Hacker News Reader

Comment by Lawtonfogle | Hacker News Reader

For me the real benefit of college was being put with others into the same class, the access to research labs, the face to face interactions with professors, and the access to face to face academic focused student organizations. (Honestly I should've done far more on the networking side of things.)

Those are not going to be easy to replace, but there should be a compromise where you can get these things without the greek life and less 'sports first and foremost' culture and with a massively reduced cost. MOOCs can definitely plan into this and even replace a lot of it for self starters, but I do think I would have been worse off without the social aspects of my university years.

View on HN

As an introvert, a remote worker full time, and a traditional BS in CS from a state university, I am more and more convinced the needs of many for "face time" is just because anyone over the age of ~20-25 grew up without ubiquitous communication without faces.

I'd cite my brother (age 12) and his generation, who seem to have no problem basically never seeing their peers from class anymore, but will play video games with them endlessly online. During summer break last year he barely went outside, besides what physical activity his mother compelled him to, which was not very much different from what I did, the difference being that his entire peer group is behaving the same way and from my impressions by him it is the norm rather than the exception now.

I fully expect that generation to have no issue doing collaborative learning using MOOC resources and the Internet instead of brick and mortar buildings in front of lecture podiums. Throughout history we have learned many a time how adaptable the human psyche is to its environment, and how much of ones assumptions on human behavior can be challenged and changed by the world changing around them. I think this is another one of those cases - because articles like this one are talking about college ten years from now, for children born ten years later. And that makes a huge difference in the Internet age.

For me, this was more the case in graduate school than as an undergraduate. While I did like my department (mathematics), my advisor, and the other students in my class, the majority of my undergraduate studies really did end up being direct completion of coursework (with the occasional group project). The social "coming into your own" aspect of university was there, but I'm not sure it's worth the price that we seem to attach to it. Maybe this is just the reality for state schools.

On the other hand, post-calculus/diffyq mathematics can be a difficult subject to grok on your own, without at least some face time with a subject matter expert to refocus. I can't predict with confidence if I really could have MOOC'd my way into graduate school. I thinking that it is unlikely. This is probably also true for the traditional physical engineering disciplines (electrical, mechanical, civil, aero, etc.)

> I do think I would have been worse off without the social aspects of my university years

What aspect of face to face interaction makes it worth seeking?

There are plenty of schools without greek life and sports first cultures. Most liberal arts schools for example.

That is true. But liberal arts schools are also the least likely to be priced out by MOOCs. Liberal arts schools are more affordable than most, if you can get in.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com