You know what I learned in college? That you can pass all the classes with very little studying, provided that you -learn- the material instead of thinking you can just memorize it. Some classes don't even require that.
I also learned that teaching yourself is WAY faster than having someone hold your hand. And it sticks better, too.
I learned that the only good thing for me in college was being forcibly introduced to new things that I didn't know I needed or liked, and sometimes didn't need and disliked. (But at least now I know!)
I learned that the world sometimes grades on knowledge that isn't actually relevant to the matter at hand. At the time, I thought it was just college, but now I know it actually applies in business, too.
I learned that the right paperwork (homework/degree) means more than actually knowing things and being able to use them. At least, for some people. There are a rare few (bosses and teachers both) that know how to assess people properly.
And I learned that the next time I want to learn something, it will cost me 10s of thousands of dollars less to buy the equipment/supplies and some books and just start doing it myself. (Along with a healthy helping of internet, of course.)
While I agree with most of that, there is a lot of value that you get out of it that you may not directly perceive. Making contacts with all these fellow classmates and professors is worth a lot. Sure you would have met a lot of people skipping college but it's a different class of people.
The other thing about the "I learned nothing in college" mantra is that folks dismiss what they have learned if it's not directly related to earning a paycheck.
Intro chemistry isn't going to help you in programming, but at least you'll better understand it when you see chemical labels on bottles. I am constantly amazed at how much basic stuff the general public does not know, with a passing familiarity with statistics probably being the greatest, deepest hole.
I can't service my own car. Even if I could, I don't have the time nor the facilities to do so efficiently. But even if I had learned how to do that kind of work when I was younger, I'd be a fool to say "I didn't learn anything from it". Just because I'm not using the knowledge proactively doesn't mean that it's not knowledge, or not useful. I feel the lack of that knowledge when people start talking about motors - it's a world I don't have any purchase on, and this common knowledge would benefit me socially even though I wouldn't be proactively using it.
The most important thing you can learn while at college is the skill of learning. The ability to quickly absorb disparate information and apply it to the task at hand. The information you learn in college is worthless. You will never use it. However, the skill you pick up as a consequence of learning that information is invaluable and will serve you well for the rest of your life. I work on something new and foreign to me on a daily basis ... that skill allows me to learn quickly and solve the problem at hand.
Granted, you can acquire the same skill by going to the library every day and reading up on a myriad of various subjects, then applying what you learned in self-created projects ... but ... that requires a will of steel and frankly, college just seems more fun.
I could not agree more - but would also add that in addition to learning about learning, learning about yourself, others, and society is also very important.
I can never understand all these kids who somehow mistakenly believe that the purpose of college is to prepare you for a very specific job. That's what job training is for. College is about fundamentals.
What school did you go to? Honestly, it really depends on the type of school you went to. I felt that most of my learning in college came from meeting other really bright and motivated people, which are in higher concentrations in some schools compared to others (note the phraseology -- I did not intend to argue that some schools are better than others)
That's correct, and while I did have a lot of trouble finding people of similar mindsets at school, attending a couple conferences and meeting people online worked out just as well. Having friends who are just as motivated as you makes all the difference.
I disagree that general education courses are "crap". I think people greatly undervalue the skills those courses teach when they pass them off as useless.
I'm graduating in about a week myself, and reflecting back on my college education, some of the liberal arts courses I was required to take helped me to develop crucial communication skills - which technical/scientific people stereotypically lack.
Also, taking some of those introductory science courses, like chemistry, help to create a foundation of knowledge to intelligently speak about other scientific ideas. Could you learn this on your own time? Sure, but if you don't particularly like a topic, it's unlikely you're going to devote your precious free time to it.
At the same time, my chemistry courses were nothing more than prolonged versions of what I took in high school. I didn't really gain much from them because they were 300+ students and skewed grading scales (85%+ was an A).
College is a culture, not just an institution. You think differently (as evidenced by the large blog entry describing exactly how he thinks differently). Others who shared a similar experience have a huge common ground to speed up communication etc.
How do you find time to work on personal projects after all the school work and possibly part time job? I have so many things that I want do but there just isn't enough time after all the assignments and the job.
Luckily for me my job of 20 hours a week has been quite flexible working in my free time. It's also not been terribly challenging Rails development which makes things easier. Aside from that I have pretty much spent my last semester working from 9am till 11pm all 7 days a week. Glad it's over now though! :)
I also learned that teaching yourself is WAY faster than having someone hold your hand. And it sticks better, too.
I learned that the only good thing for me in college was being forcibly introduced to new things that I didn't know I needed or liked, and sometimes didn't need and disliked. (But at least now I know!)
I learned that the world sometimes grades on knowledge that isn't actually relevant to the matter at hand. At the time, I thought it was just college, but now I know it actually applies in business, too.
I learned that the right paperwork (homework/degree) means more than actually knowing things and being able to use them. At least, for some people. There are a rare few (bosses and teachers both) that know how to assess people properly.
And I learned that the next time I want to learn something, it will cost me 10s of thousands of dollars less to buy the equipment/supplies and some books and just start doing it myself. (Along with a healthy helping of internet, of course.)