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I'm not in college, and have never been in college. I can't afford it, and honestly don't want to. But, I have been looking a courses online for different things and I found Harvard's free courses. If I take any of them, I would definitely want the certificate but I want to know if it's worth the money.
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If you just learn from the free stuff hell yeah. I would not pay for the certificate though
Why wouldn't you ? I'm looking to do a free course af Havard bc my bachelors degree is already fucked up.
u can but do it to learn the skills not to put it on ur resume, the certificate won’t really do anything for u
so I was thinking that I will do one course in neuroscience from harvard during my summer holidays as I couldnt land an internship because none of the research in my campus really interested me to spend 3 months over it. I was thinking I can grasp a good overview of neuroscience and put it on my cv as an audit course, would it be a good idea to do that? i plan on applying for internships outside campus next year under neuroscience. Do you think that putting an audit course in my cv give off a better impression or not?
In this case I would say yes do it if you’re applying to neuro internships and need to show u have some background. good luck!
You never know what something can do for someone to boost their resume. They just might meet that one employer who values it..
In my opinion, you should consider starting at a two year community college to pursue an associates or a certificate. Depending on where you live, there is a good amount of aid available. I live in California and get a pell grant and a tuition waiver because of my income, so I’m actually getting paid to go to school. I also apply for every scholarship available to me that I can find and have received quite a few. I went back to school in my early thirties and it’s been such a great experience.
I never had any interest in going back to school and had a lot of ego about it since I had gotten pretty far in life with skills I had developed in the live event production industry. However, I was craving a change and I just didn’t know where to start.
I went to the career center at my school and took a bunch of aptitude and personality tests for free and then went over the results with a trained counselor who pointed me in a direction that I never would have dreamt of going on my own accord. Now, I’m transferring to a four year private school with no debt and a scholarship that covers 90%. I’m not an exception to the rule. I am just the result of someone that worked hard and made sacrifices like not going out to eat and staying home many times to read or write when I could have been socializing.
The degree has already made a huge difference in my life and I’m not even finished with the BA yet.
If you still feel stuck about the finances after exploring your options and talking to a counselor, wait and see what happens with the budget reconciliation bill this September. There is a big push to increase the pell grant to $13,000 a year and make the first two years of community college tuition free. Fingers crossed.
I'm honestly just taking classes because I always want to learn but was curious if the $200 for a certificate might be worth it. But in all honesty, I'm not interested in the typical path of getting a degree, finding a job, working my way up, retire for the last few years of my life.... that's not for me. I just love learning & always want to improve myself. I also I'm working towards working for myself to provide enough income one day to get by without a 9-5. For me, I'm more attracted to a minimalist, nomadic lifestyle that give me freedom to do and go where I want when I want. Maybe that's not realistic, I don't know but I feel like there is so much more to life & I'm willing to try because that is the life I want.
You would probably do better just becoming a freelance (web) dev. Still, I think going to community college is a great (and cheap) way to explore fields you can make money in. Even if you don't finish.
then why would you consider paying for the certificate? if you can just take the courses for free just do that. Thats why this poster is giving you the (great) advice about community college, from your question it sounds like you were interested in obtaining some sort of degree/certificate. If you just want to learn by all means just take the courses but I don't see why you would consider paying for the certificate.
I was considering paying for the certificate as more of a "incase I need it". I figured if it would help on a resume I would pay for it since it's somthing I could afford.
if thats the case to add to a resume look into certificate programs at your local community colleges. Everyone knows those harvard programs are free and mostly just for personal growth, employers arent really going to be impressed by it. If you want something that would be actually meaningful to add to a resume and your skill set community college programs are the way to go
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Wtf did you just say?
what is this sentence?
Not really - certainly not if you're hoping to substitute them for a traditional two- or four-year institution. You can take the course for free and then, should you want the certificate itself, pay after the fact for it. Honestly, it's nothing more than personal enrichment. It might garner a few points if you're looking for a job promotion, but not much else.
It free....it's called professional development and it's from Harvard. Roll with it.
The certificates are $200 at the end of the course. That is what I'm asking if it's worth it.
If you can demonstrate the knowledge you obtained through the course without the literal certificate, then no I would not consider it worth the money.
Well once you go through the course, do you think that $200 is worth spending? That's the rub - now if it imparts some serious knowledge that makes you want to go further then yea it's worth it.
That's why Professional development classes are such a crapshoot these days. I find that anything that improves your skillset and increase your YEARLY wage that you can ask for are generally worth it.
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Why learn when few words do gooder?
I mean, probably wont help at all on a resume, but if you want to do it you should
Real answer, probably not.
