petitefrancaise

This, I actually agree with.

IME though, no education system is perfect. Wealthy middle class kids tend to do well wherever they are.
Petrified, your experience is so different from the rest of what us have been through - university life is about so much more than passing exams which I think you may have missed out on.

PetrifiedExPat

I'm not sure how that was deduced from this discussion, but, OK.

As a child, I came from the white 'working class'.

The purpose of education is to become successful in the job market. This is not what I would intend for any education system, but in the current climate, absolutely essential. As I said, underwater basket weaving infused with pottery class isn't going to boost your chances that much.

moneypenny20

But it widens your perspective and education and makes you a more interesting person to know and converse with and if it's a couple of classes out of a year then you've not lost anything in your major but gained a lot. Imo obviously.

(You - general)

PetrifiedExPat

I may disagree with you, overall, but, I appreciate hearing the other side without the personal assumptions!

Lagoon Nebula

I can assure you that I do not have an attitude problem, I am just bluntly expressing my honest opinions, and would express them in a different way in a professional environment. In general I actually much prefer the USA to the UK, higher education is just one exception.

petitefrancaise

I think that the mere fact that so many kids in the US change their majors after being at the college is a really, really good thing. How many kids take majors based on what their parents think is right for them? How many kids get a taste of what they will need to be doing possibly for the rest of their lives and realise they don't want to do it?

I also think it's a really, really good thing that US doctors and dentists have to do a bachelors first. Most of them ( well, everyone I know) chose a related science subject as their major - and also it gives them a bit more time to make the final decision to become a doctor. I personally know far too many dentists/doctors in the UK that are not happy with their choicesand might well have made different choices if they'd been a bit older. The UK government will only pay for 1 degree so for financial reasons, they're stuck.

I also know a lot of engineers ( from Imperial College, Cambridge and UCL) that did their engineering degree and went into other fields immediately. In the late 1980's accountancy was a particularly popular option. So much for their education being for employment. They could have done almost anything.

PetrifiedExPat

I believe this all sounds a bit 'weak sauce', but, just a matter of personal opinion.

PetrifiedExPat

I think you are on the right path, I too enjoy the USA, but heaven forbid you excise an opinion that questions other peoples choices, direction...

In a professional environment we adapt to progress and win, similarly to as you mention. I believe you will easily be successful, here.

petitefrancaise

I don't understand what you mean by weak sauce. However, it is my personal experience:
married to an engineer, career in dentistry in 3 different countries, kids having experience of 4 different education systems.

fbf2006

What kind of school was this in though? As a previous international student myself, with a decent knowledge of the relative top liberal arts colleges and national universities, I haven't seen this to be the case on a broad scale. I don't know any of us that came here directly from another country on an F1 visa that already had another degree. I do know people who came here after winning the diversity lottery visa or through family based petitions that did go back to school for another degree to get themselves into the system here, because their degree from their university at home wasn't truly acknowledged here. Those were green card holders.

ddsrph

Education, especially in technical fields has a very short shelf life. Education provides the skills for future learning more so than cramming in some facts that may be obsolete at or shortly after graduation.

Anian

In technical subjects, you wonder why you are being taught stuff that is 30 years old. Then you get a job and get asked to make small changes to a system that is 30 years old.

md95065

The OP mentions British degrees as seeming "to be more focused on a particular area of study than US degrees".

This may well be true but, pardon my ignorance, what type of degree is considered to be a suitable preparation for a career in US finance?
( .. and is the OP, in fact, pursuing such a degree?)

Also, to what extent is a new graduate entering the US financial industry expected to know about US business practices and regulatory issues etc, and does the OP have such knowledge?

petitefrancaise

My friend's son just graduated from UC Berkeley with a bachelors in Economics. He's now working for a big financial institution but he also did internships for the last 2 summers in this one and another bank.

fbf2006

To be honest, for a career in finance in the US (Investment banking, research, PE/hedge funds, etc, the degree doesn't really matter, the university matters more. Yes, it's probably wise to have taken a few classes in economics or finance, but the main thing one needs is solid internships.


For a career in accounting, getting an accounting degree is sound.