4 ms·
The Man Who Snuck into the Ivy League Without Paying a Thing
- jeffwass 12y agoI've sat in a few classes during my undergrad and grad years. Big classes you can just hide in the crowd, but for small classes (eg 10 students) the professors are usually pretty ok with it as long as I ask them first. (Sat in some EE, CS, and economics classes). But it's not the class lectures that matter the most beyond just a superficial understanding, instead it's actually doing the homework exercises, writing papers, and taking exams. Exams themselves are meaningless of course, but the impact of a permanent record on your transcript is what generally motivates you to learn the material. At least for a usual semester's amount of knowledge. This was the case for me in physics (both undergrad and grad). Sitting in lectures barely scratches the surface of actively learning the material, but poring over mathematical details for hours solving homework problems and exam studying is how it all came together. Just like writing production code vs reading the language reference, or speaking a foreign language vs reading grammar rules and vocabulary lists. So while this guy sat in many classes, unless he also put in the requisite time for homework and exams which would have allowed passable performance, he's not really getting the full 'Ivy League' education.