

The Man Who Snuck into the Ivy League Without Paying a Thing - tokenadult
http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2015/03/the-man-who-snuck-into-the-ivy-league-without-paying-a-thing/386917/?single_page=true

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jeffwass
I'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.

