Re:Ask HN: Which university degree is most conducive to pers...
by LewisVerstappen on Monday April 24, 2023 @08:28PM
(#35695084)
It's a completely unrealistic expectation.
The point of college is not the classes. You can find significantly better material on YouTube for 99% of your classes. (3Blue1Brown & Gilbert Strang for Linear Algebra, MIT 6006 & Reducible for algorithms, Yale's on the classics, etc. etc.)
The only point of college is the people you'll meet.
Here's my advice
- Pick whichever college is cheapest. DO NOT pay a significant amount for tuition.
- Pick the easiest possible classes and spend your time meeting as many people as possible. Go to parties, join clubs, yada yada. Usually, colleges will have an online bulletin where you can view all the classes, the professors, the meet times and class location.
Pick some classes you're interested in and just go sit in the lectures. Don't bother with all the administrative bullshit around "filing to audit the class". Just pretend you're enrolled and if the professor finds out then leave and find a new class (I've never had a professor who forced me to leave though).
Going to a variety of different lectures will make it easier to meet more people. Picking the easiest classes will help you maintain a good gpa (important for when you need to get a job - employers don't really care what classes you took as long as they're somewhat STEM-adjacent. You won't get rejected for a job because you have a stats degree instead of a math degree for ex).
If you want to learn a specific topic, then don't wait until you can enroll in the college class. Go sit in the lectures, find relevant youtube videos, email the TA with questions and learn how to teach it to yourself.
You're only in college for 4 years, but you'll have to be learning new things for the rest of your life. Teach yourself how to self-study.
TLDR - your goal with college is NOT the classes. Your goal is to meet people and build friendships. The WORST thing you can do is pick some crazy hard major and waste your entire 4 years studying away locked in your room. 99% of what you learn will be forgotten immediately after you graduate and won't be applicable in the job anyway.
The point of college is not the classes. You can find significantly better material on YouTube for 99% of your classes. (3Blue1Brown & Gilbert Strang for Linear Algebra, MIT 6006 & Reducible for algorithms, Yale's on the classics, etc. etc.)
The only point of college is the people you'll meet.
Here's my advice
- Pick whichever college is cheapest. DO NOT pay a significant amount for tuition.
- Pick the easiest possible classes and spend your time meeting as many people as possible. Go to parties, join clubs, yada yada. Usually, colleges will have an online bulletin where you can view all the classes, the professors, the meet times and class location.
Pick some classes you're interested in and just go sit in the lectures. Don't bother with all the administrative bullshit around "filing to audit the class". Just pretend you're enrolled and if the professor finds out then leave and find a new class (I've never had a professor who forced me to leave though).
Going to a variety of different lectures will make it easier to meet more people. Picking the easiest classes will help you maintain a good gpa (important for when you need to get a job - employers don't really care what classes you took as long as they're somewhat STEM-adjacent. You won't get rejected for a job because you have a stats degree instead of a math degree for ex).
If you want to learn a specific topic, then don't wait until you can enroll in the college class. Go sit in the lectures, find relevant youtube videos, email the TA with questions and learn how to teach it to yourself.
You're only in college for 4 years, but you'll have to be learning new things for the rest of your life. Teach yourself how to self-study.
TLDR - your goal with college is NOT the classes. Your goal is to meet people and build friendships. The WORST thing you can do is pick some crazy hard major and waste your entire 4 years studying away locked in your room. 99% of what you learn will be forgotten immediately after you graduate and won't be applicable in the job anyway.