Re: Resolution Time is Nigh, 2005 redux

[martinvi]

I take courses at an university of applied sciences, which provide distance learning for full time employees. In about 4 years, I'll have my "Dipl. Inf. (FH)" -- I don't know the english equivalent. So, for the next couple of years, I've no other resolutions.

[belg4mit]

I'm having the same problem comparing the systems here in France to those back home in the US-- after the end of primary education:

+2   years = Associates degree
             (very rare, and not particularly meaningful)
+4   years = Bachelors degree
             ("Would you like fries with that?")
+5/6 years = Masters degree
             ("Yessir mister MBA PHB")
+8.. years = Doctorate / PhD
             ("Would you like fries with that?")

HTH

[mirod]

It is even a little bit more complex than that, as in the French system a 5 year degree from an "Ecole d'Ingénieur" (which was officially described as "at least equivalent to a Masters Degree" in my visa application to the US) is often valued more than a PhD, depending on the school you got it from. And unless you want to work as a researcher, there is really no incentive to go for a PhD once you get a "Diplôme d'Ingénieur".

Unless you want to work abroad of course, as I found out after a week in my first job, in Germany, when everybody in a meeting introduced themselves as "Doctor ..." while I was "Her mirod". I guess I could have used "Dipl. Ing. mirod", but that would have sounded funny ;--)

[belg4mit]

I'm at Polytechnique right now and from what I've seen so far I would place the degree on par with the 5 year Masters of Engineering one could get at someplace like MIT. Not so complicated that (however the OP may not have been clear in that it was quite simply laying out the US degree system, allowing for one's own comparisons, and not making any of its own). Afterall, "depending on the school you got it from" applies to all combinations :-P