What do you wish you had known when starting college?

[JVN]

Are you going to college to get a degree, or an education?

My experiences at Clarkson taught me, that in some classes, you can cram for the tests and pass the course without learning much at all. (Though you will often pay for doing so down the road, when you're expected to know the stuff you crammed and forgot).

If you go through college doing this, you will regret it.
So, now I ask people the above question, and ask them to remember this question throughout their college tenure.

Are you going to college to get a degree, or an education?

(Make sure you get both, I'm not advocating a Kamenesque career.)

[Denman]

Hmm. Best way to learn imo is to take notes. you tend to think stuff as you write them and it sticks in your mind...



shame i can't mention much on drinking, doesn't apply to you, theoretically....

[GaryVoshol]

Originally Posted by kaszeta

MSU has a Coldstone now? Back in my day (BSME '95) they only had Melting Moments, the MSU Dairy Store (which was conveniently located directly between two of my classes almost every spring, and was only $0.50 for a single scoop back then), and half price tuesdays at the Quality Dairy.

Back in our "starving artist" days, my wife and I could split a Quality Dairy cone and make it a meal.

[Elgin Clock]

Don't miss out on the following quoted from lyrics from a pretty funny (but a little mature) play on Broadway. If anyone wants the name, let me know.

I found these all rather amusing and bolded the ones I agree with a lot, even though I'm still in college.. (part time student, full time job - working does that to you)

I Wish I Could Go Back To College lyrics:

KATE MONSTER:
I wish I could go back to college.
Life was so simple back then.

NICKY:
What would I give to go back and live in a dorm with a meal plan again!

PRINCETON:
I wish I could go back to college.
In college you know who you are.
You sit in the quad, and think, "Oh my God!
I am totally gonna go far!"

ALL:
How do I go back to college?
I don't know who I am anymore!

PRINCETON:
I wanna go back to my room and find a message in dry-erase pen on the door!
Ohhh...
I wish I could just drop a class...

NICKY:
Or get into a play...

KATE MONSTER:
Or change my major...

ALL:
I need an academic advisor to point the way!
We could be...
Sitting in the computer lab,
4 A.M. before the final paper is due,
Cursing the world 'cause I didn't start sooner,
And seeing the rest of the class there, too!

PRINCETON:
I wish I could go back to college!

ALL:
How do I go back to college?!
AHHHH...

PRINCETON:
I wish I had taken more pictures.

NICKY:
But if I were to go back to college,
Think what a loser I'd be-
I'd walk through the quad,
And think "Oh my God..."

ALL:
"These kids are so much younger than me."

The last 2 lines is what I feel now to a certain extent. LOL
I'm in a commuter college now, so it's a bit different as the night students are a range of 18-60 year olds, but it's still weird being old(er) and still in college..

[sanddrag]

Anybody who tries to stop you while you are walking along on campus, ignore them, especially if they are holding a clipboard. Don't get sucked in. Sometimes they will even try to follow you. If they ask for money, just say "wish I could" If they ask you "have you...." just say "already did, thanks" and keep walking. People come onto college campuses to take advantage of poor college students who don't know any better. I see it almost every day. Don't let it happen to you.

Also, don't give out information like your address and brithdate and social security numbers to people you don't know.

Don't leave your backpack or laptop sitting around. The world isn't full of FIRSTers. There are theives out there.

And do become involved in something. But make sure it is a good something. Many clubs meet once a week to just sign in and eat pizza. Don't bother continuing if that is a club you were thinking of being involved in. Make it worthwhile.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by JVN

Are you going to college to get a degree, or an education?

John speaks wisdom. There will be some courses that will be more applicable to your career than others (Music Appreciation or Astronomy, for example, will not do as much for an engineering major), but try walk away with some knowledge from every course you take.

If you have to take some courses in a certain department, look beyond the 101s and 110s and find something that clicks with you. (I had to take a social sciences course. I looked at the master schedule and settled on GEOG 333, Geography of Popular Music. Definitely one of the best courses I've taken at USC, in no small part because it interests me.)

Meet as many people as possible. Bonus points for faculty. You never know where it'll lead you.

When it comes to going to class or reading ChiefDelphi, go to class. (No, this has not been an issue for me.)

Do at least one silly (but legal) thing a semester.

Procrastination is allowed, but you take your life into your own hands by doing it. You have been warned.

