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[choirguy]

Studentaffairsed,

Getting graduate degrees does help, but does not ameliorate the taint of a suspect undergraduate degree.  My graduate degrees far outweigh the undergrad in substance and stature, but when that illusive "fit" question is asked, the undergrad degree is an issue.  If you can make it to the interview, you can prove to a SC that you are a normal person.  But, if you don't make it to the interview . . .

Enough from me.  Working on a project that I am trying to get published.

[studentaffairsed]

Studentaffairsed,

Getting graduate degrees does help, but does not ameliorate the taint of a suspect undergraduate degree.  My graduate degrees far outweigh the undergrad in substance and stature, but when that illusive "fit" question is asked, the undergrad degree is an issue.  If you can make it to the interview, you can prove to a SC that you are a normal person.  But, if you don't make it to the interview . . .

There are ways to downplay the undergrad degree.  In the case of the OP, the person earned that degree 20 or so years ago.  It should not be weighing so heavily in the evaluation of the credentials and work since then.

[aandsdean]

Studentaffairsed,

Getting graduate degrees does help, but does not ameliorate the taint of a suspect undergraduate degree.  My graduate degrees far outweigh the undergrad in substance and stature, but when that illusive "fit" question is asked, the undergrad degree is an issue.  If you can make it to the interview, you can prove to a SC that you are a normal person.  But, if you don't make it to the interview . . .

There are ways to downplay the undergrad degree.  In the case of the OP, the person earned that degree 20 or so years ago.  It should not be weighing so heavily in the evaluation of the credentials and work since then.

Furthermore, since Tulsa isn't exactly South-Central Podunk College and Auto Mechanics School, I seriously doubt that the OP's problem is the university's reputation.

[scienceprof]

I have derived no "advantage" from my degree. I have only managed to get the sorts of jobs I would have gotten any way with  just a high school diploma.

If the only advantage you think there is to be gained from education comes from getting a job, you should have gone to a vo-tech instead of to college.

[learninged]

An aside...
Some colleges and universities make career counseling and job seeking advice commitments to their graduates.  Perhaps contact the career development office and see where they think you should be and how to get you there.

But more than taking issue with your life after your degree, you seem to want to the school to know that you think they failed you.  In this case, instead of limiting your options by having your own degree revoked, why don't you write a letter to the school newspaper?  More people will read it and perhaps more attention will be paid to what you want addressed.  Maybe you will even incite change.  By asking the university to revoke your degree quietly, you are putting limits and pressure on yourself, not the school.

[markplus]

But more than taking issue with your life after your degree, you seem to want to the school to know that you think they failed you. 

No, I want the school to acknowledge that I deserved better. Getting the degree I wound up with would fall into third place in my preferences, after (1) getting a degree from a real university, and (2) not going to college at all.

In this case, instead of limiting your options by having your own degree revoked, why don't you write a letter to the school newspaper?

That wouldn't accomplish anything. I have nothing in common with the sorts of people who choose to go to that university, much less with the Stepford alumni who go to "homecoming," whatever that means, and other alumni events.

More people will read it and perhaps more attention will be paid to what you want addressed.  Maybe you will even incite change.  By asking the university to revoke your degree quietly, you are putting limits and pressure on yourself, not the school.

Nothing I can do will change things there. And if I succeed in getting my degree revoked, the campus can then burn to the ground and get sown with salt, for all I'll care. As for "limits and pressure," I would have had about the same work history and income over the past two decades with just a high school diploma.

[markplus]

Well, hey, why not call them up and ask?  I'm not sure who one would address such a request to, but I can practically guarantee that whoever you ask will laugh (and ultimately, say "No. . . We don't/can't do that."). 

I've written to ask about a procedure for revocation, but apparently the university wants me to claim I committed academic dishonesty. Well, I don't claim that, and I don't see why I have to face such irrational obstacles for such a straightforward request.

And, for the record, I agree with the posters who propose that your job situation has much more to do with you, personally, than the school you received your BA from.  (For what it's worth, I have a good friend from high school who has a math BA from a very prestigious private school.  She works in hotel reservations to pay off her massive student-loan debt.  And yes, that was a choice she made.) 

