What's up bros.

I need advice because I'm really stuck here, I can't decide what to do. I'm currently a second year student in university, and I'm paying 9000 pounds every year.

The problem is that I'm not learning anything at all at university. I don't say I'm smart and all-knowing, there is always someone smarter, but I can learn anything I want to, if I spend enough time on it.

Now, the first semester is almost over, and I missed like 80-85% of the lectures. I just can't make myself go to lectures, I always know most of the stuff, or know how and where to find it when I need it, and I recently stopped going to lectures at all. I calculated that I pay 24£ every hour, doesn't matter if it's a lecture or a practical, it's 24 pounds per hour.

And every time I miss a lecture I feel really bad, because I will actually have to pay for something that I don't use, I pay for lectures and I don't attend them. And even on the lab practicals where we write some code, the PhD students are weak, and most of the questions I ask them, they can't answer, "I don't know about that, you can ask dr./prof. whoever" and I need to wait 1 hour until I can get the lecturer to come to me, because we are like 100 people in a group and everyone wants to ask something.

And sometimes I really hate myself for missing lectures, because there are people that live a lot worse than me and work 8+ hours every day, and I'm too lazy too even go to lectures. But I just can't, it is so boring, I can't stand it, I prefer to wash dishes for 1 hour, at least I will get paid.

I'm really contemplating on whether I should drop out and just work something so I can pay my stuff, because my parents won't even talk to me.

I don't feel bad that I'm not learning anything there, I learn enough on my own, I feel bad that I'm paying to not learn anything. And most of the lecturers are so boring and unmotivated, and I'm not productive, because I do stuff I don't need. ( making need-finding studies, interviewing people, parsing linux ext2 filesystem to open one stupid file, etc ). And I'm kind of too perfectionistic when I do stuff I don't like. I don't know how's that called, but when I really hate to do something, I put more effort into it because I know it doesn't come naturally to me and I consciously prioritize it in order to get a good mark. And the result is that I spend more time doing that instead of the stuff I like.(wtf is that?)

I don't know how to tackle that problem. Seems like there is no problem, I know everything, I get the highest marks, everything is cool. But I still feel bad about it almost every day.

Is the problem in me, maybe I'm doing something wrong, or thinking in the wrong way? :huh:

Thanks a lot for reading this and sorry for wasting your time.

I think the problem is you and your attitude about it.

College/university education is going to give you back results proportional to what you are putting in, and it sounds like you're putting in the bare minimum of effort. Certainly it is frustrating in the early years where you have less freedom in your course and elective selection and have to take a lot of requirements which you might think have nothing to teach you. But this is an attitude that nearly everybody involved in a computer-science or adjacent program of study seems to have, in my experience, even if the precise reasons and rationale aren't always the same. "I'm not learning anything here" or "I'm not learning anything useful here" is a common refrain and the sooner you disabuse yourself of that notion the better.

Remember that the principle flaw of any autodidact's approach to higher education is that they don't know what they don't know, so no matter how well they may be able to learn things on their own their education can be massively misdirected for lack of being able to see the bigger, overall picture at the outset.

If you have really given your lectures a fair chance, you might consider looking at what options you have to enroll in advanced placement (or "honors") programs or similar systems in place at your institution that may let you test out of or short-circuit some of your degree requirements so you can replace them with more electives or substitute with higher-level courses which seem interesting to you.

Further remember that while it is expensive, there is potentially advantage just to finishing your degree. The cost of education is becoming so impractical in the US (I'm not sure about the UK) that there is an argument for not taking on that massive debt... but at the same time the job markets are still very competitive, and by not getting a degree you might be immediately excluding yourself from a significant portion of the available work. It's definitely harder to say this with complete conviction these days, versus a few years ago, but it's still worth thinking about.

I'm currently a second year student in university, and I'm paying 9000 pounds every year.

If you're in the UK and you're a home student, you're not really paying that, you're presumably borrowing it from the Government and they'll collect it back in pseudo-tax later, if you ever earn enough to merit repayments.

If you're not in the UK or you're paying directly, then you'll need to consider whether there's a better use for that money, sure.

The problem is that I'm not learning anything at all at university. [...] I missed like 80-85% of the lectures.

You can't possibly know that you're not learning anything if you're not in the lectures. I assure you that although much of it may be pointless, much of it is also useful and important to you, but you just don't know it yet.

I was like you once. I didn't see why, as a games developer, I needed to know about functional programming, or database normalisation and SQL, or parsing filesystems, etc. It turns out that I've found uses for every single one of those things. You don't know what you don't need, yet. And the things I already thought I knew, or which I felt I could learn for myself in my own time - the assignments and exams help with that, forcing you to work with them, which commits them to memory.