Try to avoid going home every weekend, unless there's some overriding reason.

Know where the nearest drug store, supermarket, and Wal-Mart (or your choice of big-box store) are. The student health center may have a pharmacy inside--check to be sure.

Oh, and a general guiding principle: Don't be stupid.

[nehalita]

Originally Posted by Elgin Clock

Don't miss out on the following quoted from lyrics from a pretty funny (but a little mature) play on Broadway. If anyone wants the name, let me know.

looks like we have avenue q =)

[Rick TYler]

Billfred and I are opposites. I have two college degrees, which I spent nine years on (with a couple of work breaks in between). The absolute best times I had in college were in "Introduction to" classes. I finished my undergraduate degree with the exact minimum number of classes in my major to get my degree. I spent the rest of my time having fun. I discovered that our School of Physical Sciences had a sequence of courses for non-majors. The instructors had the chance to teach something they loved, without the pressure of making majors happy. I took Observational Astronomy, Cosmology, Newtonian Physics, and Geophysics. I took a one-year course in psychobiology. I took six Humanities courses, including Logic and a history of the American presidency. I have four units in undergraduate Criminal Law. I took six quarters of Sailing. I lifted weights for a year. I was disc jockey at KUCI for three years, wrote for the New University newspaper for two years and was news editor for a year, was Director of the Model United Nations program, and completed a half-dozen independent study projects (for class credit).

The moral, and I do have one, is that college can be a tremendously broadening experience, and might be the last chance you have to hang out in an intellectual playground where all you have to do is learn. Don't waste it learning to be a drone. Trust me -- most of the classes you take won't help all that much after you graduate, and no one will care in 10 years if you got an "A" or "B+" in a course. Focus on your education, not school.

And don't be stupid.

[MissInformation]

This is what I wish someone had told me:

Go to class. Care about your classes, even the ones you don't like. And even if you would be happy with a "B" or a "C" as long as it's a passing grade, still strive for that "A" because striving means you care. If you run out of money before you finish, don't give up, get as much out of what you have and try to get back as soon as you can. Get your basic requirements out of the way first if you don't test out of them (I had a small degree of talent in English and was able to convince the head of the English department to allow me to take advanced classes).

I made mistakes like the ones I'm cautioning about and I'm now in my 30s and finally back in school. All of those advanced English classes transferred as electives so I'm pretty much close to starting from scratch. But I'm doing it right this time so I guess I have to tell you to remember that even if you do mess up, you will have more chances, it's harder, I won't lie to you about that, but it's still another chance.

Again, that's what I wish someone had told me.

Heidi

[kaszeta]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

The moral, and I do have one, is that college can be a tremendously broadening experience, and might be the last chance you have to hang out in an intellectual playground where all you have to do is learn. Don't waste it learning to be a drone. Trust me -- most of the classes you take won't help all that much after you graduate, and no one will care in 10 years if you got an "A" or "B+" in a course. Focus on your education, not school.

And don't be stupid.

I'll chime in again here, since I agree with TYler here. College is one of the most "free" times you have in your life. You've got time. You've got a nice intellectual playground. You've still got some of your youthful energy. And you hopefully aren't too jaded yet. It's the best time to explore and learn, and it's best if you make good use of the opportunity.

That, and even if you are the pratical-minded type, you never know when skills can be useful, and some of my non-Mechanical Engineering classes I took over the 10 years I spent in college (BS, MS, PhD) turned out to be some of the most useful:

• All those fun computer programming classes (programming gigs and sysadmining basically bankrolled me through school)
• Scuba diving (considering I spend a fair amount of time now working with decompression sickness detection systems, this turned out to be tremendously useful in addition to fun)
• Viticulture (I later ended up having a consulting client who needed some heat transfer expertise regarding issues in his vineyard, and I got the job since I was the only engineer he talked to that knew what he was talking about)
• Intro to industrial engineering (not a major course or a tech elective. I took this since it consisted of nothing but *lots* of factory tours. Probably one of the most educational classes I ever had)

So you never know what will and won't turn out to be useful (indeed, that "Design Creativity" core ME class was probably the least useful class I ever took...). So spread your courseload around a bit. It also makes you a more interesting and informed person.

