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I hope it is not stupid. I won't fit inside the university system at this point. They would make me take courses on subjects I already know which is a waste. I

I hope it is not stupid. I won't fit inside the university system at this point. They would make me take courses on subjects I already know which is a waste. I have about 20 hours on the weekend I can use towards accomplishing a class and I will have minimal waste since my curriculum is tailored directly for me. Of course it is only because I already wasted a decade learning math poorly that I know what I want to know and what I need to know to know it ;)

throwaway729 10y ago
> They would make me take courses on subjects I already know which is a waste Then find a lower-tier university. In any densely populated region there will be at least one that's happy to take your tuition money to let you enroll in a non-degree-earning course of study. You'll only have an issue if you want a degree which, BTW, is typically intended to be broader than a narrow course of study in a particular area of expertise.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
whorleater 10y ago
Prerequisites for classes are oftentimes a suggestion, you can easily get into a class you don't meet the prerequisites for by simply signing up for the class (most class registration systems don't bar this), or by emailing the professor and getting an override. Furthermore, if you're a non-degree seeking student, the university cares very little about you, so you can skate by with a lot more freedom with classes.
- svanderbleek 10y ago
  Interesting. Certainly something to consider. I never thought about being a non-degree seeking student.
  - qrendel 10y ago
    Eh, if you're just auditing the class, maybe. When I was in college they made me retake ridiculous prereqs for the most trivial of reasons every time I transferred, allowed no exceptions to these, and personal requests to professors to get out of them were completely ignored. The prereqs were enforced by the computerized registration system - good luck getting past them without a waiver. As one anecdote, they once told me I needed to retake intro physics. On the pretest given on the first day of class, I came within one problem of a perfect score. Didn't make a lick of difference - their syllabus differed from the last university in the most minor of ways, and despite the fact that the class never actually covered even 50% of the stuff it claimed to on the syllabus, I was made to retake the entire sequence anyway.
    - svanderbleek 10y ago
      Having taken Algorithms at both undergrad and graduate levels and read through many books to prep Google/Facebook/etc interviews, I would flip out if anyone ever makes take an Algorithms class again.
    - whorleater 10y ago
      I'll counter your anecdote with mine: in my undergrad years, I started out as a computer science major, and discovered that I wanted to do computational astrophysics 3 years into my college career, meaning that I lacked significant physics background. The Astronomy department was adamant on me "needing" to have done the basic physics classes (mechanics, E&M) before letting me into an introductory quantum physics class, even though I already possessed a working knowledge of the basics. I emailed the professor of the quantum physics class, explaining my situation, and simply ended up taking the quantum class alongside the basic physics classes. Although I think your situation was pretty special as well, transferring universities is usually incredibly annoying and filled with road bumps. I've found there's a lot more leniency given to students who remain within the same university.
    - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
      Is this a USA, it sounds like they're most concerned that you pay for the lower level courses rather than that you get a properly warranted degree. Do they accept credits from any other institutions? Isn't there a national agreement on accepting credits for certified degrees?
- Roodgorf 10y ago
  > most class registration systems don't bar this Interesting, anecdotally, I went to three different universities and they all barred this from happening without an explicit override from a professor or occasionally an adviser. Just curious what experience you have that makes you say this?
  - whorleater 10y ago
    Huh, I've attended classes at two universities: one for my undergraduate and one while I was in HS, and neither had a system in place to explicitly bar you from registering for a class whose pre-reqs you didn't fulfill. At best you'd get a scary message confirmation message telling asking you "You don't meet the pre-reqs, you may be dropped from the class, are you sure?". Also, at least when I was an undergrad, the Banner student system (from ellucian company) had no system in place for barring you from registering from classes. This was frequently the point of discussion between the professors that I TA'd for.

throwaway729 10y ago

> They would make me take courses on subjects I already know which is a waste Then find a lower-tier university. In any densely populated region there will be at least one that's happy to take your tuition money to let you enroll in a non-degree-earning course of study. You'll only have an issue if you want a degree which, BTW, is typically intended to be broader than a narrow course of study in a particular area of expertise.

deleted 10y ago
[deleted]

whorleater 10y ago

Prerequisites for classes are oftentimes a suggestion, you can easily get into a class you don't meet the prerequisites for by simply signing up for the class (most class registration systems don't bar this), or by emailing the professor and getting an override. Furthermore, if you're a non-degree seeking student, the university cares very little about you, so you can skate by with a lot more freedom with classes.

svanderbleek 10y ago
Interesting. Certainly something to consider. I never thought about being a non-degree seeking student.
- qrendel 10y ago
  Eh, if you're just auditing the class, maybe. When I was in college they made me retake ridiculous prereqs for the most trivial of reasons every time I transferred, allowed no exceptions to these, and personal requests to professors to get out of them were completely ignored. The prereqs were enforced by the computerized registration system - good luck getting past them without a waiver. As one anecdote, they once told me I needed to retake intro physics. On the pretest given on the first day of class, I came within one problem of a perfect score. Didn't make a lick of difference - their syllabus differed from the last university in the most minor of ways, and despite the fact that the class never actually covered even 50% of the stuff it claimed to on the syllabus, I was made to retake the entire sequence anyway.
  - svanderbleek 10y ago
    Having taken Algorithms at both undergrad and graduate levels and read through many books to prep Google/Facebook/etc interviews, I would flip out if anyone ever makes take an Algorithms class again.
  - whorleater 10y ago
    I'll counter your anecdote with mine: in my undergrad years, I started out as a computer science major, and discovered that I wanted to do computational astrophysics 3 years into my college career, meaning that I lacked significant physics background. The Astronomy department was adamant on me "needing" to have done the basic physics classes (mechanics, E&M) before letting me into an introductory quantum physics class, even though I already possessed a working knowledge of the basics. I emailed the professor of the quantum physics class, explaining my situation, and simply ended up taking the quantum class alongside the basic physics classes. Although I think your situation was pretty special as well, transferring universities is usually incredibly annoying and filled with road bumps. I've found there's a lot more leniency given to students who remain within the same university.
  - pbhjpbhj 10y ago
    Is this a USA, it sounds like they're most concerned that you pay for the lower level courses rather than that you get a properly warranted degree. Do they accept credits from any other institutions? Isn't there a national agreement on accepting credits for certified degrees?
Roodgorf 10y ago
> most class registration systems don't bar this Interesting, anecdotally, I went to three different universities and they all barred this from happening without an explicit override from a professor or occasionally an adviser. Just curious what experience you have that makes you say this?
- whorleater 10y ago
  Huh, I've attended classes at two universities: one for my undergraduate and one while I was in HS, and neither had a system in place to explicitly bar you from registering for a class whose pre-reqs you didn't fulfill. At best you'd get a scary message confirmation message telling asking you "You don't meet the pre-reqs, you may be dropped from the class, are you sure?". Also, at least when I was an undergrad, the Banner student system (from ellucian company) had no system in place for barring you from registering from classes. This was frequently the point of discussion between the professors that I TA'd for.