What was university like for you guys?

[Ricardo Harrow]

So, I'm a uni student currently majoring in Computer Engineering(BE) and even though it's been four semesters, I feel like I've barely learned anything of use except for learning how to code in C++ and what exactly the RISC-V architecture is. Besides barely learning anything, my uni also gives me unnecessary stress with teachers acting as if they're doing us a favor by teaching us. What about you guys? What was your uni experience like?

[sora.sky]

I've been out of university for several years, with a non STEM degree (nursing) from a private university in the US.

 

My professors were absolute monsters, especially those that accompanied us into the hospitals for our clinical hours, which was 7A-7P or 7P-7A 2 times a week. Many of my classmates would be made to feel stupid and would often be found crying. There were biweekly essays and clinical write ups that would often be just 70-90+ pages of dumb, soul crushing busy work. I do not miss university at all.

 

 

[Praesi]

Girls and Alcohol. Maybe i should have focused more, so my first try would have been a success.

[Guest]

Yeah. You need that degree. Unless you go to Ivy League or community college, good luck. 

 

You really need to self learn. Just pass. 

 

Even then, Ivy League and community college may not work. 

 

I recommend talking on the forums. I learned sooooo much from this forum’s programming subforum. I’m super thankthful for them all. Very very helpful. 

Textbooks are also rad. They literally tell you everything. 

 

Just finish the degree. Finish it. 

[GDRRiley]

college is meh. I'm a sophomore at a California State University

I don't like my higher level math and comp sci teachers.

my IT degree has way to much BS and Fluff in it. I don't need discrete math or assembly programing.

On the other hand my Stats teacher along with Poly sci and history were great.

[Guest]

I did an undergrad in mathematics. A lot of university is about teaching yourself, and the sooner you make that realisation the more you'll get out of your program. I learned to treat every class I attended as either an introduction or a recitation of the material I already taught myself or planned to teach myself.

Of course there are some professors whose teaching style will match your learning preference and you'll be able to learn effectively without much, if any, self-study. But for the vast majority of your post-secondary career, you're the only person responsible for your success.

[Rybo]

One proverb that sums up college pretty well for me is that in a job, you need a hammer.  College, however, teaches you the theory of the hammer.  

So your experience will not be very different from anybody else's from an academic perspective: the purpose is not to teach you job skills, but to teach you to be an academic.  As you're discovering, being an academic is not, in itself, entirely useful, unless you're planning on studying for a living -- such as being a researcher, lawyer, doctor, etc.  Just seeking a job as an IT professional really shouldn't require a single second of college.  It's more of a trade.  A more difficult trade than many others, but still a trade nonetheless.  

If you feel you need the degree (and that depends entirely on the job market in your area and, more importantly, your connections), just get out of it what you can, try to enjoy the process, and try to squeeze in some extracurriculars of actually learning the trade you want to be in, be it computer programming, network engineering, or whatever floats your boat.  

[Nanook]

I love university. I would rather be there studying and learning than at home or at a job making someone else rich.

 

I chose physics as a major. As much as it drives me insane I still think it's just awesome. 

 

I am going to keep going with school until I can't anymore. I am comfortable and happy in academia even if I am broke. 

[Demonic Donut]

Took some classes, ended up not being able to afford it. It was boring, though. I was aiming for engineering, but the beginning classes are dull. Teachers make their classes more difficult than it needs to be. I didn't enjoy highschool, other than making friends, because it all felt so simple and pointless. Going through the motions etc. College was exactly the same but everyone thought they were way more important than they actually were.

 

Ended up getting into an HVAC apprenticeship. 5 year program working full time in the field and going to class, mostly in the evenings, two to four times a week. The work is interesting, with a lot of different specializations you can get into. It also gives me a head start into a Bachelor's in Science if I want to pursue that later. Plus you make good money at the beginning and end with a six figure job with great benefits and retirement.

[Fatih19]

2 minutes ago, Demonic Donut said:

Took some classes, ended up not being able to afford it. It was boring, though. I was aiming for engineering, but the beginning classes are dull. Teachers make their classes more difficult than it needs to be. I didn't enjoy highschool, other than making friends, because it all felt so simple and pointless. Going through the motions etc. College was exactly the same but everyone thought they were way more important than they actually were.

