5 ms·

Don't skip class. College is easy if you actually go to class and pay attention.

splat 17y ago
It depends strongly on the class. If you have a bad lecturer, I find it a better use of my time to stay in my room and read the textbook.
- krschultz 17y ago
  At Olin, he probably won't have that problem as much as a larger school. With smaller classes you are also noticeably absent.
gdp 17y ago
I disagree on this point. I skipped classes left, right and centre. I'm sure it annoyed the hell out of my lecturers, but I was spending my time doing things that turned out to be much more valuable in the long run. For example, I did actual research! By the time I was finished with my undergraduate programme, I had enough "real" research experience to gain entry to a very good PhD programme in another country. This was coming from a small university with no particular research reputation outside of a few select areas. So skipping classes worked for me. Just don't do it to the point where you think you know what is going on in the class, when you really don't.
- JeremyChase 17y ago
  Glad it worked out for you, but in the scheme of things the amount of class time per week is really very little. Where I did my undergrad (RIT) each class met about 4-5 hours per week, and you took 4-5 classes a semester. So that means between 16-25 hours of actual class time in a week.
  - gdp 17y ago
    That's true, but sometimes the idea of sitting in a classroom for an hour or two to listen to something you have absolutely no interest in is just too much effort :)
    - scott_s 17y ago
      I was usually interested in my classes, so I usually kinda looked forward to lectures. I only missed three lectures in four years. Now, as a PhD student (hopefully) close to graduating, the concept of sitting in a class and being told what I should know sounds luxurious.
- makmanalp 17y ago
  I hate lecturers who take attendance. This isn't preschool, I can make decisions for myself. If I feel like I can do without that one class or feel like something else is more pressing (due project?) then I should be able to act on it. The whole idea of getting points for just being in class is silly anyway. You get grades to be able to rate your own knowledge, not as gifts or punishment. Thus if you've comprehended the subject fully you should get an A and if not, you should get less. Being in class during lecture has nothing to do with comprehension.
  - gdp 17y ago
    Mmhmm. I avoided those kinds of classes like the plague.
- nico 17y ago
  http://xkcd.com/519/ http://xkcd.com/519/
- liquidben 17y ago
  Good for you that this strategy worked for you, but as others have commented, this relies on your ability to efficiently recognize classes you don't need to attend. The penalty for attending class when you didn't need to is a few hours a weeks spent in suboptimal times, but you can still work on other things at that time. The penalty for missing a class where you needed to be... well, that's your grade, buddy. I recommend erring on the side of conservatism, as it's easy and attractive to self-deceive into an overinflated concept of what we would have done with our time (hack vs TV+videogames+internet)
- justin_vanw 17y ago
  This is like buying a ticket and then skipping the flight. You can't tell me that the 9-12 hours a week (max) you skipped classes made the difference between getting into grad school and not, you are merely rationalizing.
  - gdp 17y ago
    That really depends what the objective of going to a university is: Mine was actually to understand. This is largely incompatible with the notion of covering a large amount of material which you need to regurgitate near-verbatim in an exam. That kind of environment essentially reduces any subject to a memory recall game. I decided I wanted to come away with a very rich understanding of fewer things, and my exam grades mattered less to me. So, it's not like I didn't go to any classes. I just didn't go to any which didn't really increase my understanding. If it was the sort of thing I could just read out of the text book and memorise, then I would do that instead of wasting my time sitting in a lecture. Instead, I worked on projects (both credit and non-credit varieties). I went and sat in the computer science tea room with a stack of papers and I just read them. I asked academics about things that I read and didn't understand. The most common answer was usually "Hrm. That is interesting. I don't know the answer to that, but there's a paper by so-and-so that might explain it!" - result! Print another paper and head back to the tea room. After two or so years of this, I had a pretty darned good foundation in my sub-field of computer science. Enough that I managed to work on some novel projects, which I wrote up and published in my fourth year. By my third year I had managed to convince the department to drop a bunch of course requirements in favour of letting me do a project worth an equivalent number of credits. I actually did all of this in the lecture time slots. The alternative would have been sitting through introduction to {programming, algorithms, self-harm} for years, getting bored, and probably just dropping out to go earn real money cutting code. So really, who got the better deal? My classmates who digested the material at exactly the rate it was delivered? I think I got the better deal, because I actually made full use of being in a university environment. And as I said, I believe that was what got me into a very good PhD programme. I got my money's worth. So, skipping classes is fine as long as you are willing to take responsibility for your own education.
    - 17y ago
christofd 17y ago
Sometimes it's easier to follow the herd. Since you're paying a lot of money for classes, might as well attend. Keeping up with course material on your own, while skipping class, will result in 3-4 times the effort and lower grades -> you will likely work your ass off, get a mediocre grade, but have learned a lot (this avenue is more befitting for side projects). The main reason: each prof. stresses specific things in the final exam that were covered in his lecture. With a heavy course load, you cannot afford to pursue this strategy, if you want halfway decent grades.
ken 17y ago
That depends entirely on the class! I had classes that were easy even if I didn't go to class, and others that were hard even if I went to every class. (I even signed up for overlapping courses once, and skipped out of an uninteresting mandatory one halfway through every lecture to go to the other.) Far more important to me was getting together with other students to work on the material. That's what college is about: figuring out how you learn best. If you know that, your school/major/etc. don't matter.
nostrademons 17y ago
Totally disagree. Posted my reasons on another subthread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=756811 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=756811

splat 17y ago

It depends strongly on the class. If you have a bad lecturer, I find it a better use of my time to stay in my room and read the textbook.

krschultz 17y ago
At Olin, he probably won't have that problem as much as a larger school. With smaller classes you are also noticeably absent.

gdp 17y ago

I disagree on this point. I skipped classes left, right and centre. I'm sure it annoyed the hell out of my lecturers, but I was spending my time doing things that turned out to be much more valuable in the long run. For example, I did actual research! By the time I was finished with my undergraduate programme, I had enough "real" research experience to gain entry to a very good PhD programme in another country. This was coming from a small university with no particular research reputation outside of a few select areas. So skipping classes worked for me. Just don't do it to the point where you think you know what is going on in the class, when you really don't.

