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Here is my advice, which is going to be completely different from everyone else here. As a caveat, I almost flunked out of college but am doing pretty well for

Here is my advice, which is going to be completely different from everyone else here. As a caveat, I almost flunked out of college but am doing pretty well for myself right now, so take it as you may. Just have fun. Screw classes. Screw trying cramming for tests. Do well enough to learn while not stressing yourself out. College doesn't matter at all for if you can succeed in life. If you have the chops, you don't need the degree. But, you will never have a chance to live up life as you will in college. It is the most care-free and awesome experience you will ever have, and if you're lucky you'll make some awesome memories and lifelong friends. But if you must do well in school. Spend your time wisely (I also had a 3.7 my last year in college as BS CS). Sit in the first row, do all your learning you need to do in lecture. Do homework between lectures so you can party harder at night and wake up whenever in the morning. GO TO OFFICE HOURS. Pros and grad students practically give away answers on tests at those things.

run4yourlives 17y ago
College doesn't matter at all That's exactly what I was going to post, but I feared the downmod army, to be honest. I'm 34 now. Nobody has cared what happened to me in my early 20's since I was about 25. It just doesn't matter. Sure there are a lot of positives you can gain in those 4 years, but some of the most boring and average people I know define themselves by where and when they went to college and what they did there. As an aside, my totally unscientific examinations suggest that people grow more after a year of travelling than they do after 4 of college.
- tokenadult 17y ago
  my totally unscientific examinations suggest that people grow more after a year of travelling than they do after 4 of college. This makes sense. Data point of one, I grew more by living overseas after college than I did by working my way through college.
  - run4yourlives 17y ago
    I think too that for a lot of people, they travel the year after they finish school, so they're a little older as well. Mostly though it seems to be that once you realize there is a whole world out there with people of every shape, size and belief, you truly see all the possibilities of life.
- pwnix_rising 17y ago
  I'm 34 now. Nobody has cared what happened to me in my early 20's since I was about 25. I think college is less relevant, in a constantly changing social and technological environment, than it once was. It used to make sense to front-load one's life with education, concentrating on schooling into the mid-20s and then starting to work. Considering education to be an investment, it was only logical to pursue it as early in one's life as possible. With such a rapid pace of change, however, this model doesn't make sense any more-- much of what you learn in college will be forgotten or obsolete in 20 years. In my mind, it makes more sense to start working at age 14 and spend 1 year out of 5 in some kind of schooling.
  - run4yourlives 17y ago
    I wouldn't go that far. While I don't think college matters, "work" matters even less. The beauty of front loading a life with education is that one can explore different avenues without any societal or personal pressures to perform before they are mature enough to do so. I'm all for personal projects and starting side businesses as early as one can manage, but I wouldn't want that to be the societal norm because it would corrupt the experience, exactly as it has corrupted the college experience.
  - mofey 17y ago
    The purpose of quality education is to avoid acquiring a skill that will get obsolete quickly.
- noodle 17y ago
  i don't necessarily disagree, but the OP clearly stated his goals as wanting to do well enough to have grad school as an option.
  - run4yourlives 17y ago
    If you pass, grad school is an option. Maybe not the top echelon, maybe not right away, but it's always an option.
    - noodle 17y ago
      my point was that this person wants to do grad school, so they're not going to follow the "college isn't worth it" path and drop out or not go.
      - run4yourlives 17y ago
        I'm not suggesting anywhere he not go or drop out. I'm simply adding the perspective of someone 15 years down the line.
    - Locke1689 17y ago
      Don't do this. The name of the school on your PhD does matter.
      - run4yourlives 17y ago
        To whom?
        noodle 17y ago
        employers. a MBA from an ivy league school carries more weight than a MBA from the university of phoenix.
        run4yourlives 17y ago
- nostrademons 17y ago
  "As an aside, my totally unscientific examinations suggest that people grow more after a year of travelling than they do after 4 of college." As a corollary to that - study abroad while in college! It will never be cheaper, easier, or more socially acceptable. The semester I spent in New Zealand cost my parents about 1/3 as much as a semester at Amherst (mostly because tuition + room & board at New Zealand universities was around $7000/NZ, while tuition + room & board at Amherst was $20k+). It massively broadened my perspective - not just because I was in a different country in a different hemisphere, but because I was living on my own, with a 14-hour time difference from my parents, studying at a different school in a different university system. And if I hadn't gone, I'd have to have stayed back on campus while all my friends were abroad... I think I probably would've gotten even more out of the experience had I been brave enough to go to a country with a different language and vastly different culture, eg. Nepal or Ghana or Madagascar. But there's a limit to how many variables in my life I can change at once. If you're more adventurous, go for it.
  - run4yourlives 17y ago
    That's a great idea actually. Most people "go away to college" but just exchange one set of people for another within the same culture. While you hit New Zealand, I'd add that for many of us of European decent, not only is that avenue open it may also be super low cost if you can obtain EU citizenship via ancestry.
  - hyperbovine 17y ago
    Couldn't agree more. The statistic when I was in college was ~10% of students studied abroad, which I found shocking. A year's paid vacation to almost anywhere on the planet and 9/10 people said no! Also, despite the fact that you spend most of the time partying and traveling, employers look on study abroad favorably when you get out. I always found this amusing. Two other things: 1) go to western Europe or Tokyo, or somewhere similarly developed and 1st world. It is far more difficult to go live in those places when you are no longer a student. 2) Go for a year. The people I studied abroad with who opted to do one semester were devastated when late December rolled around and it was time to go home. Although it may not seem like it, you aren't missing anything back home, and the friends you left behind will not have anything interesting to report when you get back.
grandalf 17y ago
I agree with this. I also think you should follow the advice I gave, but don't imagine that my advice and charlesju's advice are completely contradictory :)
scott_s 17y ago
Paying thousands of dollars a year to ignore your classes is stupid.

