To me this illustrates that your CS undergrad school wasn't very good [1]. In my experience (CS at CMU), it's the undergrad years that are the most brutal and

To me this illustrates that your CS undergrad school wasn't very good [1]. In my experience (CS at CMU), it's the undergrad years that are the most brutal and require the most (assuming you strive for excellence and not just passing). I've had friends and coworkers who went to MIT, Caltech and Stanford pretty much agree with this. Those of us who continued to graduate and postgraduate studies, have (generally) found the "mental effort" - not time investment - far reduced. [1] Mark Tarver has written a great essay on this: http://www.marktarver.com/professor.html http://www.marktarver.com/professor.html