Skip to main content

When College isn't College, Part II

In follow-up to my earlier post When College isn't College.

I noticed on House the other night that Dr. Gregory House (the main character) made a comment about being the Dr. and making the diagnostic choices he was making because he "...went to college." WTF? In Canada all Dr. go to University for their degree.

Is "college" just the US'ism for Post Secondary Education in general?

Comments

Eric said…
Yup. In the US you'll commonly hear people say they're "going to college", even if the "college" is a university. If an American says "college degree", we in Canada would call it a university degree.
12/03/2007, 11:28
Barf said…
However, if ther're talking about being a doctor, that's effectively a third level degree. Or even a fourth.

This meaining (and I use the term 'year' loosely, as it is based on credits, not actual years):

4 years will get you a bachelor degree;
5/6 years will get you a masters degree;
7+ years will get you a doctorate degree (or PhD).

There are also degrees deemed "less than bachelor" that can be scored in just a couple years.

So when the dust settles, the reference to "college" may be singular, the degrees rewarded are not.
12/03/2007, 15:17
Rick (kingthorin) said…
Thanks for trying to clear that up guys.

It's just one of those things that always boggled my mind.

If a Dr. here ever told me they had a "College Degree", my mind would immediately jump to "College Diploma" ... and I'd be outta that office lickety split. Thinking "WTF...Dr. spend 7+ years in UNIVERSITY [not college]."

At the same time if a Nurse told me they had a University Degree I'd be like .... "Don't nurses just do college courses?" (Though I've heard that's changing more and more in Canada ... but that's another story).

Lastly if you think of Comp Sci grads, putting a University Degree against a College Diploma is often a hard comparison. I know plenty of College grads I would much rather work with then University Comp Sci grads. Because I know the College people have actually gotten their hands dirty along the way, have probably done a co-op placement, and have learned actual application of knowledge not just "ya I read it and talked about it and I think I might be able to apply it." (Book 'smarts' [for lack of a better word])
13/03/2007, 09:29
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Something that perplexes me....

I just came across this bit about asteroid Apophis and the chances of it impacting earth . "NASA scientists have recalculated the path of a large asteroid known as Apophis and now say it has only a very slim chance of banging into Earth.. The Apophis asteroid is approximately the size of two-and-a-half football fields, and updated computational techniques and newly available data indicate the probability of an Earth encounter on April 13, 2036 for Apophis has dropped from one-in-45,000 to about four-in-a million, NASA stated." So here's the bit that rubs me wrong: "four-in-a million". Why not say "one-in-250,000". If the authors are really stuck on the whole "four-in" thing then they should have said four-in-180,000 to start with. I really find inconsistencies like this baffling, I wish I knew the author and could understand what they hoped to gain by reporting the number in this way.
4 comments
Read more

Keyboard Shortcuts (Part II)

Continuing from my previous post on Keyboard Shortcuts : Windows Desktop/Explorer Window: F1 > Open Windows Help (Or active application help if you aren't on the desktop or in windows explorer) F2 > When you have a file selected F2 will take you into Rename mode F3 or WinKey + F > Open the find file or folder applet F5 > Refresh Window WinKey + M > Minimize All Windows WinKey + shift + M > Restore All Minimized Windows WinKey + D > Show Desktop WinKey + L > Lock Windows (Not available before WinXP) WinKey + E > Launch Windows Explorer WinKey + B > Set Focus to the TaskBar (dunno why you'd want to do this) WinKey + ctrl + F > Open the find computer applet shift + delete > Permanently remove a file (same as delete followed by empty trash) alt + tab > Cycles through your program list alt + shift + tab > Cycles backwards through your program list alt + space > Activate the window control menu (same as right clicking the icon in the top l...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coming to a flight near you....."What to do when your aircraft is hit by flaming space junk"

And you always thought flying was the most safe form of travel. "'The pilot of a Lan Chile Airbus A340 ... notified air traffic controllers at Auckland Oceanic Centre after seeing flaming space junk hurtling across the sky just five nautical miles in front of and behind his plane...'" Space Debris Narrowly Misses Airliner That's just messed up, I mean I knew that space junk posed a threat for our satellites, rockets, the shuttle, ISS, etc but having to worry about it entering the atmosphere just sucks. I mean yay one less thing for our extra-atmospheric endeavors to collide with but still messed up. I wonder if my house insurance covers "impact from flaming space debris". I know I get most bizarre "act of god" type things but that's pushing it.
2 comments
Read more