They're not going to land you a job. At most, it'll likely polish an entry resume allowing you to omit some fillers/soft skills. The truth is that employers won't care that much; they rather see demonstration of competency in the course material through some sort of experience or personal project. A certificate cannot replace that.
If you really need that cert to mentally push yourself I'd recommended Coursera. It's a similar platform and they provide financial aid for their courses.
Seconding Coursera given everything I’ve read in comments from OP.
No. All these EDx certificates and such are worthless. If you’re using it to supplement your educational experience they’re borderline OK. If you’re using them to replace an education sadly no.
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I just thought that if those specific certificates would possibly benefit on a resume, I'd consider buying one incase I ever needed it for a traditional job. Kinda a back up plan I guess? But now since it seems like they won't be of any possible benefit, I would just take a course without getting the certificate.
$200 seems a bit pricey. If you have the money then $200 shouldn’t make you bankrupt. Otherwise I think you are better off trying to find books meant to be written for college students and downloading them from library genesis.
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I know, I just wondered since they were offering certificates (for $200) , if they were worth anything.
Maybe Modern States would be a interesting place for you to start instead?
I have tons of certs that I paid for that have totally increased my income & marketability. What's the subject the cert covers? If it's an in-demand skill in your field the cert will pay for itself in increased opportunities & higher pay. If it isn't, don't bother.
I'm in a similar situation. I applied for financial aid on a renowned machine learning course on Coursera and they gave me free admission! My plan to get a job without a degree is to search around for many different companies. If a company cares more about a piece of paper than attitude and skill, then I don't want to work there anyways. I aim for confidence in my ability to provide value.
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Actually no. The only reason I mentioned not being in college is alot of people seem to take these in addition to college, and of course this is a college subreddit. I'm interested in learning new things & wondered if the certificates were worth anything by themselves (without a degree) , since it's something I could afford easily.
All you need to do is go to a junior college first and apply for a shit ton of scholarships.
I'm not interested. I'm just interested in furthering my knowledge in a few things & wondered if the certificates were worth it.
If you were merely interested in the knowledge itself then you wouldn't be asking about the value of paying for the certificate.
I was thinking if they had any value on a resume I'd buy one incase. That's why I was asking the value.
Not a bit
Just learn it online
The class itself is worth it if you just want to learn, but paying for the certificate is not. I did one of the free MIT classes before starting university to see if I would be able to handle the work. Doing so was helpful to myself, but not applicable to my resume.
It all matters what you value it to be. Same to college, is it worth x amount of money? Certainly you can use it for connections or put it on your resume. Just weigh the benefits of taking the course and compare it with the amount of money. Is there enough value in it for you? At the end of the day, Ivy League courses even if it’s free would give you a great base to learn something from.
Worth more than a degree from Prager
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I am thinking to take a drop year after completing my high school , and complete 1 or 2 of these harvard courses and some of my favorite udemy game dev courses , after that I have decided to do BSC-IT. Is that the way to go or should I do Harvard course and BSC-IT degree studies at the same time (it will be harder , a lot hard) . I think Harvard course can give me a great knowledge boost and from there paid certificate I will get another type of spotlight. Is it worth the risk? Of one year? I am really passionate about Computer Science I will also study in computer science till my masters degree and I want to enroll in such knowledge enriching programs too , here I have read many comments and most of them say distracting things , now what should I do?
Just sign up for a membership to masterclass instead--it'd probably give you a lot more bang for your buck. You can take all sorts of classes and gain valuable skills in lots of different trades. If you're into learning but not into the whole college thing, masterclass is the way to go.
I did this computer science online class on edX. Can highly recommend. Does not cost a cent, only if you want a nicer certificate at the end with ID verification instead of the PDF template, then you pay about 100$. No recruiter cares about the ID certification from my experience.
Both free and paid massive open source educational courses (Edx and Coursera) are for supplemental learning. YMMV
Getting an actual associate/bachelor/graduate degree opens more doors for opportunities in employment and academia though.
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I did a course with MIT through EdX and laid $75 for the certificate during my covid lockdown. It actually ended up being a benefit to mex because it was a course on systems engineering of the space shuttle and I was being interviewed by a NASA systems engineer who also taught an open online course in systems engineering. He was really impressed that I had put in the effort to complete the course on my own initiative because only 20% of his students had finished theirs. But that's a very specific situation. Imo if you can afford it it doesnt hurt but you can also just learn the material and put it on your resume sans the certificate part.
Do you have a link to the courses?
https://pll.harvard.edu/catalog?price%5B1%5D=1&
does anyone know if we're allowed to pursue these courses and get a certificate even tho you're already in a degree at another university?