 

Ended up getting into an HVAC apprenticeship. 5 year program working full time in the field and going to class, mostly in the evenings, two to four times a week. The work is interesting, with a lot of different specializations you can get into. It also gives me a head start into a Bachelor's in Science if I want to pursue that later. Plus you make good money at the beginning and end with a six figure job with great benefits and retirement.

Trade schools are underrated, it seems like. The occupation you get into pay good money and you don't go into much debt like college.

[Volbet]

My university time was just fine. I had a family and full-time job on the side, so not much time to socialize with my fellow student. But I ended up finishing with an LL.M and got a job in my desired field. 

 

4 hours ago, CircleTech said:

By systematically denying 95% of their population from attending School in the first place

Where are you getting that number from? 

I obviously can't speak for Germany, but when I worked at the University of Copenhagen as an external lecturer, we were working with a dropout rate of roughly 5% per year among the student I taught (mainly undergrad pol.sci students). And when I attended the same university, the dropout rate for the entire five year degree, in my selected field, was hovering around 10%. 

Not to mention that the entry requirements in most fields is about a 3.0 GPA. Some fields, like medicin, is obviously higher, but a lot of fields don't even have a GPA entry requirement. And that's only at the University of Copenhagen. The GPA requirements tend to be a tad bit lower in the other universities.   

 

Also, I don't see a massive difference between the educational level of, say, the Nordic countries and the US: According to OECD, the percentage of Americans age 25-64 with a college degree is 48,3, while the average of the Nordic countries is 43,95. That's only a 10% difference.

[Commodus]

University was good for me, although it helps that I had excellent professors in my English program. My BA taught me to improve my writing, and helped with critical thinking. My MA was arguably more valuable, though — it gave me not just a better sense of how to analyze and explore concepts, but provided a healthier mindset rooted in postmodernism. That is, learning to accept that people are perpetually "unfinished" and will have contradictory aspects to their personalities.

 

In other words, it's not really that university taught me what to think, it's that it taught the value of thinking.

 

I'll agree that university isn't for everyone, but nor would I say it's a bad idea. Goodness knows there are many, many people these days who get sucked into conspiracy theories and fake news because they either lack stringent critical thinking skills or don't understand basic scientific concepts (and you don't need a science degree for that).

[Lii]

I've subscribed to a school that I didn't want to subscribe

Because of family misunderstanding (more or less..)

I will look for a way to get most of my money refunded.. if not I guess that I should follow it just because throwing some money into the bog is a waste

 

I really don't like the whole school system, for me is just a massive scam

[Lurick]

It took me a while to finally figure out what I wanted to do and by that point I had burned quite a bit of money on student loans and whatnot which I still regret to some extent but without it I probably wouldn't be where I am today. After I got my associates in networking I spent a few years getting experience and now I've finished my Bachelors degree online and it was pretty decent. It was a lot of writing papers for each class but I got to put experience to work so I would say that's a plus. I don't feel like I learned a lot of networking for my bachelors BUT I think the program offered was well rounded at least and helps students get to where they want to go even if it was a bit lacking on the primary focus of the concentration imo but it at least gives people a foot to dip into the field which is good.

What I do not regret for one second is going to community college and getting my associates and some certifications first (once I figured out what I wanted to do), that was the biggest success of my life so far when it comes to school as that literally put me with the company I work for today.

[Ricardo Harrow]

On 9/27/2020 at 6:46 AM, Caroline said:

This pretty much sums it up

The fact that someone with a PHD in Electrical Engineering can't teach a simple circuit analysis class worries me.

 

 

On 9/27/2020 at 5:17 PM, Rybo said:

One proverb that sums up college pretty well for me is that in a job, you need a hammer.  College, however, teaches you the theory of the hammer.  

So your experience will not be very different from anybody else's from an academic perspective: the purpose is not to teach you job skills, but to teach you to be an academic.  As you're discovering, being an academic is not, in itself, entirely useful, unless you're planning on studying for a living -- such as being a researcher, lawyer, doctor, etc.  Just seeking a job as an IT professional really shouldn't require a single second of college.  It's more of a trade.  A more difficult trade than many others, but still a trade nonetheless.  

