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Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

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Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#61

Post by neodude »

tlrobinson wrote: post #47

Others have suggested great things to do outside of class, but I have some related to CS. Take a compiler course (or several). This really should be required, but unfortunately it wasn't at my school until after I graduated. Also, lots of algorithms and other "real" CS courses. Now is the time to learn that stuff. Avoid the "trendy" courses (Stanford Facebook application class, I'm looking at you) and go for the hard…

I'm trying to, and planning to, take as many hard, hard courses at college as possible, for precisely that reason. When is the next time in my life when someone will hold me accountable to learn something really hard? I don't think it'll happen again.

Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#62

Post by mrtron »

culley wrote: post #31
neodude wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting - it is definitely an awesome time to be in publishing. I redid (as all freshmen tend to do) the paper's website, which was a huge learning experience. A lot of publications seem to have problems getting themselves online - collegepublisher is the witness. So you seem to be in a viable area. Most of the misery was from schoolwork, which is improving slowly. The social side is at a standstill, because I re…

Drinking Socializing If you learn nothing else, learn that. It is perfectly possible to go to a kegger and drink water all night and still have a good time meeting interesting people and talking to them about interesting things. Find those interesting people. Keep looking at different parties until you do. I still keep in close contact with friends I met at University, and would not trade that experience for the worl…

Exactly.

Do whatever you want, and don't let others stop you. If you enjoy going to parties - go. Someone deciding to get out of control and funnel a pitcher of beer doesn't mean you can't be standing 20 feet away having a great conversation with interesting people.

The same goes with joining a club of any sort. I mildly wish I joined the entrepreneurship club - but didn't since the majority of people there were all talk and no action.

That suggests another point - you will likely regret NOT doing things more than doing things. It is the time to experiment and potentially make some small mistakes.

Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#63

Post by romainl »

Pick up skydiving!

I did during my military service (compulsory between sophomore and junior year at my engineering school in France), and there's nothing better for your ADHD. Seriously, it looks very ballsy from outside, but it actually would fit super well with your craving for learning and discovery - plus it will help solve the women issue, see comment #1 :-) And it's the best way to meet people as crazy as you are but completely outside of your usual circles (kind of saved my life when I moved to MA ;-).

Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#64

Post by neodude »

mechanical_fish wrote: post #59

Ask around. Find the professors who are the best at teaching Introduction to X (where X is any field) and take their classes. The teacher is more important than the subject matter, almost every time. Useful values of X: statistics, biology (esp. molecular biology), linguistics, statistics (I mention it twice because it's twice as important), economics, first-year chemistry, physics. Skip organic chemistry unless you…

Thanks for the advice. It rings very true - lately, I've begun to bias for good profs, and good profs only. They make everything worthwhile.

Actually, I'm taking intro to islam this summer quarter, from a really good prof (though some say he's just really arrogant). But the class is extremely well organized and he really knows his stuff. Should be awesome.

Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#65

Post by andreyf »

I was in a similar boat as you 2 years ago, and I wish I did two (seemingly contradictory) things different: 1st, go outside of your majors - take some acting classes, some poetry classes, some philosophy classes. 2nd, understand your majors - take a couple of hours to research every class your major offers, and decide which ones sound appealing early on - at Rutgers, I finished a CS BA without taking a compilers or OS course, which was, in hindsight pretty clearly, a mistake.

Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#66

Post by natch »

Male bonding activities are never wasted time. Seriously. Even something as small as going along on a beer run, might get you a position on a board twenty years from now, or a great job in an amazing place, or, by far the most valuable of all possibilities, crash space on a sofa in San Francisco.

Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#67

Post by webwright »

Be careful avoiding things that other people enjoy because you think they are vapid. Try to enjoy them instead.

Travel a LOT-- long trips (3-4 weeks per trip if you can swing it). It's very hard to pull this off after college for most people.

I'll echo the "meet women" sentiment. For some, it can be hard to meet women after collenge-- especially if you get a job at a startup (most people meet women at jobs and women are notoriously absent from startups).

Career-wise, if you want to do a startup someday... Either find a cool startup that you can work at (be picky) or build something that you'd really love to have yourself but no one has made yet.

Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#68

Post by keefe »

For one thing, don't be too quick to underestimate the value of socialization. You don't have to be a vapid partier just looking to hook up, but making social mistakes is much less costly in college than it is in the business world. Find some groups that interest you, and there are probably girls there that share that interest - it's much harder when you're out.

Is there some programming project you're passionate about? In college, it was horse racing and poker for me. Always trying to make a quick buck, I know. Anyway, the only real way to learn about writing code is to do it. Your first project will probably fail, so don't sweat it.

If you like this craze, pick an easy language and write a web application. You can get a VPS running for $20-$50 a month, and you could install SVN on there as well. Anyway, have fun and observe yourself - and make sure to study your algorithms!

Re: Ask HN: What should I try to do while still in college?

#69

Post by dnaquin »

gm wrote: post #20

Do EVERYTHING you can that will not be economically feasible (travel for a month or three) or even possible (spend a summer at Cambridge University in England). You will live to regret not doign these things when, after you get a job, you get two measly weeks of vacation per year. Use it all up: take extra classes, join a club, make a friend from another race, etc...

Two weeks _paid_ vacation.
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