

Ask HN: College Hack - kiba

Tomorrow, I will be a freshman at college. Unfortunately this mean lack of time for my personal programming projects.<p>I would like to maximize my free time so that I can develop my infant electronic engineering hobby and grow as a software developer/entrepreneur while also maintaining a decent GPA so that I could get into my 4 years university of my choice.<p>I also know that I will benefit by networking with people at college, as poor as my social skills are.<p>So I am asking older, much more experienced hackers for their collective wisdom on how to navigate and get the most out of my college education/transitional time.
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michael_dorfman
My advice: treat college like a job. Treat the library like an office, and go
there for a fixed number of hours per day, and just heads-down work. You'd be
surprised how much you can accomplish in, say, 3-4 hours per day.

If you do this with discipline, you'll have plenty of time for hobbies,
programming projects, and just plain partying.

Undergrads are notoriously bad at time management; crack that nut, and you'll
rise easily to the top.

Also: choose your classes based on who the instructor is, not on the subject
matter. Find out who the best teachers are (ask students!) and take whatever
they are teaching. An excellent teacher can make even the most dull subject
come alive; a mediocre teacher can suck the life out of even the most
fascinating subject matter.

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fapi1974
I'll take the exact opposite view - treat college as your very last vacation.
Have a fantastic time, don't sweat the details, focus more than anything on
your friends. Let's see how that goes over in this group. :-)

~~~
michael_dorfman
I'm not sure that's really the opposite view at all.

In my case, I found that just a few hours a day in the library made it
possible for me to have an extremely active social life, with great friends,
and no details to sweat.

~~~
fapi1974
Point taken!

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mx12
Not sure what degree your going for, but I just graduated from college with an
EE degree, and I'll be starting grad school next week. Here's my advice:

-Have fun and enjoy classes (Go to them!) You'll learn a lot from your professors and other students even though you may initially feel like they are a waste of time. Also in smaller classes the professor notices.

-Also on classes, it's important to make a good grade, but it is also important what knowledge you take away. There are quite a few fundamental classes that I got an A in, but I retained very little that I am regretting now.

-If you are not being challenged in a class, esp. programming. Talk to the professor, and they will probably find a way to make it more exciting/interesting.

-Like you said, meet as many people as you can. This is esp. true the first semester. Everyone is excited about meeting new people.

-I would also recommend finding something outside of you subject area to balance your life out. For two years I was a cheerleading at my school. Met a lot of cool people/girls.

-Depending on what your major is, you may want to talk to a professor you like and see if you can get a job with them. This will cut down on your personally time for hacking and relaxing but makes up for it with great experience and recommendation letters.

-Once again, if you are doing C.S. or engineering look into REU's, Research Experience for Undergrads. I spend a summer at USC in their robotics lab for an REU, with housing, meals and a stipend paid for by the REU. Awesome time and I got a lot of letter of recommendations.

-Finally, be safe and have fun!

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younata
College freshman myself.

As it was explained to me (in the format of getting you to join clubs), you
have 15 hours of class a week, plus 30 hours of studying for said classes, 20
hours for a job, 8 * 7 hours for sleeping, 10 hours for eating, comes out to
something like, 50 or 60 hours to do others things, probably more.

