I think that's even more Orwellian. It does sound like just a jail.
Totally worth it if your main goal in college is to succeed scholastically, rather than party all the time and get distracted by roommates who are taking different classes with different study needs and might be trying to play beer pong and wrestle till 3am the night before your midterm.
> Sure, I think it should be opt-in.
So which should it be? You seem to be Co trash ting your self here.
I strongly agree with this claim, but I think it's the kind of thing that only works when it comes about naturally, or at least when the motivation to set up this dynamic comes from within. I disagree with your suggestions to bring this about.
> requiring students to live in dorms with students taking the same classes.
I think this could be nice for some people if it were opt-in (especially those who struggle socially), but overall being exposed to people from other disciplines is a feature of college, not a bug. Most of the people in your classes will already be from the same discipline, so it is important to be exposed to people who study other things in your social life, imo.
> mandatory weekly study sessions for every class
I really dislike this. People have wildly varying learning styles and you should not impose a specific format on them. I have issues processing auditory information, and I can learn 2-4x faster just reading the textbook than I can from a verbal discussion or lecture. If you force me to attend these, you are making me spend my time suboptimally. Also, while such a session can be highly productive for a small group of bright, motivated students, the whole thing slows to a crawl when it is inevitably forced to cater to the lowest common denominator.
> industry partnerships to get students internships with real world experience during the summer.
I think this could be a good thing, as long as the company isn't obligated to offer every student an internship. In that case the lowest common denominator issue applies.
Strongly agree. I studied at a collegiate university, and most of my enduring friendships are people outside of my course. Further, it contributed to having a broader understanding of the world, and being a CS student but having a meaningful discussion about, say, calcium channels with the medical students or microeconomics with the economists gives a valuable skill of being able to quickly build a working model of something outside of your experience/field.
> People have wildly varying learning styles and you should not impose a specific format on them. I have issues processing auditory information, and I can learn 2-4x faster just reading the textbook than I can from a verbal discussion or lecture.
I think it depends a lot about their exact nature. Personally I found lectures to be of limited value, and general discussions would be all but useless, but focused supervisions with 1-3 students and an academic to be invaluable. Preparing the work ahead of time allows you to learn how you like, but a verbal interrogation regarding it means you must be confident and know it well enough to think on your feet (it's also good viva voce practice). A good supervisor will also dig deeper than any one text typically would (if necessary), and give tailored explanations if something is tripping you up. They'll also push you forward and not let you coast if you covered the minimum mandatory material, and come up with new ways of applying the knowledge or fuse it with material from other classes/years. I think it'd be difficult to replicate that with any form of self-study.
Hmm...my first semester at university (after transferring from community college) my roommate was the only other male sharing my major (out of 9 total IIRC). Makes me wonder if it was a coincidence?
Didn't help any, he did his thing and I did mine. Don't think we ever talked about classes even once. Think he ran off and did a semester (or maybe a year) in New York after that, when he came back one of my friends went out of their way to introduce us to each other since we were the only males in that major.
There's probably a point hidden in there somewhere.
Socially integrating yourself with other successful people in your classes and degree program will dramatically increase your chances of success. This does not come naturally to many people. Ways to improve this include:
* requiring students to live in dorms with students taking the same classes.
* mandatory weekly study sessions for every class
* industry partnerships to get students internships with real world experience during the summer.
IMO these guys[0] are on the right track and I wish programs like that were available to more people.
[0] http://www.ansep.net/