Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#61

Post by sp332 » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:51 PM UTC

michael_dorfman wrote: post #40

Choose your classes based on the professor, not the topic. Good professors can make a boring topic seem interesting; bad professors can make the most interesting topic seem boring. Therefore: ask around to find out who the outstanding professors are, and take whatever courses they are offering.

Came here to post this. Also, if you're interested in a subject (even if the class seems boring) ask the teacher for outside reading material. Chances are, if they've been around for any length of time, they know where the good stuff is.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#62

Post by karamozov » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:51 PM UTC

A little bit of perspective from someone five years further down the river:

I'm grateful for my honours ticket to the thrill ride that is my job. I see the joy I find in what I do every day reflect in the others I work with. I'm privileged in this regard and I respect that.

I regret the plethora of mis-spent hours that I lost in the pursuit of irrelevance and perfection in assignments; it took me five years to learn to ensure effort is concominent with benefit.

I'm grateful for the friends I met. They took me to places I'd never have gone alone.

I'm sad that now I see so little of them. My job might be great but I scarificed proximity to other pleasures for it.

I'm grateful that I can arrive at a roaring party, find one of those illusive corner jam-sessions going on with borrowed guitars and some drums from a gap year in Kenya and join in without hesitation.

I'm sad that I spent five months playing only World of Warcraft.

I'm grateful that I spent only five months playing World of Warcraft.

I'm sad that I only discovered I could write after I was too far down the arithmetic creek. Paddles came at too steep a price.

I'm grateful that I spent a summer crafting a computer game with four great friends and that there was an organisation with the generosity and skill to pay for me to make such an ambitious mistake.

I'm sad that I didn't understand what asynchronous development was and how it was, and still is, affecting me.

I'm grateful that I was drawn to learn how to cook.

I'm sad that, on balance, when given the option, I didn't take it.

I love the memory of Maria sharing how she felt about me.

I'm sad that I was cowardly and replied with too many words and too little care.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#63

Post by aplusbi » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:53 PM UTC

Take advantage of the school whenever possible. If tuition covers up to 20 credits, take 20 credits a semester (assuming you can handle the course load of course). If there are discounted summer courses and you are available, why not?

Take interesting and challenging electives. A lot of students just take the easiest electives they can, but in my opinion they are wasting their time and money.

Use the library. It will probably have access to all sorts of expensive journals and publications.

Become friends with your professors. Most of them are interesting, intelligent people.

Find clubs with like minded people or just hang out with people who are in college to learn (you will find that the majority of people in college are there because it's what you do after high school).

Finally, enjoy yourself. If you are not enjoying yourself than why are you putting yourself through all of this?

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#64

Post by gms » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:54 PM UTC

pwnix_rising wrote: post #55

gms wrote: post #42

I want to echo gdp's advice above. What I wish someone had told me as a freshman: Grades don't really matter, no one will care about them. 1) Future employers (investors too?) will care about code you wrote outside of class, whether open source or your own projects. 2) Grad schools will care about great recommendations, which you do not get by getting good grades. You get those by doing research with the professor ou…

If he wants to go to graduate school, grades matter as a necessary but not sufficient condition. However, if he's a promising student, he'll have no problem getting the requisite grades (3.5+ in-major) while working on independent projects and doing research. He might also decide he wants to go to law or business school, in which case undergraduate GPA is a significant selection criterion.

Thanks for correcting about law/business school; I had overlooked that. Medical school too I think.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#65

Post by nostrademons » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:55 PM UTC

cperciva wrote: post #15

Two pieces of advice come to mind: 1. If possible, don't think about what degree you're going to get until at least your 3rd year. (This might be impossible, depending on your college -- some institutions require incoming students to declare a major promptly.) Out of dozens of students I've dealt with, I'm only aware of one case where "spend four years taking whatever courses looked interesting each semester" didn't…

Seconding #1 (well, #2 too, but mostly #1). I was sure I wanted to be a physics major when I entered college. I continued being a physics major despite doing terribly in most of the upper-level classes. One of my biggest regrets about college was not switching to CS earlier, because I could've gotten much more out of my classes if I'd taken courses I was really interested in rather than taking courses I thought I had to to complete the major and then doing the stuff I was really interested in in my spare time.

Your perspective in high school is really narrow. It has to be; most of the things you might find are exciting aren't even taught in high school. (Similarly, many of the exciting parts of the working world aren't taught in college unless you got to a specialized college.) Be willing to accept all the new avenues that open up for you in college, and don't stick to your plans from high school just because they're your plans.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#66

Post by yef » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:55 PM UTC

Since you're already focused on hacking and academics, my advice is to balance that by developing your social skills:

1. Read (and practice) How To Win Friends and Influence People

2. Go to parties and have fun at them

3. Cultivate a group of close friends whom you can count on

If you can graduate with great hacking skills, good grades, good social skills, and trusted friends, then you will be in a good position for the next phase after college. If entrepreneurship is on your mind, think of it as hacking+friends and start laying that foundation.

Regarding the opposite sex, don't fret them but absolutely do chase the ones you like! That's a wonderful part of life, and there is much to learn. :)

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#67

Post by run4yourlives » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:56 PM UTC

noodle wrote: post #58

run4yourlives wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College doesn't matter at all That's exactly what I was going to post, but I feared the downmod army, to be honest. I'm 34 now. Nobody has cared what happened to me in my early 20's since I was about 25. It just doesn't matter. Sure there are a lot of positives you can gain in those 4 years, but some of the most boring and average people I know define themselves by where and when they went to college and what they di…

i don't necessarily disagree, but the OP clearly stated his goals as wanting to do well enough to have grad school as an option.

If you pass, grad school is an option. Maybe not the top echelon, maybe not right away, but it's always an option.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#68

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:56 PM UTC

tholex wrote: post #30

Femur wrote: post #13

Go to parties. Rush for a fraternity. Have fun. Meet girls. When you are laying on your deathbed, you will never think to yourself "gosh, i wish i got with fewer women in college."

I think you missed the fact that he's going to Olin college...

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#69

Post by noodle » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:57 PM UTC

run4yourlives wrote: post #67

noodle wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

i don't necessarily disagree, but the OP clearly stated his goals as wanting to do well enough to have grad school as an option.

If you pass, grad school is an option. Maybe not the top echelon, maybe not right away, but it's always an option.

my point was that this person wants to do grad school, so they're not going to follow the "college isn't worth it" path and drop out or not go.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#70

Post by run4yourlives » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 4:59 PM UTC

nostrademons wrote: post #59

run4yourlives wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

College doesn't matter at all That's exactly what I was going to post, but I feared the downmod army, to be honest. I'm 34 now. Nobody has cared what happened to me in my early 20's since I was about 25. It just doesn't matter. Sure there are a lot of positives you can gain in those 4 years, but some of the most boring and average people I know define themselves by where and when they went to college and what they di…

"As an aside, my totally unscientific examinations suggest that people grow more after a year of travelling than they do after 4 of college." As a corollary to that - study abroad while in college! It will never be cheaper, easier, or more socially acceptable. The semester I spent in New Zealand cost my parents about 1/3 as much as a semester at Amherst (mostly because tuition + room & board at New Zealand universiti…

That's a great idea actually. Most people "go away to college" but just exchange one set of people for another within the same culture.

While you hit New Zealand, I'd add that for many of us of European decent, not only is that avenue open it may also be super low cost if you can obtain EU citizenship via ancestry.