Why College Is a Poor Choice for a Lot of People

Sorry to hear you are not having a good time.

In any case, college is what you make of it; it might sound obnoxious but if it's boring, that's on you. Challenge yourself by taking more challenging classes, by going deeper than the professor requires in your current classes; take graduate level classes, arrange research or independent study with a professor. Learn new fields to diversify yourself, or to learn about the world -- get a double major in Chinese, Indian history, literature, experimental psychology. Access to the amount of expertise around you, with the availability to talk to you, will never happen again. They won't have time for you, and worse you won't have time for them.

> I'm only in my third semester ... I've taken most all of my CS classes and now I'll just be taking random classes completely unrelated to my major to get a piece of paper.

You are in your third semester and have almost completed your major? In computer science? Wow. There is so much more you could learn!

I felt the way you're feeling not too long ago. I'm open to talk to you if you want, shoot me an email ge.espitia@gmail.com.

I felt the same way. Just remember that it's those other people who are wasting their time in college. It doesn't have to be you. Start pushing yourself now and you'll come out way ahead of your classmates. And make sure to go out of your way to find those few classmates who actually give a shit about learning. I didn't do that and regret it now.

And you're only 3 semesters in. I doubt you're out of CS classes to take. Take the ridiculously hard CS classes that no one else wants to. Take graduate level courses. And enjoy the random classes completely unrelated to your major, you never know when they'll be useful to you. My favorite class in college was an American history class and I was a CS major. Who cares? It was a great class and I feel all the more educated for it. You shouldn't just be there to take CS.

Do you not get along with your classmates? Is it possible you are not embracing this experience?

Work your ass off while in college. Sounds like you are not taking any initiative here. Right now I bet you have tons of free time. Use it to better yourself in ALL ways. Exercise. Read. Get out there and meet people.

Thanks for sharing this here. I'd love to hear your thoughts on my situation.

I started programming in freshman year (2006) of high school and fell in love with it. I've been coding since, but also started getting excited about startups. A year after graduating from high school, I started one with a couple of friends from college. It's the best decision I've made.. I have learned so much in a few years. I am convinced I wouldn't have learned as much by focusing in school.

I've been in school for about 4 years now getting a CS degree. I started taking less classes per semester last year because I was doing bad in them. I had a lack of interest and also spent a lot more time involved in the startup. That hasn't changed. I have 5 classes left to graduate, but my GPA needs to go up by a lot in order to do so.

There is a lot of pressure from my parents to finish school since I'm almost done, but I'm really struggling to do well in my classes since I'm just not into them. It really feels like I'm wasting my time.. getting stressed about my grades.. and I'm not sure what to do.

The obvious solution is to keep going and finish... but it's a constant battle every week to convince myself that this is the best path and to keep going.