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College was my biggest mistake

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Re: College was my biggest mistake

#51

Post by maeon3 »

I'd like to see some of the code that this guy has written. He said he can learn more in an afternoon than a whole class? HA! He's confidant I'll grant him that. But also a deceiver. But perhaps the good kind of deceiver. Press him to cut some code, and in an instant will get some other poor programmer to do it for him. There are plenty of good rule-following programmers out there to purchase... For a salary.

I respect people like this because without them, there would be no companies to work for. Someone has to get pissed off with the way things are, and go out and BUILD something great. But he doesn't come across as a rule following person. We need their charisma and confidence, but without someone to cut the code and do the job, it will be like the cure for cancer, constant vaporware. The substance of venture capitalist's nightmares.

We need people like him, but we have to understand he isn't the generative force in the world, he's the scrappy leader. Hopefully his defiant vision for the world is good. Else he'll get his big bubble popped and end up looking for a job without a degree. And I don't wish that on any passionate-for-learning people.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#52

Post by marknutter »

scottjad wrote: post #27

Classes didn’t hold my attention- I could teach myself more in an afternoon than I would learn in a 10-week class. If this were true then you would have spent four afternoons learning Calculus, Business, Communications, and Databases, and another four afternoons showing up for the finals, and you would have gotten a 3.0 instead of a 0.3.

Provide those subjects could hold his/her attention, which is really the qualifier there. OP taught themselves rails and bootstrapped themselves into a $70k+ job in a matter of months. I'd say that took as much effort as passing a few introductory courses in your average public college.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#53

Post by sunwooz »

hnruss wrote: post #18

$44k a year for tuition is ridiculous and entirely not worth it if your primary goal is to get a job that does not require a college degree. However, paying a reasonable amount for tuition with the goal of personal enrichment and/or getting a job that requires a college degree is certainly worth it. As a current college student and part-time developer, I feel like college was a great choice for me-- even though I cou…

You can talk to smart people without having to go to college. If you live in the city, you can attend a number of meetups chock full of ridiculously smart people, some willing to teach you/work with you.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#54

Post by BadassFractal »

taskstrike wrote: post #3

More challenging colleges teach you far more than you can teach yourselves. A top 5 computer science school churns out a much more capable and knowledgeable computer science major who is both well versed in theory and knows how computers actually works down to the bytes. Kudos to the writer, his ability to hustle is strong. There is more than one kind of talent.

Having gone to two of the top five cs schools, I haven't really learned much about computer science from either. The lectures were boring/unintelligible and not motivational (foreign researcher prof., you know what I'm talking about). The MPs were great, but they're not something you really need to pay for. These days you can find technical challenges for yourself anywhere. Read a book.

The biggest benefit was forcing me to learn things on my own, otherwise I would have never forgiven myself for flushing hundreds of thousands of dollars down the toilet. All of my best CS experiences were when I individually worked on machine problems meant for two or three people, learning a lot through the struggle. At the end, I learned how to learn a little bit better, but I didn't learn much about CS. I thought I was the hottest thing on the block once I got into the job world, only to find out I knew nothing.

That was THE ONE thing that greatly motivated me and pushed me to learn everything I could about the domain. Once again, it wasn't college that did it.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#56

Post by ulyssesgrant »

sillysaurus wrote: post #46
taskstrike wrote: post #3

More challenging colleges teach you far more than you can teach yourselves. A top 5 computer science school churns out a much more capable and knowledgeable computer science major who is both well versed in theory and knows how computers actually works down to the bytes. Kudos to the writer, his ability to hustle is strong. There is more than one kind of talent.

I am well versed in theory and know how computers work down to the semiconductor level. (An aside: I am eternally grateful to Feynman for his wonderful book on that subject.) Incidentally, I dropped out of high school my Junior year after I landed a programming internship at a local game studio. I have a GED. I would say I'm capable of being put to work on any software project in any domain and in short order attain…

Like many people have said, this is very anecdotal. Not all drop outs are as motivated or as capable as you seem to be. At the same time, neither are all college graduates. However, graduating from a top 5 cs program will at least ensure that you have learned a good deal of information from a wide variety of topics in computer science.

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#57

Post by jbronn »

bradleyjg wrote: post #22

It could be worse, you could have started law school circa 2006. 3 years completely wasted, vis-a-vis programming and arguably just about the whole tech universe, $150,000 in tuition. After that you get a degree that serves as an entrance to a profession that is extremely economically depressed, near universally reviled, and the few jobs there are have terrible working conditions and are filled with unhappy people. L…

As someone who started law school in 2005, this hits close to home -- and is unfortunately true. Unless you were an engineer beforehand and went into IP law, probably the only field in the profession that's still hiring now. But then you'd end up writing patents, which sucks your soul and why I still work in tech at a startup now.

This brings me to my new motto I tell those considering the profession: "law school is never the answer."

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#59

Post by aik »

jmduke wrote: post #6

Most articles and comments about higher education commit the gravest sin of thought: they assume what is right for one person (namely, the author) must be right for everyone. I'm enrolled in a public institution pursuing a double major, working two jobs because I'm also middle class. I have a good -- not great -- GPA, and I get to do amazing and interesting things every day; I got into programming after volunteering…

I'm glad this has been said -- this is very true.

I have two comments:

>> "College was my biggest mistake?" ...it sure as hell isn't mine.

How do you know it's not yours? Or rather, how can you be so sure? Firstly, opportunity cost is an impossible thing to calculate with certainty, especially when dealing with something so incredibly costly both in terms of time and money.

If you find yourself reasonably discerning, and learning efficiently what you are out to learn, and enjoying it and life, then great, you're likely in a good place.

"Double majoring", having an OK GPA, working two jobs and being middle class -- these all say absolutely nothing about whether you're making a mistake or not.

>> I get to be surrounded by people who are just as hungry and passionate and brilliant as I am (often, they're more so.)

Now that means a lot, and congrats for finding a place that has such an unusual but hugely beneficial atmosphere!

Re: College was my biggest mistake

#60

Post by suresk »

danielrm26 wrote: post #36
sunwooz wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you saying that you can't learn to write without going to college?

You can learn everything you learn in college somewhere else. But it's nowhere near as easy.

I would also argue that while learning stuff on your own is doable for most people, it is even more important to know what you need to learn and to stick with learning it, even if it doesn't seem immediately useful.

This is one thing I think CS programs provide that is really, really hard for people to do on their own. As programs like Udacity and Coursera get bigger and more mature, I think this is one area where they can really add a lot of value: giving people a roadmap and an external way to gauge their progress.

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