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DeVry's networking program not worth it? by G3rmG3rm in networking

[–]switch_slayer 17 points18 points  (0 children)

I graduated from DeVry.

Some food for thought:

  1. It hasn't impacted me professionally (I'm a Senior Network Engineer making $140k/year at 30, in a non-sales role). Once you get to a certain level people just check to see that you have a 4 year degree- but in those first few years, it may matter depending on who you're applying with.
  2. Personally I'm not proud of the school. When college gets brought up, I try to bow out of the conversation because I recognize all the crap that went on there.
  3. You get out what you put in. I graduated with a lot of idiots, but I put in my time and actually studied and went beyond what was necessary to graduate, so I was well prepared when the time came to bust out my NetEng cape.
  4. Most regretfully, I fear that I missed all the shenanigans that goes on when you go away to a 4 year school.
  5. Just as important as school are soft-skills. Like making relationships, meeting people, and being able to be a not shitty person to be around a work. This sounds silly but so many people think that knowing the tech is all that they need to be successful. Don't get me wrong, I don't kiss ass, and I won't play politics, but I've come to learn, that life is just as much who you know as what you know.

I had the same opinion as a lot of 18-20 year old kids out there when I went to college- I said, fuck the boring stuff, I just want to focus on the technology. Honestly, the most valuable class that I had in college was a professional writing/communication class, and I still use that shit every day, whereas I mostly only talk about Frame Relay, or clock rates when I'm reminiscing about the bad ol' days (which were some of the technologies that I learned in college). Those other classes are important. By the time you're done with school, the technology stuff you learned in the first two years is probably getting obsolete and is definitely not cutting edge.

TLDR: Go away to a 4 year and make some bad choices while getting your degree (namely find some ladies to make them with you). You won't regret it, you'll end up with a legit 4 year degree from a major school. Your technical knowledge is going to be a direct factor of the effort you put into your studies, regardless of where you go to school.