To think just because you have a degree does not make you superior to those who don't?

[carocaro]

Two ladies I know, one lawyer and one scientist.

I am also a PROFESSIONAL in the creative field, with no degree, a route I chose on purpose.

We are all professional, but is one automatically better than the other? They seem to think so and have said as much. Of course you can only get to be the above via Uni.

In my mind, you can't compare most jobs, like chalk and cheese eg: truck driver V nurse, creative director V charity worker, we all have our own sills set and talent for jobs, but why do SOME think a degree makes them better?

Your thoughts ladies?

YANBU

i have friends with degrees who think im nothing because im 'just' a hairdresser, nothing to do with the fact that i have the heighest hairdressing quals you can get have done umpteen courses to get where i am and am also trainging to teach hairdressing... im dumb i just cut and colour their hair they have no understanding of the chemical process and how clever you actually have to be to colour hair properly

(apologies for appaling spelling im only a hairdresser)

My DP is a 'professional' artist, highly respected in his field, without so much as an Art 'O' Level (all his coursework got stolen off the walls the nght before the assessor arrived ). Some of the brightest people I know don't happen to have degrees. If my eldest dd happened to have a passion and a talent for something specific, if anything I would encourage her to explore routes into that profession that did not entail accruing twenty grand's worth of debt.

it totally depends what you want to do.. a scientist with one BSc is inferior to another scientist with an MSc and Phd but only in the field of their science.

i don't know what the situation is with law but i have always assumed everybody qalifies to a similar level and from then on it's abotu expeirence not more 'degrees'.

in your field you obviously felt that the non-degree route was right..

i don't see how you can compare three totally different fields to each other in terms of what is 'superior'.

on the one hand there's no reason why anybody should have a degree if that's not the route they want to take to their choosen profession, but on the other hand i LOVE education and would encourage anybody who's thinking about further study to go for it as it can be really rewarding.

[i had a BSc and MSc to get my career started ten years ago and am now doing a different MSc to move field slightly ]

i should add that while there's no 'superiority' in getting a degree, i come from a very working class area where there was a HUGE amount of inverse-snobbery and i was considered 'getting above myself' to go to university in the first place and basically disowned by all my childhood friends

YANBU. Bill Gates hasn't got a degree (dropped out of Harvard). John Major hasn't got a degree (left school at 16, trained to be a banker). There must be thousands more like that. The people with degrees and PhDs ended up taking that route. You get people without degrees who are naturally smarter than those with degrees. Sometimes the old saying is true "An ounce of common sense is worth a pound of theory".

No, degree doesn't make you better than anyone.

I have 2 and a professional qualification. The professional qualification is of more use to me career/money wise. But that doesn't make me superior either!

I'm hugely grateful for my university education, despite the fact it hasn't opened the door to high paying work for me. I personally think I'm a better person for doing it - not better than you, but better than I would have been had I not done it. Studying has made me more intellectually curious, more empathetic and more open minded.

Those people who think that the whole purpose of education is to instill common sense and prepare you for the workplace are missing a trick. My education has given me a better quality of life in ways that are much more difficult to quantify.

I'd like to think I'm also more open-minded since studying for my degree, but I'd never look down on people with no university qualification. There are plenty of twats with degrees out there

I met my DH at Uni. I graduated in the standard 3 years, but he had various difficulties and ended up leaving with no degree after 5 years.

However, he is now in a job that he loves, with a fair amount of responsibility. He is much more informed about the world than me, and IMO more intelligent! I'm in a professional role, but I am constantly stressed, don't enjoy my job and often feel like I'm doing a bad job.

No, degrees do not make people more superior.

Anyone who feels they must emphasise that they are superior because they happen to have a degree sounds incredibly insecure and definitely feeling inferior, hence the need to over-compensate. And if their degree is the best tool in their armoury for proving their superiority they must be scraping the barrel for something good to say about themselves imo.

carocaro - how exactly are they saying that they, as holders of useless bits of paper degrees are "better"?

