College Advice

I’m about to graduate college. I would try to wake up early before class and do your PE before showering. You don’t want PE to get in the way of any studying or any work you might have to do or cause you any unwanted stress.

I’ve been in college for, like, 5 years now and I’ve never gotten laid. People think college is like a fuck fest where everyone is getting wasted, doing drugs, and banging each other. Let me tell you something. It is that way, but really only for the dropouts and failures. You can’t party like that and be a successful student or get much out your courses at the same time. I went out looking for parties, trying to get laid. I got shit faced, did a bunch of drugs and ended up dropping out my freshman year, and I never even managed to get laid in the process. I really regret that period in my life. It was not only the worst experience I’ve ever had, I was depressed and doing drugs, but it’s what has held me back the most in life and has costed me the most time. It was a waste of time. I made shitty friends and it was absolutely terrible. The friends I made there winded up in prison shortly after I dropped out.

I went back to college at 22 with a slightly clearer head. All of my old friends I met are either still in prison or are addicted to drugs. College can be a terrible place if you wind up meeting the wrong people like I did. Be very careful of the friends you choose. About half of the people you meet your freshman year will drop out. Don’t be like them. Focus on your studies and future career path. College is mostly work, dude. You can work and play, sometimes, but it is mostly work. So, be prepared to work when you get there. Don’t worry so much about making a bunch of friends, getting laid or being popular. Like I said, half of the people you meet will end up dropping out, anyway. So, it doesn’t really matter if you impress them or not. Work hard and excel in your courses, and you will begin to meet others who do the same, and opportunities will open up for you, such as places to work, scholarships, awards, etc. Start working on your CV now. Get involved with your campus. You can try volunteer work, tutoring, peer educating, etc after your first year.

You’ll do great if you try. College is not that hard if you are willing to work.

Also, dorm life sucks. It just does. It resembles a jail in some respects. I didn’t have any money or anything in my room besides a blanket and pillow, so it was more like that for me than others. Just saying, it can be hell for you if things don’t quite work out for you.

I should mention that college is a money pit. I am 50k in the hole right now, have no insurance and just barely scrape by day to day. I even go hungry sometimes. In my earlier years, I would actually have to donate plasma just to afford school supplies. This is serious. I am graduating next year. I have a 3.7 GPA, and I feel like I’ve dug myself into a hole! What else am I going to do, though? That’s just the way it is.

I’m happy that I was homeschooled. I got the best of both worlds though, I had the opportunity to be in public school, and later the opportunity to be homeschooled. I was able to meet a lot of really cool people and learn a whole lot more about things than if I had continued in the schools. I’ve met professors through mutual friends, have had the opportunity to work a job that most people out of college couldn’t handle off the bat, and even was able to take college level classes instead of the normal high school level (look into your community college when your kids are around high school age, there might be a discount per credit hour). I enjoyed it, but I was something of a self-starter.

Oh, and please don’t keep your kids off of the internet or protect them too much, it can cause serious problems in the future. Because my parents didn’t do that, I’m able to handle things much better than many of my peers. And make sure your kids can type well, 70 WPM before errors is a pretty good goal, and not hard to obtain either (black nail polish on the keys of a cheap keyboard).

Good to hear, you always hope you’re making the very best choices for your kids but only time will reveal outcomes.

I agree with the Internet and such, I don’t keep them home to shield them from realities they’ll be exposed to anyways, and things like programming and typing are the reading and writing skills of today.

On the whole don’t keep your kids off the internet thing I totally agree. I know another homeschooled kid who by doing that has no social life now. He can’t relate to anyone his age and is just awkward. You don’t have to wave porn or the world in front of them just don’t be like his parents and basically tell the kid all movies PG or higher are from Satan himself. And him trying to talk to other kids is just painful to watch, please don’t do this to your kids.

Warning: I’m a programmer.

Unless your kids are interested in programming, please don’t force it on them. The world doesn’t need more people who “know how to code because someone said it was a good idea”. A programmer has a certain viewpoint, and it’s definitely something your born with/raised to have, you can’t just learn it. It can be cool to learn, and a lot of fun, but there needs to be a genuine interest.

Nah I don’t agree that’s like saying don’t teach math to people who aren’t interested in becoming mathematicians. They already need to do a little for one of the games they play.

OK. I see your point. Teach the basics, but unless they are interested and have that unique perspective, they shouldn’t become programmers. Just like you don’t teach someone who isn’t going to be a mathematician certain kinds of calculus, you don’t need to teach anything but the basics. Teach the concepts of variables, control flow and maybe the basics of how it works fundamentally (Charles Petzold’s book code is great for that), and they should have a handle on it.