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Many people say that college/university is not worth it but I disagree. If the one you are attending makes you think it's not worth it, just get to a better on

by gedrap 12y ago

Many people say that college/university is not worth it but I disagree. If the one you are attending makes you think it's not worth it, just get to a better one. I think university is a safe default choice. Yes, you will be learning things that you might never need. On the other hand, you will learn things you wouldn't have learned otherwise and they will open up your eyes. Also, you get to be surround with smart people (given you are at a good uni). And attending university doesn't mean you can't work on something on the side, and drop uni if things go well. Of course, there are cases when starting/continue working on your business is much better. But I believe those are exceptions, and if that's the case for you, you won't need anyone to tell you that. It will be obvious that you should do that.

eli_gottlieb 12y ago
I'd like to take the contrarian position here. I think that nowadays, if you are aiming for career skills and a position in industry, most university degrees and maybe an internship or two will prepare you extremely well. Degree programs today largely seem to focus on taking the student from the bare ignorance of their secondary education to the most fundamental rudiments of really understanding a field and thence to Hard Work and Job Skills as fast as possible. The elite universities distinguish themselves by also doing this as intensively and painfully as possible. What they don't actually prepare their students for is really understanding a field in-depth and coming up with genuinely sound new ideas. This seems to be something people are supposed to learn on their own sometime around the PhD level, as not even graduate school ever seems to actually teach with the aim of real understanding. Self-study (for the truly masochistic ;-)) or mentorship are the only ways given for a student to actually reach the frontier of knowledge in anything, and quite often, nobody exposes the young to a broad enough base of rigorous knowledge for them to have even heard important facts about their own field. It's kind of like how you have to get involved in programming-language theory or a few other small specialties to ever hear about category theory, despite it's being so general that it's been called the next major foundation of mathematics after set theory.
reillyse 12y ago
Agreed, I've spent 10 years in university and I couldn't be happier with my choices. I feel I've really got a deep appreciation for my craft and my own abilities and I've always been able to work on my side projects at the same time. So I'd say going to university is rarely ever a bad choice. Also, there will be plenty of time later to work, why not have some fun first and make a huge peer group of interesting intelligent people who have similar hobbies and interests to you.
- arethuza 12y ago
  "So I'd say going to university is rarely ever a bad choice." If you are motivated, passionate about the subject and going to a good university then I would agree - personally I think these factors are actually more important that the exact subject you do (YMMV). However, if you are not motivated, not really interested in the subject or not going to a particularly good university then I would question the wisdom of going - especially if you are going to end up with a large amount of debt afterwards. [NB I also spent 10 years in a university environment - 4 as an undergraduate and 6 as a postgraduate researcher and I thought it was great, but I am also acutely aware that I also knew a lot of people who dropped out or who did subjects they really weren't that interested in just because they felt they had to do something].
  - reillyse 12y ago
    OK, so I guess the big caveat here is I wasn't living in the US at the time and left university without any debt. I can see how stressing about how much money you are spending would make hanging out in college a lot less fun.
- nbouscal 12y ago
  > I couldn't be happier with my choices. > I'd say going to university is rarely ever a bad choice. Interestingly enough, the second does not follow from the first. As it turns out, people are different.
EC1 12y ago
>If the one you are attending makes you think it's not worth it, just get to a better one. That's the actual problem, not "If the one you are attending makes you think it's not worth it." Lots of factors come into play when making these decisions that won't fly on a whim.
marincounty 12y ago
I agree to a point. I went to good and bad schools, and it was always the teacher who made the difference. The best classes I took were actually at a community college. As to going to college; if you can swing it go it's better than any job I have ever had, and the women--well let's just say they are probally the best thing about higher education. Would I go to college again? Not sure at these prices, and having the the ole interweb around?
PhasmaFelis 12y ago
College was tremendously valuable for me: the contacts I made there introduced me to my first couple of programming jobs, and with that foot in the door I was able to gain the on-the-job experience I needed to become a successful programmer. Which was good, because my CS degree didn't actually teach me jack shit in the way of practical programming skills. If there's a job out there that needs someone who knows compiler design, search/sort algorithms, loads of calculus, the rock-bottom basics of C++, and nothing whatsoever about user interface, networks, system administration, or application design, well, 10-years-ago-me would have been very happy to hear about it.