I prefer to wash dishes for 1 hour, at least I will get paid

You will not feel the same way in 10 or 20 years, when you look back and wonder why you're struggling to pay the rent with menial jobs when other people who enjoyed programming are making good money, are financially secure, and have plenty of options.

Having helped you in several threads, I have to say that you are not yet a good enough programmer to get a game development job on your code alone. Part of that is because you're not yet grasping the fundamentals of certain approaches, and these are things they often teach in university, which sound abstract at the time but make sense later. That alone is reason enough to stay and finish your course. Another reason is that people want to hire workers who can stick to a project and see it to completion. If you drop out of university then you've pretty much given up on the first major project that life has given you - and that looks bad.

Promit, thanks for actually reading that. I will think about what you said.

Second year is still very early. Most of the real challenge comes later, though it also depends on the university you chose and the classes you choose.

My degree is computer science and it's 3 years, If I want some higher level stuff, I need to take Masters which is another 9000 pounds that I need to pay.

EDIT: Kylotan,

Having helped you in several threads, I have to say that you are not yet a good enough programmer to get a game development job on your code alone

True. But at least I won't pay like crazy until I get good enough.

If you're in the UK and you're a home student, you're not really paying that, you're presumably borrowing it from the Government and they'll collect it back in pseudo-tax later, if you ever earn enough to merit repayments.

Not a pseudo-tax. You pay for 30 years after you've taken the loan and the interest is going up every year. And yes, I won't pay at all if I get a minimum wage my entire life, which is not what I have in mind. And most of the time, if you don't pay everything early, you end up paying a lot more than you've taken.

College/university education is going to give you back results proportional to what you are putting in, and it sounds like you're putting in the bare minimum of effort.

What do you mean by that, I don't have a mark different than A+. I'm far from being the best, I started programming 2 years ago, and I know people that started coding since they were 5. but still, lecturers don't give a damn about anyone. They are boring and .. I can't explain it..

Student loans in the UK are basically a tax. You pay an extra 9% above the minimum earning threshold, exactly the way that income tax works. If you think of it that way, the interest on the loan becomes irrelevant. Even assuming that you'll pay it for life, there are very few circumstances where you could be better off without the degree than with one - e.g. you graduate, and manage to get a decent paying job in a different field where even the mere existence of your degree is completely irrelevant. That's very unlikely. What's a lot more likely is that your degree increases your earning potential by a lot, and less than 10% of that increase goes on repayments. If the degree somehow only ever gives you an extra thousand pounds a year, it'll only cost you an extra ninety pounds a year, at most.

If you were studying Art History or Creative Writing, then sure, employment prospects are poor and you may never get much financial benefit from the degree. Computing is the polar opposite of that - if you're a competent coder and are willing to augment your directed study with your own study (and your attempts to get help on these forums are a good indicator that you have the drive for that) then your employment prospects are incredibly good.

I won't pay like crazy until I get good enough

You're not paying. The Government is. If you weren't on the course that money wouldn't be allocated to you at all. Yes, you are giving yourself a potential tax rise later in life. The upsides to a degree usually far outstrip that. The median salary for a software developer in the UK is almost 50% better than for the population as a whole. That's worth a 9% surcharge.

And guys, you don't get my point. (or maybe the opposite), but I learned 90% of what I know from this forum and from online tutorials, not from university. In my opinion, I can keep learning without university. I know I'm far from good, but I'm certain that I can get a lot better without having to put my money in the wrong place.

EDIT:

You're not paying. The Government is. If you weren't on the course that money wouldn't be allocated to you at all. Yes, you are giving yourself a potential tax rise later in life. The upsides to a degree usually far outstrip that. The median salary for a software developer in the UK is almost 50% better than for the population as a whole. That's worth a 9% surcharge.

Yes, but I'm wiping my *ss with 27 000 pounds. Can't I work as a software developer without doing that?

but I can learn anything I want to, if I spend enough time on it.

Can you learn to forge the papers?

Take it from a self taught artist who had to freelance for years because no one would hire me, I had no piece of paper that proved I could do the work, even when I handed in my portfolio for interviews, other less experienced artists was selected over me.

Sitting in classes I could teach, wondering if it was all worth it; I was there. It's worth it in the end -and I did learn things a never knew- not even half a year later I landed my first actual job as a 3D modeler. I am even learning animation now, as it is a topic I don't know very well.

It's the University degree that costs all that money, on the job market -saturated with everyone wanting to do the same work- it's worth gold.