So you don't believe the grievances of all those Americans with science, engineering and IT degrees who wound up working for Wal-Mart because their jobs have gone to immigrants with H1-B visas?

[markplus]

Not sure if you mentioned anywhere throughout if you have a graduate degree. Go to graduate school, get a masters and rely on the masters for future employment.  Your BA could go to the bottom of the resume then.

I did that. I picked a master's in college teaching from Northeastern State University in Tahlequah, Oklahoma, because the course work looked easy and I figured it could give me the edge in getting a job in a math lab at a community college with some teaching on the side. That didn't help, either, because all the community colleges I applied to (late 1980's) preferred to hire math majors with two X chromosomes. I don't feel angry about that experience, however.

Twenty years past your BA graduation seems too long to claim that the rep of the school you went to is causing your career woes.  Pick up and move on.  Get over it.

Actually, I started to think about this seriously last year, around the time I began to make substantially more money than I had in previous years -- no thanks to my undergrad degree. Perhaps now I can afford the "divorce" I seek from an abusive academic relationship.

[goingcrazy]

This post is the dumbest thing that I have ever read on this forum.

[zombie]

I have to say that I don't get it. I may have missed the logic, but "revoking" a degree doesn't really seem to matter to you.  You say your jobs don't have anything to do with the degree you received.  Well, then, what do you care that you have a degree from there?

It sounds very much like a "take my ball and play somewhere else" sort of thing.  You want revenge on the University for sucking?  Then just don't talk about it.  Talking about it makes you seem like the vengeful ex-boy/girlfriend. 

[grasshopper]

This post is the dumbest thing that I have ever read on this forum.

Really? Even dumber than "My students are plagiarizing! What should I do?" and "Students are submitting their papers late, and I don't know how many marks to take off. Help!"

Even dumber than those?

[zombie]

grasshopper:

Yes. Even dumber than that.


And grasshopper USED to be my standard password for everything.

As in:

:Snatch this pebble from my hand:

grasshopper.

It's different now. Very weird.  Very tech saaaaavvvy. 

:)

But still.  Back in my grasshopper days, I would have grokked your name.


But it's still a stoooopid idea.  I'm done being diplomatic.

[zombie]

OOhps.  Clarify, wine glass.


STOOPID idea is revoking degree.

Grasshopper screen name:  clever.  Like my old password.  :)

[georgia_guy]

I have to ask: Exactly what high paying job did you expect to get with a bachelor's degree in mathematics?

That strikes me as one of those degrees that qualify you to move on into graduate studies, but don't have a huge marketability on their own. (aside from maybe education, and then only with an ed cert)

Plus, the real question should not be whether the degree got you a job, but whether they taught you mathematics.

YOU chose the major. If they delivered what you ordered, and it happens not to be a ticket to the big bucks, then that's not their fault.

There are a lot of theater majors who do not become Brad Pitt. In many cases, it is not because they didn't learn how to act.

[gastr1]

It's not just Oklahoma that inexplicably reverses its letters in nickname, it's many schools in this bizarre underworld we lovingly call the central plains...Univ of Kansas is "KU," Univ of Missouri is "MU," Univ of Nebraska is "NU," Univ of Oklahama is "OU," Univ of Colorado (a bit far west, I know), is "CU." Maybe Indiana University got them all mixed up by breaking convention in its name to start with, leading to "IU."

This is a really dumb topic just because the poster has such absurd reasons for their "need" to do something that appears to be so utterly pointless. I would submit, since I am in the fine arts and face the "what will I do with my degree" question on a daily basis, that the poster consider what they got in worldview, perspectives, experiences, and the maturation process involved in leaving home to handle one's own affairs well enough to earn something understood to convey substantial achievement. In short, you got an EDUCATION, which is what you signed up for. If you wanted a JOB you should have gone to a vocational school. The difference is that an education prepares you for the capacity to learn in future endeavors, particularly a BA, which intentionally--hopefully--develops critical thinking and broad perspective that absolutely apply quite directly to subsequent experiences.

I tend to agree that schools like TU are a bit of a rip-off--you know, the private SLAC that charges a ton for a public school-like experience. But just because you paid more for the same as another BA in Math from, say, Oklahoma State does not mean you have any more reason to believe you didn't get what you overpaid for.