If you feel you need the degree (and that depends entirely on the job market in your area and, more importantly, your connections), just get out of it what you can, try to enjoy the process, and try to squeeze in some extracurriculars of actually learning the trade you want to be in, be it computer programming, network engineering, or whatever floats your boat.  

While I do agree with the fact that colleges are meant to teach you the theory behind stuff, I just wish they did a better job. Thing with me is that I can't even squeeze in extracurricular activities into my schedule because of how crazy my schedule usually is. Worst of all, due to how bad some of the professors are at my uni, I have to literally go home and squeeze in time to teach myself the lessons I took that day. I know that's how uni is, but I just wish I had more time for internships, learning a new programming language, and learning what exactly cybersecurity is.

I'd become a part-time student, but my uni doesn't even offer the option for that. I don't even have the option to switch unis.

I apologize if I seem like I'm complaining. Just trying to give you guys an idea of what uni is like for me.

[Bad5ector]

Nothing to add here... I over paid for my private college diploma. Luckily after years of working various tech jobs, I built the experience to get me where I am today. 

 

No, I'm just here to say nice avatar @Ricardo Harrow... my fellow Sunnyvale resident.

[Ricardo Harrow]

2 minutes ago, Bad5ector said:

Nothing to add here... I over paid for my private college diploma. Luckily after years of working various tech jobs, I built the experience to get me where I am today. 

 

No, I'm just here to say nice avatar @Ricardo Harrow... my fellow Sunnyvale resident.

Congratulations on becoming successful.
 

Guess what comes around is all around after all!

Also, congrats on getting a picture with Ricky himself!

[Bad5ector]

4 minutes ago, Ricardo Harrow said:

Also, congrats on getting a picture with Ricky himself!

Funny enough,  my old manager of the current job I am in, knows the boys personally. He invited me to their Liquorman Whiskey release party when one of his +1s canceled on him. I got pictures with all of em ... 

 

just stick with it, that little piece of paper will open more doors than it will close. I learned that through denial and error  

[Ricardo Harrow]

3 minutes ago, Bad5ector said:

Funny enough,  my old manager of the current job I am in, knows the boys personally. He invited me to their Liquorman Whiskey release party when one of his +1s canceled on him. I got pictures with all of em ... 

 

just stick with it, that little piece of paper will open more doors than it will close. I learned that through denial and error  

Thanks for the advice! Already started my third year. Just one more year left to go. 

[Ricardo Harrow]

7 minutes ago, comander said:

US here. 

Undergrad - Went from a city college to a "public Ivy" the latter was a good school but not a great school. Studied something mathy but not engineering/CS. 

I was busy, worked A LOT, cash strapped and always felt like I was the under dog when it came to getting a job, at least for undergrad. Definitely sleep deprived. Without being too prideful I was smarter than most people but definitely busier and I had fewer resources than most. I felt like I had 2 years to get my resume in shape for job hunting and I was pushing my limits (think full time classes + 25 hour internship + 25 hour part time job + 10 hours of club activities + relationship at my busiest)

 

Grad school - I worked full time, I was also trying to apply to MBA programs (Harvard, Stanford, Penn-Wharton, MIT-Sloan, Chicago-Booth, etc.) and had a goal of keeping a 3.9ish GPA. I knocked out the GPA goal but failed at getting past the interview stage (SO MANY INTERVIEWS). Ended up getting the job I wanted around a year after graduating, without the MBA... so I saved $140k in tuition and 2 years of lost income. Protip, if you want to go to Harvard Business School, get enough sleep the week before your interview. 

 

 

I'd kill for a 3.9 GPA. Best of luck to you!

[Ricardo Harrow]

9 minutes ago, comander said:

 

I roughly landed there. I "only" had a 3.5ish for undergrad. To get into my grad program (average GPA was around 3.7 at the time) I basically needed to make up for the "low" GPA by killing the GRE. Think 335/340ish (so perfect math score and top 5% in English)

Hey, at least your GPA didn't tank like mine.

I was sitting at a 3.0 GPA for my first year, but the first semester of my second year caused my GPA to tank to a 2.7. Not that I wasn't trying, I was literally studying every weekend and was spending the rest of my time doing assignments. I'm still trying to get my GPA up to at least a 3.2 or more before I graduate, but feels like I've lost all motivation. 

