Skip Class
ninjasandrobots.com
ninjasandrobots.com
This kind of post pop up once in a while here, some guy tells the experience about skipping classes or dropping out of school. If that works for you, great! But I am actually one of those guys that could happily get back to school if I could afford it.
School gave me so many things: My wife, my first job, my first client, etc. I could connect my dots back and everything started from the three different occasions I had been enrolled in three different universities. Should you skip class and doing it great? Sure! But your mileage may vary.
It definitely wasn't a good decision though. I wasted a lot of money and probably missed an opportunity to major in something valuable rather than something that would just get me by.
I skipped class, a lot. So much so that I nearly got kicked out of (a red brick) university in the UK. Up in front of the dean and everything. I was too busy reselling and refurbishing Unix kit and installing network kit and cabling. Oh and like yourself, sleeping when I desired :)
After a year, I quit my electrical engineering degree anyway much to the disappointment of my entire family.
I don't regret this for a minute.
Firstly, most of the entire higher education system in the UK is a scam. It was primarily an exercise in shutting up and sucking cock which I really can't stand for. I'm not willing to trade my ethics and morals for an education.
Secondly, prospects are terribly inflated. None of my peers are employed in that sector as it's cheaper to get your designs and production knocked up in the far east. All of them have a shit ton of debt, even after 15 years and are way down the ladder in their respective industries. At best, they're just about breaking even at the end of the month. The university in questoin is still selling the same course with false promises at the end.
My practical knowledge and experience over the years turned out to be more valuable than the education would have been.
Obviously I make no recommendation but higher education was a social event and business building opportunity for me.
Because of this: "Never had to do my physics homework (useless busywork) because the answers were posted on the forum."
Doesn't that sound similar to hacking the system? We are using a website called hacker news. Not only was collaboration on homework encouraged, but the class actually had its own discussion forum for people to use. However, everyone disliked the forum because it was cumbersome and slow. So I built my own. At the end of the semester I had many people thank me for the website and asked to have it expanded to cover more classes. Using this forum I personally helped many students understand concepts and taught concepts that the professors couldn't teach properly. There were a few subjects I didn't understand and other students stepped in to help. You were not in my class and did not use this forum so I don't think you should rush to judgement about what was/wasn't cheating.
By definition, hackers do things that push boundaries. There will always be disagreement but you don't have to downvote just because you disagree. Voice your opinion, certainly, but please be careful with those downvotes.
Ha. No. The system is designed to make you learn about physics, in this case. You did not learn about physics. You actually hacked the system to take your time and money and not give you a good result.
Kind of a dumb hack, if you ask me.
And what if I earned 100% on the 2 midterms and a 94% on the final? I got a 96% in that physics class. Other students told me that their exam grades improved after starting to use the forum. Not sure how I didn't get a good result. Again, I'd like to say that rushing to judgement of other people's situations isn't beneficial to anyone. I feel as though my initial post was very on topic and was kind of hurt when it was downvoted within a few minutes. We're all here to help and support each other.
By the way, I'm new to posting on HN and am wondering how you made your text italics?
You're assuming that a particular grade is a good result. It's an issue I think a lot of students have -- I certainly did. And it's not exactly the fault of students... The whole system seems geared towards the "good grade = success" metric. It's a weird kind of institutional laziness.
I don't know your specific situation, and I also don't really care if you cheated in your class and still got an A. And I'm happy that you got some programming skills out of it! But -- as someone who now teaches at a couple of universities -- I want students to be engaged, to not treat the work cynically, and to actually do the work I assign. As a professor, I am not only more experienced than you, but I know a lot you don't know. Trust me. That's why they hired me. If you consider the class nothing but useless busy-work, get out of the class. An engaged student who tries hard and gets a C is preferable to a student who does show up, cheats, and gets a A. That C is way more respectable than the A and the C student should take more pride in it than the A student. (And it's sad that our system doesn't really allow that.)
Don't get confused about what the actual goal of education is.
I agree with most of what you said. In fact, it's due to a few of my classes (especially that physics class) that I'd like to become a professor some day. I want to teach kids much better than those few terrible professors I had to learn from (I had no other choice in teacher).
> If you consider the class nothing but useless busy-work, get out of the class.
Trust me, if I could have I would have. Unfortunately these classes were prereq's for the classes (and major) that I cared about. I knew the material well enough to get decent grades and didn't care beyond that. I would have gladly traded a seat for a student who cared (especially a student who couldn't afford to go to college!)
I understand that sometimes it's necessary. But most of the time, I think people ask use this excuse to take the less risky path.
I'm not saying everyone should do that. But I'm running my startup and my CS degree isn't getting me anywhere closer to being a success story. The things I've learned by "doing" are probably the equivalent of getting CS and MBA degrees.
If you're willing to risk that 5-10% 'oh shit, professor included that one unique thing he taught in class that wasn't included in the textbook/slides' on your examination, then you really can usually blow off the lecture and learn at your own pace. And really, its liberating. You can focus on the classes and projects that you enjoy, and are getting the most out of, and still pass all your other classes.
It has nothing to do with hubris (at least in my case), but a combined case of just enough confidence and self-respect. I did not pay 6000 a term to attend inane, information sparse lectures. 90 minute lectures which can be successfully condensed into 15 minutes by your TAs are not worth my time. I've already been burned once by being forced to take these lectures (and paying for it!), I'm not going to let to burn me again by suffering through the opportunity cost in time and mental stability.