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beezneez  ·  3542 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski, what was your college experience like?

I graduated a year ago. Be careful about the price you pay for school and job prospects afterward. I'll tell you a bit about my track with this chart:

Linguistics --> Jazz Bass --> Arabic --> Took 7 months off --> Linguistics

Those were my major. But I did a lot of other things on top of study. I was in the environmental club, took classes on systems science and computational linguistics. I also rode my bike a lot and was doing 50 + miles per week due to my commute alone.

But the most important thing I did was network. I got introduced to older, much smarter people who were able to guide some of my research interests. Then comes the biggie: I took time to wander the library 2-3 times per week. Sometimes on a weekend morning when most others were waking up from hangovers. Admittedly, I had some rough mornings along the way (it's all about balance!), but that was sometimes encompassed by networking. But back to the library: read anything that is not your major. And frequently. Then, bring something new to your peers from what you learned outside of class. Not only is this a way to uniquely express yourself in a classroom (which professors will remember you for) but it gives you some useful analogies to make in your writing, which you will inevitably do.

I smoked a lot of cigarettes in college, and while they are good for having an excuse to talk to people, the majority of my friends I met smoking in college no longer do it. Now, doing that for a few years won't kill ya, but a drunk car ride will, so stay the fuck away from that crowd.