

Ask HN: Should I Go To College? - GreekOphion

About Me:
I am a junior in high school. I have a 2.0gpa because I am somewhat lazy. I get A's on all my tests. I have $125,000 in the bank so money isn't really a problem. I want to be a programmer, probably in Java.<p>My Questions:
Should I go to college?
Do I have to go to college to get a good job?
Is it worth it to go to college?<p>Thank-You for your time and insight.
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byoung2
For me, college was worth it for the experience more than the degree or
education. I went to UCLA and got a degree in English. So far all the jobs
I've gotten have been because of things I learned outside of classrooms. I am
currently making six figures as a self-taught software engineer, but I don't
think I would have gotten to this point had I not gone to college.

It's not so much what I learned in lectures halls, but the people I met, and
maturity I gained while I was there. It didn't hurt that I was there from
1998-2003 and got to see the first internet bubble from the inside (the
scour.net guys lived about 10 doors down from me when Michael Ovitz invested
in them).

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philiphodgen
1\. The "lazy" will kill you, no matter what you do in the future. Root this
out of your character or face a lifetime of disappointment. Take this as
advice from your 55-year old self. Build "relentless" and "focus" into your
character.

2\. College (for me) is where "lazy" was nuked from my character. Claremont
McKenna College, FWIW. They laid on the "write a term paper a week in each
class" thing and I rose to the challenge. No laziness and prodigious writing
ability = the most valuable thing I can point to from college. (The only
valuable thing I can point to from high school was learning to type extremely
well).

3\. "Java" is the wrong target. "Programming" is the wrong target. Think how
much computing has changed in 5 years. Imagine 10 years ahead. The stuff you
see now is just the entry point into a bigger game.

4\. Total World Domination is the right target. Starting with -- yourself. Get
rid of that laziness. Half-measures avail us nothing.

5\. Getting "A" grades is a bag of shit as an objective. I've hired and fired
plenty of employees with high grades and advanced degrees because they
couldn't get stuff done. Knowing _why_ (for anything you are doing) is the
game in school. Not just knowing _how_ and reflexively giving answers to get a
pat on the head and an "A".

6\. College may or may not help you. Read www.calnewport.com for what in my
opinion is the better approach to school.

7\. (I would also tell myself as a junior in high school that maybe certain
things shouldn't be ingested but that's another story entirely and probably
doesn't apply to you).

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derekja
if you're too lazy to get good grades you should probably fix that before
investing time/money in college. A couple years of working so that you have a
clearer idea of WHY you're in college might help.

~~~
philiphodgen
Yes. Exactly.

I took a year off between high school and college. Went to New Zealand. Worked
at a ski resort. One day, while wielding a pick in the snow to break through
frozen ground, I had the obvious epiphany.