run4yourlives 17y ago

College doesn't matter at all That's exactly what I was going to post, but I feared the downmod army, to be honest. I'm 34 now. Nobody has cared what happened to me in my early 20's since I was about 25. It just doesn't matter. Sure there are a lot of positives you can gain in those 4 years, but some of the most boring and average people I know define themselves by where and when they went to college and what they did there. As an aside, my totally unscientific examinations suggest that people grow more after a year of travelling than they do after 4 of college.

tokenadult 17y ago
my totally unscientific examinations suggest that people grow more after a year of travelling than they do after 4 of college. This makes sense. Data point of one, I grew more by living overseas after college than I did by working my way through college.
- run4yourlives 17y ago
  I think too that for a lot of people, they travel the year after they finish school, so they're a little older as well. Mostly though it seems to be that once you realize there is a whole world out there with people of every shape, size and belief, you truly see all the possibilities of life.
pwnix_rising 17y ago
I'm 34 now. Nobody has cared what happened to me in my early 20's since I was about 25. I think college is less relevant, in a constantly changing social and technological environment, than it once was. It used to make sense to front-load one's life with education, concentrating on schooling into the mid-20s and then starting to work. Considering education to be an investment, it was only logical to pursue it as early in one's life as possible. With such a rapid pace of change, however, this model doesn't make sense any more-- much of what you learn in college will be forgotten or obsolete in 20 years. In my mind, it makes more sense to start working at age 14 and spend 1 year out of 5 in some kind of schooling.
- run4yourlives 17y ago
  I wouldn't go that far. While I don't think college matters, "work" matters even less. The beauty of front loading a life with education is that one can explore different avenues without any societal or personal pressures to perform before they are mature enough to do so. I'm all for personal projects and starting side businesses as early as one can manage, but I wouldn't want that to be the societal norm because it would corrupt the experience, exactly as it has corrupted the college experience.
- mofey 17y ago
  The purpose of quality education is to avoid acquiring a skill that will get obsolete quickly.
noodle 17y ago
i don't necessarily disagree, but the OP clearly stated his goals as wanting to do well enough to have grad school as an option.
- run4yourlives 17y ago
  If you pass, grad school is an option. Maybe not the top echelon, maybe not right away, but it's always an option.
  - noodle 17y ago
    my point was that this person wants to do grad school, so they're not going to follow the "college isn't worth it" path and drop out or not go.
    - run4yourlives 17y ago
      I'm not suggesting anywhere he not go or drop out. I'm simply adding the perspective of someone 15 years down the line.
  - Locke1689 17y ago
    Don't do this. The name of the school on your PhD does matter.
    - run4yourlives 17y ago
      To whom?
      - noodle 17y ago
        employers. a MBA from an ivy league school carries more weight than a MBA from the university of phoenix.
        run4yourlives 17y ago
nostrademons 17y ago
"As an aside, my totally unscientific examinations suggest that people grow more after a year of travelling than they do after 4 of college." As a corollary to that - study abroad while in college! It will never be cheaper, easier, or more socially acceptable. The semester I spent in New Zealand cost my parents about 1/3 as much as a semester at Amherst (mostly because tuition + room & board at New Zealand universities was around $7000/NZ, while tuition + room & board at Amherst was $20k+). It massively broadened my perspective - not just because I was in a different country in a different hemisphere, but because I was living on my own, with a 14-hour time difference from my parents, studying at a different school in a different university system. And if I hadn't gone, I'd have to have stayed back on campus while all my friends were abroad... I think I probably would've gotten even more out of the experience had I been brave enough to go to a country with a different language and vastly different culture, eg. Nepal or Ghana or Madagascar. But there's a limit to how many variables in my life I can change at once. If you're more adventurous, go for it.
- run4yourlives 17y ago
  That's a great idea actually. Most people "go away to college" but just exchange one set of people for another within the same culture. While you hit New Zealand, I'd add that for many of us of European decent, not only is that avenue open it may also be super low cost if you can obtain EU citizenship via ancestry.
- hyperbovine 17y ago
  Couldn't agree more. The statistic when I was in college was ~10% of students studied abroad, which I found shocking. A year's paid vacation to almost anywhere on the planet and 9/10 people said no! Also, despite the fact that you spend most of the time partying and traveling, employers look on study abroad favorably when you get out. I always found this amusing. Two other things: 1) go to western Europe or Tokyo, or somewhere similarly developed and 1st world. It is far more difficult to go live in those places when you are no longer a student. 2) Go for a year. The people I studied abroad with who opted to do one semester were devastated when late December rolled around and it was time to go home. Although it may not seem like it, you aren't missing anything back home, and the friends you left behind will not have anything interesting to report when you get back.

grandalf 17y ago

I agree with this. I also think you should follow the advice I gave, but don't imagine that my advice and charlesju's advice are completely contradictory :)

scott_s 17y ago

Paying thousands of dollars a year to ignore your classes is stupid.