What did you enjoy/hate about college? If you chose to finish or drop out, why?

I am currently in my last year of a college with focus on informatics, but I am not satisfied with the college and school system at all.

Sure, in the first three years we learned the basics and to understand programming and that was the cornerstone for all of my passion for programming.
But unfortunately, the school system is so bad, because it is just too generalized even in the informatics section, that you learn so much stuff you do not need anymore and don't want to learn.
I myself started to learn all sorts of new technologies and frameworks on my own because the school doesn't teach you the important and new things.
I also started working on my own startups, which are my passion.

So, I think a personal learning path and individual goals is so important, because otherwise you will be a puppet of the industries and a 40-hour worker who is unhappy with his life or at least not satisfied.

its easier to get hired at a large company with a degree

i won't say its impossible, but its a lot harder - easier way is to get hired through an agency then work on projects for large firms, i've seen this done with people coming right out of HS with an accelerated bootcamp

I thank the college not for studying, but for the people I met there and for the bright moments and good atmosphere.

I was supposed to be an architect, ...but I did not get in only by a point...so I got demoralized.

And left it all, then I moved to Finland, and well... I tried IT, didn't like..do I study economics for three years, got bored.

Then after year 4 years, I really wanted to study something, I started to dig into web development and here I am.

Btw, In my opinion, schools system of is really bad...is too generalised...

Have a good one!

The biggest dislike a had throughout college was that the curriculum only gives artificial problems, eg: "do something specific using a predefined method to get an expected result". You don’t ever get to make decisions and attempt to solve real-world problems.

Often times the problem in front of you is just a symptom of a root issue and you have to put in the effort to find the root issue. Usually, there are also multiple ways of solving a problem, each with pros and cons, and sometimes there are no predefined approaches, you have to find your own. There are also lots of options for tooling, and picking the right tools is another critical part of the process. Not to mention working with a team and making decisions together.

While school teaches you a lot of stuff, you never really get a chance to make these decisions needed to solve real-world problems. It seems rather cruel to me that schools send students out into the real world without this experience. You can build these skills up as you go, but it's definitely much easier to make mistakes and learn from them when you are a student.

On the flip side, there were certain parts of the curriculum that I never would have done on my own like writing programs in assembly, making compilers, memory management, etc... These "annoying" assignments gave me a much better understanding of what’s really going on between my code and the metal, have made me a better developer in general and made learning new tech easier.

Hi Catherine, I've been thinking about this question a lot I'm glad to see some other Indie Hackers thinking about it too.

TL;DR: College curriculum (more often than not) goes over a lot of theory and knowledge that you probably won't end up using. If you want to become a developer, learning how to pick up technology quickly and collaborate with others to work on solutions is much, much more valuable. BUT getting a job is tough without a degree, and having some form of accreditation makes getting the first job much easier.

For some context, I'm currently studying Computer Science (3 years into my 5 year program) and this year has been really testing my patience and commitment with higher education.

I'm going to echo what someone else has said and that degrees are, for most people, about certification than actually learning and developing skills. I think this is especially true for something like Computer Science, which is really just an "overgrown branch of mathematics" with a lot of engineering applications.

From my understanding, most degrees are going to teach you a lot of theory that might help you on the job. Emphasize is on the might.

Most software development is going to focus on company specific/technology specific engineering problems that are going to have a connection to the theory learned from the degree.

But, you'll more often than not be able to figure out a solution without the theory. And after a certain point in your career, if you become senior enough, you're going to be wading in fields that are highly contested and won't have a lot of theory to help, anyway.

P.S. This is something I'm particularly vocal about. If you'd like to have a conversation about it feel free to reach out to me on here or on Twitter (https://twitter.com/tommy_b_nguyen)

I graduated with a BS and dropped out of my MS program to pursue my career directly. The only thing I wish I did differently was pursue a different program with more emphasis on Math and CS, if only I had known that over a decade ago.

College can be worthless. If you've got half a brain and the opportunity to apply yourself getting almost any four year degree is possible.

College can be extremely valuable. If you're in a competitive program at a top school, or take the opportunity to network, network, network you will be in a very strong position starting your career.

Most people will end up somewhere in between.

Unless you're in an exceptional situation (already have a successful company, already made a name for yourself in your field, etc.) you should absolutely pursue a degree. Pursue one that is relevant to your career goals and try to minimize the amount of loans you take.

Here's a hard truth: A large number of people don't need a degree to do their job (maybe the majority?) but they do need a degree to get hired. Once you've got 3-5 years of job experience your degree will count for less... but your first job is important.

A recruiter looking at dozens (or hundreds) of applications for an entry level position will immediately cull people without a degree, and then people without a relevant degree, etc.

TLDR: Get a degree. You are doing yourself a disservice by not getting a relevant degree. You are screwing yourself over by not getting any degree.