Degrees

A **Degree** is an acknowledgement that a player has Graduated from a course at Hi-Tech U. Players are awarded a new Degree each time they finish a course.

The Degree given at the end of a course is unique to that course. There is a total of 11 Degrees to be acquired. Once a Degree is acquired, it can never be lost.

Obtaining Degrees in general has several important benefits, primarily in advancing the player towards their Education Goal. Additionally, some specific Degrees are required in order to get certain Jobs - particularly high-paying jobs. The highest-paying Jobs are only available if the player obtains *two* specific Degrees.

Only two Degrees are available to get at the start of the game. As Degrees are acquired, additional courses may be unlocked for study, until all 11 Degrees have been acquired.

## Benefits

There are multiple benefits for acquiring degrees. Some of these benefits are specific to each Degree earned, while others are simply benefits of Graduating from courses in general.

### Education Goal

A player's progress towards their Education Goal depends only on the number of Degrees they've acquired.

The player's **Education Score** is calculated with the following formula:

```
Education Score = 1 + (9 * Number of Degrees)
```

As there are 11 Degrees to acquire, the maximum Education Goal of 100 can only be reached by acquiring every single degree available.

### Job Qualification

When applying for a Job, the application will always be refused (with the message "Not enough Education") if the player does not have all of the necessary Degrees for that specific job.

The majority of jobs require no Degrees at all.

Many Jobs require only one degree, typically one that can be acquired within completion of one or two University courses.

The highest-paying Jobs, including the General Manager, Engineer and Broker, among a few others, require *two* different Degrees.

Junior College is the most frequently-required Degree. Since it is available for study at the very start of the game, acquiring this Degree opens up a lot of new options.

### Job Openings

The number of acquired Degrees also affects the chance that a Job application will be refused for the reason "No Openings".

The chance of being refused in this way depends on the player's total **Degrees**, Dependibility and Experience in near-equal amounts. Acquiring all available Degrees guarantees *at least* a 66% chance to avoid the "No Openings" refusal (assuming the worst possible Dependibility and Experience).

### Dependibility

Upon Graduating from a course at Hi-Tech U, the player receives a boost of **+5 Dependibility**.

This is a temporary boost, since Dependibility decreases constantly at a rate of **-3 Dependibility** every Week. A boost of +5 therefore lasts just two weeks before Dependibility returns to its previous level.

This boost does not care about the Maximum Dependibility cap, and can freely exceed it.

This bonus may be meant to offset the loss of Dependibility that a player might incur when they spend more time at the University than at their Job. Having a little bit of extra Dependibility helps ensure that the player doesn't get fired from their Job.

### Maximum Dependibility and Experience

Each time a player Works at their Job, their Dependibility and Experience stats increase by +1 each -- unless they exceed their Maximum Dependibility / Maximum Experience caps, respectively.

These caps are mostly based on the Job's Required Dependilibity and Required Experience (respectively). They prevent players from massively increasing their stats just by going to work at a low-end job every single Turn.

Each Degree acquired by the player provides a permanent **+5 Maximum Dependibility** and **+5 Maximum Experience**. Therefore, the more Degrees a player has, the higher their Dependibility and Experience can rise - even when working very low-end jobs.

As a result, players who earn a lot of Degrees early on can jump straight from low-paying Jobs to high-paying Jobs without having to take any intermediate jobs. This assumes the player spends enough time Working after acquiring the Degrees, to actually reach the new Maximums.