I'm interested because working in an industry where probably the majority of people have degrees but it is not required, I have never seen any difference or attitude about it (I have a degree) but I know ex-colleagues who, not having degrees, felt there was a definite 'glass ceiling' for non-graduates, and went off and did OU degrees to overcome it. I never could get them to explain how this prejudice/requirement expressed itself.

Of course a degree doesn't

I graduated 2 years ago; I am still te sdame Ok person that I was before that.

It may mean (theoretically anyway.....) that you hsave a higher economic value to the country but absolutelyy nothing about you as a person

Dh graduates hopefully in 2 years.... he will not get a boost in morality, IQ, ability, anything between now and then- just in what he has learned at University

My degree means that at one point I knew quite a lot about various historical subjects, mostly obscure ones. I've forgotten it all now anyway so even my supposed superiority in historical knowledge has evaporated.

Mine means I know a lot about religions some of which do not exist in my city

way hey that then

Agree with twinset. Earning loads doesn't make you superior either

I'm slightly perplexed by this thread.

If an Olympic gold medal said that he was a superior runner to me, nobody would deny it.

So a Cambridge doctor of philosophy is academically superior to someone with five GCSEs. He may not be morally, socially or ethically or financially superior, but he is academically 'better', no?

Equally if going to university bequeaths no benefit in ability you've wasted your time. I have no doubt that studying for my degree improved my analytical and research skills.

Now none of this justifies feelings of smugness or superiority, which is boastful and unpleasant.

I don't really know how anybody knows what their income is compared to that of their friends, as in my experience people keep tighter-lipped about this than they do about whether they practise bumsex.

Obviously you can tell a certain amount from their house, and so on, but then again prices will vary hugely according to area.

degree doesnt make one individually better person,but it does confer a certain level of training or skills

many professions are degree entry qualification eg medicine ,law, pharmacy - so need degree to practise.public expectation of those professions would be a degree

public expectation of the truck driver would be doesnt need degree

op is vague,dependes what you mean by better?

Degree does not absolutely not make you superior to anyone else. Earning more money even less so. In fact, if you have devoted your life to the pursuit of wealth, I'd say you are most definitely inferior!
Though I have to say about going to university - it is such a great experience. Not just about the piece of paper qualification at the end, or the improved career prospects, it is about 3 years of fun, learning to be an adult, making friends etc. It'd be great if everyone could have a go at it, whether it'd improve their job prospects or financial outlook or not.

what generalising rubbish.pursuit of a good salary doesnt make anyone inferior.

Abride- not really

Not when attending university hs not been something unicersally available to all

OK so it means he probably knows more about philosophy (though maybe not- most grads I know seem to forget it rather sharpish!), but whilst this is seemingly doimishing, when vast swathes of the populace did not get to attend University becuase of whom they were born to and where they were born, then there is no guarantee that they are more acadmemically able no

Plus- my degre is from a new Uni, so on yourr theory I am somewhat less able than someone with a RG degree. But I too was offered the RG degree, just that living in that city would ahve been a poor decision overall for my family. The taching they received may well have been better but there is no evidence to suggest they had a better academic ability.

Agree SM.

It's really got nothing to do with anything much.

Too many factors thatc an intervene, too many ways to prove valisity and morality, too many ways to earn or not earn

difference between 'devoting your life to the pursuit of wealth' and 'pursuit of a good salary' - big big difference. Sorry I didn't make it clearer. I mean people who stop at nothing to get more money - Nestle for example - who preach bottle feeding using dirty water to mums in developing countries, causing their babies to become ill or even die. Oil companies that clear villages in order to make way for pipelines. etc etc. I don't mean people who are like 'ooo that is good pay, I'll go for that.'
hope that is clearer, and less objectionable!

Heck No ! I have a degree but after too many years being at home talking with toddlers my degree means nothing, my brain has gone to mush.

DH on the otherhand has a co partner in his firm who constantly says stuff like 'we are the most intelligent people in this office' by virtue of the fact that they are senior partners. Classic case of superiority complex.

I do feel sorry for his wife.