Comment by jjice | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jjice | Hacker News Reader

> ...because even in college a lot of the work is pointless; there are entire departments that are pointless.

I loved all of my CS courses in college. They were my bread and butter. I also liked a lot of my math courses and even an English class or two. I just wish I didn't take 5 history courses (three as part of an elective set that had to be liberal arts), three unrelated sciences (bio 1+2, and astronomy - imaging science was great and applicable), and two women and gender studies courses (nothing against the major, just unrelated to my degree).

I've been told countless times that these courses help round out a student. Most of them don't. I end up bullshitting them as much as possible and getting a B so I can focus on the courses I care about. A streamlined college education where we remove some (not all) non-major course work and save two or three semesters of time would be amazing, but of course that's two or three semesters of lost cash for a university...

> Most of them don't. I end up bullshitting them as much as possible and getting a B so I can focus on the courses I care about

I hear where you're coming from on this (and have been in similar shoes), but I suppose there is more nuance to it, mostly because professors and departments play such an important role in the experience.

The argument of liberal arts electives lending themselves to a richer education experience is a well-intentioned one, and does reap benefits if executed well by the professor, the department, TA's and so on. If not, well, it is just like you mentioned, one is inclined to BS their way out of a class to focus on things more important to them.

Speaking from my anecdotal experience, I have had to take three electives as part of my undergrad: microeconomics, macroeconomics, and a philosophy class on the philosophy of the mind. I have thoroughly enjoyed macro-econ and philosophy simply because the professors put in an incredible amount of work to inspire me to work hard and care about the subject. Micro-econ, on the other hand, was one giant mess and I did not show up to more than 3 lectures over the course of the semester.

I believe in the earnest that students stand to gain so much if some university departments and professors gave a crap about the experience that they are offering.

What you want exists: it's called a vocational school -- and no, as of now, many don't teach higher level academic subjects to the exclusion of all others, but they do provide a focused training for a specific line of work and nothing else. A Code bootcamp, for example.

Universities have their historical origins in educating the children of elites in the ways of the world: which by definition is a varied education consisting of many different subjects. I can only guess at the reasons why one can't commonly attend a Computer Science University in the U.S; but there are a handful of institutions in the world that are more focused (The Max Planck Institutes in Germany come to mind)

You chose to go to this University/College though. For whatever reason, you chose to attend studies there, knowing this was how the institution operated.

If you went not knowing how the institution operated, well, that's completely your issue.

You could have chose to seek your studies at any institution that caters to the ideals you've stated in your post. Yet you didn't, and you have the audacity to complain, about how the place you chose to attend operates, while they fully and publicly disclose how they operate

I'm simply baffled by this thought process.

He was told prior to entry that the history courses round out his education. At the time, he accepted that explanation (or did not really care). After experiencing it firsthand, he no longer accepts that explanation.

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