by gedrap 12y ago

eli_gottlieb 12y ago

I'd like to take the contrarian position here. I think that nowadays, if you are aiming for career skills and a position in industry, most university degrees and maybe an internship or two will prepare you extremely well. Degree programs today largely seem to focus on taking the student from the bare ignorance of their secondary education to the most fundamental rudiments of really understanding a field and thence to Hard Work and Job Skills as fast as possible. The elite universities distinguish themselves by also doing this as intensively and painfully as possible. What they don't actually prepare their students for is really understanding a field in-depth and coming up with genuinely sound new ideas. This seems to be something people are supposed to learn on their own sometime around the PhD level, as not even graduate school ever seems to actually teach with the aim of real understanding. Self-study (for the truly masochistic ;-)) or mentorship are the only ways given for a student to actually reach the frontier of knowledge in anything, and quite often, nobody exposes the young to a broad enough base of rigorous knowledge for them to have even heard important facts about their own field. It's kind of like how you have to get involved in programming-language theory or a few other small specialties to ever hear about category theory, despite it's being so general that it's been called the next major foundation of mathematics after set theory.

reillyse 12y ago

Agreed, I've spent 10 years in university and I couldn't be happier with my choices. I feel I've really got a deep appreciation for my craft and my own abilities and I've always been able to work on my side projects at the same time. So I'd say going to university is rarely ever a bad choice. Also, there will be plenty of time later to work, why not have some fun first and make a huge peer group of interesting intelligent people who have similar hobbies and interests to you.

arethuza 12y ago
"So I'd say going to university is rarely ever a bad choice." If you are motivated, passionate about the subject and going to a good university then I would agree - personally I think these factors are actually more important that the exact subject you do (YMMV). However, if you are not motivated, not really interested in the subject or not going to a particularly good university then I would question the wisdom of going - especially if you are going to end up with a large amount of debt afterwards. [NB I also spent 10 years in a university environment - 4 as an undergraduate and 6 as a postgraduate researcher and I thought it was great, but I am also acutely aware that I also knew a lot of people who dropped out or who did subjects they really weren't that interested in just because they felt they had to do something].
- reillyse 12y ago
  OK, so I guess the big caveat here is I wasn't living in the US at the time and left university without any debt. I can see how stressing about how much money you are spending would make hanging out in college a lot less fun.
nbouscal 12y ago
> I couldn't be happier with my choices. > I'd say going to university is rarely ever a bad choice. Interestingly enough, the second does not follow from the first. As it turns out, people are different.

EC1 12y ago

>If the one you are attending makes you think it's not worth it, just get to a better one. That's the actual problem, not "If the one you are attending makes you think it's not worth it." Lots of factors come into play when making these decisions that won't fly on a whim.

marincounty 12y ago

I agree to a point. I went to good and bad schools, and it was always the teacher who made the difference. The best classes I took were actually at a community college. As to going to college; if you can swing it go it's better than any job I have ever had, and the women--well let's just say they are probally the best thing about higher education. Would I go to college again? Not sure at these prices, and having the the ole interweb around?

PhasmaFelis 12y ago

College was tremendously valuable for me: the contacts I made there introduced me to my first couple of programming jobs, and with that foot in the door I was able to gain the on-the-job experience I needed to become a successful programmer. Which was good, because my CS degree didn't actually teach me jack shit in the way of practical programming skills. If there's a job out there that needs someone who knows compiler design, search/sort algorithms, loads of calculus, the rock-bottom basics of C++, and nothing whatsoever about user interface, networks, system administration, or application design, well, 10-years-ago-me would have been very happy to hear about it.