[Ricardo Harrow]

6 minutes ago, comander said:

Diet + Sleep + exercise

 

Also throw in peer pressure. My peer group was mostly "career" focused and getting a 3.5-4.0GPA wasn't a "big deal" it was just something you did and you HAD to do because the kid at Harvard had it... AND he had Harvard on the resume. I think I had the nearly the lowest grades out of my roommates/the business club I was in. The average GPA at the uni I went to was ~3.0 and it's a school known for hard grading (think - "hey the visiting professor taught at Princeton last term, this should be an easy A" and Princeton is known for hard grading)

 

https://www.google.com/search?q=UC grade deflation

 

For what it's worth, unless something has changed in the last 10ish years, 3.5ish is the area where grades don't matter a ton (it's "good enough") and the rest of your resume REALLY matters more. 

I really hate how peer pressure is a factor that messes with you when you're in. People would always ask me about my GPA and annoy me by saying "wow I expected more". In my head, I would always think "yeah, you have a better GPA than me. Just please leave me the fuck alone.". It's due to that that I decided to just cut everyone off.

If I get a 3.5 GPA when I graduate, I'd be extremely happy. There are a ton of students who graduated from my uni this year with a GPA of 2.8. Guess you could say 2.8 is the average at my uni. 

Again, I apologize if I sound like I'm just complaining.

 

[Ricardo Harrow]

21 minutes ago, comander said:

It's real. There are actually a handful of studies that show that GPAs of students tend to "cluster" based on dorm room assignment. The really driven dorm has most of the people pulling off honors. The YOLO!!! dorm will have the most drop outs. 

 

https://www.dartmouth.edu/~bsacerdo/wpapers/PeerRoom8.doc

If you're doing life right, you hang around people that lift you up AND that you lift up. 

When I started uni, I assumed I was hanging around the right people. Basically, people who want to lift themselves up and lift you up. Later, I found out that my group was basically composed of people who wanted to lift themselves up and not others and people who had the "LMAO GONNA YOLO THIS" mentality. Out of the 10 people in my group. only two people had the mentality "lift themselves up and lift you up" mentality. Guess the first sub-group goes to show exactly how spiteful people become if they think you're understanding the material a lot better than them. I say this because these people would walk up to me and say "I only studied a night before the exam while you studied a whole week and I still got a better grade than you LMFAO WOW!". Apparently, getting a better grade than me was a big achievement for them.

[Ricardo Harrow]

2 minutes ago, comander said:

In my own case I don't think anyone felt they were competing with each other for grades. They were competing against the OTHER 400 people in a class (for most people) or the other 40 people in the class. 

Most of the time it was people saying "let's all apply to these 10 internships, and we'll make sure the people 1 year under us get the same opportunities" and doing stuff like interview prep, resume workshops, etc. Beyond that by being leaders in a club there was a "responsibility" to be on top of things. 

The other group I was affiliated with basically just went to the engineering hall from 6PM - 10AM a couple of nights each week and overdosed on energy drinks while cracking jokes to keep spirits high. We'd also "block" doors open after the automatic locks set in. At some point the university just left the lab area open and gave up on enforcing their old hours... 10-20 people studying is generally something they WANT to encourage. Doesn't cost them much. 

I'm glad that your experience wasn't toxic as mine is currently. Guess I have to make the most out of what I've got no other alternative.

While I may be just some random stranger on the internet, you're gonna go places, friend. Keep up the good work!

[GDRRiley]

54 minutes ago, comander said:

I code most days. Discrete math is the one USEFUL math class you can take (maybe boolean algebra or some stats/probability classes as well - it depends on what you want to do; there's often concept overlap in these courses). I use BOOLS regularly and combinatorics pop up fairly regularly. I never took that class (took others that covered many concepts though) and SOMEDAY I'm going to take it on coursera for fun. 

If you're trying to get a job (at least for SWE) at a place like Amazon or Netflix, chances are the coding interviews WILL assume you know enough discrete math (this is the easy stuff) to be OK and they'll definitely grill you on data structures and algorithms.

I'm IT with a focus on hardware. I got no interest spending my days working on algorithms. there is 0 reason for an IT major to take it. comp sci students should and have to at my school