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

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#31

Post by makmanalp » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:53 PM UTC

pwnix_rising wrote: post #18

This is the advice I would have given myself at 18: Don't fret girls and relationships. I'm serious. Focus on making friends (male and female), working on interesting projects, and learning everything you can (academic and otherwise) during the next 4 years. You may have inflated expectations of college women, assuming that intelligence and good behavior, decent tastes in men, etc. are correlated. I sure did. In fact…

Also, I guess it makes sense to say that college is like a clean slate - no one (well, mostly) really knows you, so it's a good time to reinvent yourself if you feel like it.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#32

Post by krschultz » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:53 PM UTC

- Don't underestimate the value of making lifelong friends and having fun. You won't make it through an engineering degree unless you have a way to blow off the steam for a few minutes a day. We were buried with work but the 8 or 9 guys I hang out with made it to the dining hall together every night and played video games for a half hour or so after, that hour each day made work a hell of a lot more manageable

- Make connections with professors. Unlike high school it is quite easy to never build a relationship with a professor because you see them so rarely. Going to office hours and talking about things will lead to research opportunities and recommendations.

- Get involved. Engineering teams (I know Olin does IGVC for sure), sports, clubs, whatever.

- Buy your books used on Amazon - now is about the right time since shipping takes a while. It saves a few hundred bucks a year.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#33

Post by krschultz » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:54 PM UTC

rguzman wrote: post #17

I'm not sure if it is surprising or non-obvious, but I wrote my postfact list of things someone would've told me at the start: http://metarz.net/blog/17/

Excellent list

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#34

Post by phicou » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:55 PM UTC

College is a great opportunity to try a lot of different things. There's a lot of good advice here, but I'd like to suggest that you find some time to do some kind of volunteer work.

Most colleges have many different groups and causes you can volunteer with. You'll learn a lot of important skills that you won't practice during your normal coursework. The things you learn while canvassing, petitioning, and organizing will help you in many aspects of your post-college life.

You'll also meet people that aren't in your major. Fun people. People who throw great parties. People who will expand your "network" immensely. Don't let this pass you by.

Volunteering also looks good on applications for jobs and grad schools. It opened the door for my first post-college job.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#35

Post by makmanalp » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:56 PM UTC

tocomment wrote: post #29

Get to know professors so you can get recommendation letters for grad school. I was shy and didn't meet any, and now I'm locked out of grad school for it. (They all require recommendation letters)

It's funny how highschool makes people forget that professors are people too - and then you go out for food and drinks with your CS professors in college :P

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#36

Post by mgrouchy » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:56 PM UTC

Don't do what I did.

I drank too much, partied too much, worked full time the entire way though, didn't go to enough class and didn't study enough(which turned out meant that I didn't get very good marks either).

I basically did everything wrong in my university career. That being said, University was boatloads of fun, and while I didn't do stellar in school I am a pretty decent hacker and still am doing what I wanted to do when I started(that is develop software for a living).

I think if your going to enjoy college/university at all, just find the middle ground. Do enough to get your Marks, become a really good hacker, but make sure you experience things. You will be much happier and well adjusted in the long run.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#37

Post by run4yourlives » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:57 PM UTC

charlesju wrote: post #8

Here is my advice, which is going to be completely different from everyone else here. As a caveat, I almost flunked out of college but am doing pretty well for myself right now, so take it as you may. Just have fun. Screw classes. Screw trying cramming for tests. Do well enough to learn while not stressing yourself out. College doesn't matter at all for if you can succeed in life. If you have the chops, you don't nee…

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 did there.

As an aside, my totally unscientific examinations suggest that people grow more after a year of travelling than they do after 4 of college.

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#38

Post by maximumwage » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:59 PM UTC

My advice is to make sure you don't get depressed or hopeless. Being away from home for an extended period of time and adjusting to many new situations can lead to a negative impact on mental health. Both depression and hopelessness happened to me in college, leading to bad results (I didn't date, I had no friends, I didn't care about classes since I thought everyone in the world was going to die from pandemics/war/etc). If you find yourself becoming depressed, the techniques at the following link may help. They're based on empirical evidence and have helped many people: http://bit.ly/z8rwF

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#39

Post by grandalf » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:59 PM UTC

charlesju wrote: post #8

Here is my advice, which is going to be completely different from everyone else here. As a caveat, I almost flunked out of college but am doing pretty well for myself right now, so take it as you may. Just have fun. Screw classes. Screw trying cramming for tests. Do well enough to learn while not stressing yourself out. College doesn't matter at all for if you can succeed in life. If you have the chops, you don't nee…

I agree with this. I also think you should follow the advice I gave, but don't imagine that my advice and charlesju's advice are completely contradictory :)

Re: Ask HN: Advice for freshmen entering college

#40

Post by michael_dorfman » Tue, Aug 11, 2009, 3:59 PM UTC

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.