JeremyChase 17y ago
Glad it worked out for you, but in the scheme of things the amount of class time per week is really very little. Where I did my undergrad (RIT) each class met about 4-5 hours per week, and you took 4-5 classes a semester. So that means between 16-25 hours of actual class time in a week.
- gdp 17y ago
  That's true, but sometimes the idea of sitting in a classroom for an hour or two to listen to something you have absolutely no interest in is just too much effort :)
  - scott_s 17y ago
    I was usually interested in my classes, so I usually kinda looked forward to lectures. I only missed three lectures in four years. Now, as a PhD student (hopefully) close to graduating, the concept of sitting in a class and being told what I should know sounds luxurious.
makmanalp 17y ago
I hate lecturers who take attendance. This isn't preschool, I can make decisions for myself. If I feel like I can do without that one class or feel like something else is more pressing (due project?) then I should be able to act on it. The whole idea of getting points for just being in class is silly anyway. You get grades to be able to rate your own knowledge, not as gifts or punishment. Thus if you've comprehended the subject fully you should get an A and if not, you should get less. Being in class during lecture has nothing to do with comprehension.
- gdp 17y ago
  Mmhmm. I avoided those kinds of classes like the plague.
nico 17y ago
http://xkcd.com/519/ http://xkcd.com/519/
liquidben 17y ago
Good for you that this strategy worked for you, but as others have commented, this relies on your ability to efficiently recognize classes you don't need to attend. The penalty for attending class when you didn't need to is a few hours a weeks spent in suboptimal times, but you can still work on other things at that time. The penalty for missing a class where you needed to be... well, that's your grade, buddy. I recommend erring on the side of conservatism, as it's easy and attractive to self-deceive into an overinflated concept of what we would have done with our time (hack vs TV+videogames+internet)
justin_vanw 17y ago
This is like buying a ticket and then skipping the flight. You can't tell me that the 9-12 hours a week (max) you skipped classes made the difference between getting into grad school and not, you are merely rationalizing.
- gdp 17y ago
  That really depends what the objective of going to a university is: Mine was actually to understand. This is largely incompatible with the notion of covering a large amount of material which you need to regurgitate near-verbatim in an exam. That kind of environment essentially reduces any subject to a memory recall game. I decided I wanted to come away with a very rich understanding of fewer things, and my exam grades mattered less to me. So, it's not like I didn't go to any classes. I just didn't go to any which didn't really increase my understanding. If it was the sort of thing I could just read out of the text book and memorise, then I would do that instead of wasting my time sitting in a lecture. Instead, I worked on projects (both credit and non-credit varieties). I went and sat in the computer science tea room with a stack of papers and I just read them. I asked academics about things that I read and didn't understand. The most common answer was usually "Hrm. That is interesting. I don't know the answer to that, but there's a paper by so-and-so that might explain it!" - result! Print another paper and head back to the tea room. After two or so years of this, I had a pretty darned good foundation in my sub-field of computer science. Enough that I managed to work on some novel projects, which I wrote up and published in my fourth year. By my third year I had managed to convince the department to drop a bunch of course requirements in favour of letting me do a project worth an equivalent number of credits. I actually did all of this in the lecture time slots. The alternative would have been sitting through introduction to {programming, algorithms, self-harm} for years, getting bored, and probably just dropping out to go earn real money cutting code. So really, who got the better deal? My classmates who digested the material at exactly the rate it was delivered? I think I got the better deal, because I actually made full use of being in a university environment. And as I said, I believe that was what got me into a very good PhD programme. I got my money's worth. So, skipping classes is fine as long as you are willing to take responsibility for your own education.
  - 17y ago

christofd 17y ago

Sometimes it's easier to follow the herd. Since you're paying a lot of money for classes, might as well attend. Keeping up with course material on your own, while skipping class, will result in 3-4 times the effort and lower grades -> you will likely work your ass off, get a mediocre grade, but have learned a lot (this avenue is more befitting for side projects). The main reason: each prof. stresses specific things in the final exam that were covered in his lecture. With a heavy course load, you cannot afford to pursue this strategy, if you want halfway decent grades.

ken 17y ago

That depends entirely on the class! I had classes that were easy even if I didn't go to class, and others that were hard even if I went to every class. (I even signed up for overlapping courses once, and skipped out of an uninteresting mandatory one halfway through every lecture to go to the other.) Far more important to me was getting together with other students to work on the material. That's what college is about: figuring out how you learn best. If you know that, your school/major/etc. don't matter.

nostrademons 17y ago

Totally disagree. Posted my reasons on another subthread: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=756811 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=756811