This sounds just like the cliche that every Hollywood movie tells us (the rest of the world) about college. That is to say, I nearly zoned out at the first sent

This sounds just like the cliche that every Hollywood movie tells us (the rest of the world) about college. That is to say, I nearly zoned out at the first sentence. I studied CS at a German non-campus university, in a time (it's not THAT long ago) when we didn't even have BSc+MSc, but something that usually took 8-15 semesters. I didn't even finish at the same time as most of the people I spent time with. We all had different subjects for the latter part (just as you split off after your BSc I assume). Also for the record, if you think your study group (including you) at college are the brightest people you ever met, you should get out more.