At my school many, many students cheat. This devalues the education that I'm getting and is frustrating to students who actually put in the time to study.
It devalues your degree, but not your education. Having the confidence that you actually mastered the material is worth a great deal. Stay strong, dude.
True. You're right, it only devalues the degree but that's a huge part of the reason that I go to school at all.
Much of my education is self taught, and hour-for-hour knowledge-wise I believe my time could be better spent in self-directed learning, but that degree does have value and people who cheat make it worth less to employers and myself. I think it makes sense to try and catch people who abuse that.
I understand your feelings on this, but after you've been working for 3 years or so, nobody is going to give a damn about your degree or where you got it. They'll value what you can do, and that's where your education will pay off.
I definitely agree with what you're saying, especially in startups it really isn't that relevant (part of why I like the startup community so much). But I do spend a lot of time outside startups as well, and that glass ceiling is definitely present in large companies and academia (especially academia).
I wasn't clear. Having a degree is important and not having one is often a blocker. For example, you can't get a mechanical engineering job without a degree. (There are legal reasons for that as well.) Where it is from does not matter, nor does your GPA.
