays towards my education).

[appleannie1]

59. I left high school and supported my family at 16. I did get my GED after marriage and 7 kids and am

certified in emergency response/dispatching. I also feel that even without school a person can continue to educate themselves by taking the time to read. 5 of my children are college graduates because I feel education is very important.

[MissDeeds]

60. Three or four, depending on what you count

BA, MA, PhD, and Master's of Humane Letters.

[4lbs]

66. I originally dropped out to go to work, but a few years later I was lucky enough to get employment

at a new company that allowed me to complete my education part time. They even paid for it, provided I worked for them for at least 4 years after getting my degree.

I did, so the final part of my education was essentially "free".

That was about 10 years ago.

[Maine-ah]

69. HS degree

went to work. Opening a restaurant within the next few weeks. Go for liquor license on the 14th....3 of us from the current restaurant that I work at are doing it together. :)

[renate]

75. good luck!

And good for you! :thumbsup:

[CBR]

72. In my third year earning my PhD in Public Policy. nt

[WinkyDink]

77. OTHER: Master's Degree Plus further certification/credits.

[Exilednight]

79. interesting poll, not sure what it is suppose to accomplish ........

I earned two BAs, then a my Master's followed by my PhD. Yet, sometimes I feel like I am the dumbest guy in the room.

On the other hand, I know many people who are highly intelligent and barely finished HS, and some who didn't even do that.

I believe that sometimes we place too much emphasis on a piece of paper a person holds.

Think about this, dubya had a Master's from Yale.

[robo50]

80. People at the Free Republic would NEVER allow a poll of their members

like this.

But I can guess the results.

50% no high school diploma

20% high school diploma

5% college grads

24% something other than a college degree, (military, technical, etc)

1% ARROGANT RICH DOCTORS LAWYERS ETC WITH ADVANCED DEGREES.

[underpants]

83. BS in Accounting

[Lucky Luciano]

84. My advisor for when I was in grad school got a doctor of science at age 27 - fastest ever in math.

Doctors of science usually take 10 years AFTER the PhD!

It is a degree in Russia and he is one helluva mathematician!

[Alcibiades]

87. PhD in political science

2006. Political Theory/American Government/Comparative Politics.

I currently use what I learned earning this degree to take care of my two wonderful children, ages 1 and 4, who are not altogether different from college freshmen.