[Ian Mackenzie]

I like to keep asking myself "Why is this interesting? Why is this cool?" (Because it almost always is, if you look close enough). Nothing will turn you off school faster than slogging through equations that seem pointless just to do well on a test, so take a few minutes, step back, and try to find some neat patterns or applications. A lot of profs seem to teach just the equations and how to apply them, but try to ask yourself why the equations make sense, how they fit in with other things, etc.

For instance, Laplace transforms always bugged me because I coudn't see the fundamental reason why you convolve with e^-st instead of something else, and no prof or textbook will tell you (because the answer doesn't have any obvious practical use). So I played around with it for a few hours and figured out that, given certain qualities that you want the Laplace transform to have, e^-st is the only function that works (if this sounds interesting, PM me and I can try to recreate my thought process...it was a while ago). This didn't directly help me pass any tests or do any assignments, but certainly reinvigorated my interest in the subject.

As for applications, FIRST is great for this. If you're trudging through control systems theory, think about applications to PID controllers for drive systems. If you hate your electromagnetism course, take an hour or two, make a mathematical model of a simple DC motor, use the specs from the CIM and see how closely you can predict its performance (I've done this, and not only is it a ton of fun, but you end up with a much better understanding of DC motors). If dynamics has you down, start thinking about nifty robot mechanisms (I know that I took stuff directly from my first year physics course and used it directly to help mentor my old team on my next co-op term).

That's a little more abstract than some of the above posts, but hopefully it helps...

Oh, and one more thing: It IS possible to get through 4 years of engineering quite nicely without ever resorting to

a) Kraft dinner, or
b) caffeine.

I've done it, and I know other people who have as well. Finally, don't feel pressured to drink - engineering at my school, at least, has quite an alcohol culture, but I can almost count on my two hands the number of drinks I've had in the last four years, and I get along with everyone just fine.

[RogerR]

advice my step dad gave me the day i left for college:

In college you'll have some of the best days of your life, and some of the worst days of your life. Realise that the bad days are just that: days. Get through them as best you can, go to sleep, and wake up in the morning and make the next day better.

its pro'lly pretty simplistic, but it still seems profound to me.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Rick TYler

Billfred and I are opposites. I have two college degrees, which I spent nine years on (with a couple of work breaks in between). The absolute best times I had in college were in "Introduction to" classes.

In all fairness to my 100-level professors, I can't say I didn't enjoy most of my introductory courses. All of them were interesting courses that covered new material (something that can't be said for some of my current courses). But someone will have to explain what Bach's Sonata No. 5 in B Minor* has to do with marketing.

* That may or may not be a real piece. But I bet I had you fooled until the asterisk, eh?

[Peter Matteson]

If you want to get your masters degree look at doing a 5 year program. Going back and doing it while working is not that easy.

Take an honest look at the greek life on campus it may surprise you what you can get out of it when you actually give it a chance. Depending on where you go there are great differences in the way the greek system works.

Oh and buy Ramen noodles by the case because it's cheaper.

[Al Skierkiewicz]

Realize that college is the single greatest educational opportunity you are likely to have. The school has thoughtfully placed at your disposal dedicated professionals who know what they teach, a great library full of knowledge, labs full of equipment, other students to discuss a wide range of subjects and all of it is in this nice little, compact, community, so it is easy for you to take advantage of it. And there are people to help you through almost any problem that might crop up. Get to know your counselor and all your professors. They are being paid to teach you and help you graduate. They are not the enemy.
Know that temptations exist. Learn how to recognize them and how to avoid them. Those mentioned so far are credit cards, bars, other entertainments, the computer and your room mate or friends. Set times to study and reward yourself when you have completed a task. Get sleep when you can, without it nothing else will work.
Keep a notebook or Palm with you to write down assignments and deadlines. It's hard to plan without knowing what or when.
There are no shortcuts, no easy way to get through, no way for anyone but you to get the job done. If you are reading this, you are already well on your way. It means you are trying to do the right thing and asking for directions.
Keep this in the back of your mind. You (or someone you are really close to ) is paying a lot of money for you to be there and you are investing a huge amount of your time and effort. If you don't go to class, don't try to learn, don't do your best, you are wasting those resources. Conversely, you should not accept an instructor who wastes your resources for the same reasons.
Know that there will be times when it feels like the whole world is against you. They are not! This is usually a condition brought on by lack of sleep or some other essential. Get some sleep, even if it's only a nap and start again later. Things will improve.