I assume that as a student, you get fed enough theory. If you want the close to real-life crypto experience, I urge you to take on the Matasano crypto challenge

I assume that as a student, you get fed enough theory. If you want the close to real-life crypto experience, I urge you to take on the Matasano crypto challenges [1]. I was not bored by a single step of it, applying the (murky at the time) theory in practice. [1] http://www.matasano.com/articles/crypto-challenges/ http://www.matasano.com/articles/crypto-challenges/