Re: College Advice.
 

as others have said, get your crap together. probably one of my biggest mistakes in school was screwing around too much when I had newfound freedom (that and finding a trout stream 20 minutes from school and a bass stream 2 minutes from school).
get the GPA if doing so will keep you qualified for the scholarship. if not, and it looks like you're losing it regardless, stay in school and take out the loans. the 50K you'll owe at the end looks huge now, but it isn't much in the real world, and easily manageable once you have the degree and are working. With the degree, you should advance pretty quickly, so the monthly cost will get smaller and smaller (relatively). without the degree, you may find yourself stuck in one position for a long time without meaningful pay increases.

Re: College Advice.
 

I'm in for about $100 on the under, does anyone want to bet me?

Re: College Advice.
 

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Sleeping, playing poker, spending time with the girlfriend, posting on 2+2, playing video games, etc.


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I don't see drinking or doing massive amounts of drugs on this list. if you're going to fail out of college, at least make it because you're doing stuff you can only do in college. You can read 2+2 and play poker and bone your girl after college. At least have some really cool stories to tell the guys at McDonald's after you fail out.

-recently graduated CS major starting work on monday

edit: missed the alcoholic thing. maybe cocaine is more up your alley? you'll be a lot more productive and when you've been up all night blowing lines and have nothing to do you'll just go to class. or at least that's what i think would happen.

Re: College Advice.
 

I think we're all forgetting one other thing...

Now I'm gonna sound like a dick, but girls really hate guys who do nothing with their lives but play video games and read 2+2. Failing out of college would put a MAJOR damper on that one...

Re: College Advice.
 

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I think we're all forgetting one other thing...

Now I'm gonna sound like a dick, but girls really hate guys who do nothing with their lives but play video games and read 2+2. Failing out of college would put a MAJOR damper on that one...

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I thought that was implied?

Re: College Advice.
 

I didn't really feel like reading this, but go to class. Its that [censored] easy. Do your work. You should be mature enough to WANT to be in college by now. If you are not, drop out.

Re: College Advice.
 

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I think we're all forgetting one other thing...

Now I'm gonna sound like a dick, but girls really hate guys who do nothing with their lives but play video games and read 2+2. Failing out of college would put a MAJOR damper on that one...

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I thought that was implied?

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Well, at least we were just forgetting to say it, and reading his description of all the things he does BESIDES going to class kinda made me think that it should be said...

Re: College Advice.
 

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Precalc? In college? Comp Sci major? These 3 things seem incompatible.

[/ QUOTE ]How do they seem incompatible?

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I think you are missing something big here. For being a programmer, I *really* suck at math, but everything up through multivariable calculus was still extremely easy for me. If you actually have to work and study in order to do well in precalc, you should probably find a new major. I'm really not trying to be a dick here, just trying to save you from a miserable time.

In school, I had a lot of the same problems you did. I went to very few classes, couldn't stay motivated and failed a couple of classes (math classes, go figure), etc.. etc... I still managed to do well, though, and the reason is that I found what I loved doing and focused all of my classes on that. Writing papers and studying for exams felt like "work" and I hated it - spending night after night in the CS lab writing code was pure joy for me, and its the only reason I managed to get through at all.

Re: College Advice.
 

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If you actually have to work and study in order to do well in precalc, you should probably find a new major.

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Re: College Advice.
 

I agree with the sentiment that you should drop your precalc class...it seems like a really clear decision to me if your scholarship is at stake.

But one thing I've noticed is that you intend to continue to play and get better at poker...just know that this goal does not work well at all with the 100% of classes all the time goal (and this comes from very recent experience.)

When you get better at poker...class continues to look less and less appealing. Motivation really becomes an issue. Before poker entered my life, I was at least able to competently attend class, complete some assignments, and do ok. But once I started spending time learning poker...that goes out the window...classes become much harder to attend as you start to put a dollar value on your time.

Now, even though for most of the population this is a bad thing, it isn't absolute, as I'm happier and more successful playing poker full-time than I was going to school full-time. I really couldn't find any subject that I enjoyed in college. If you go down ZeeJustin's 20 reasons why he isn't in college, I feel that at least fifteen are true for me. I know a number of other posters who are in a similar boat. But know that if you do want to get into CS, if you do want to be successful in your major and in college as a whole, then poker will make that goal much harder to reach.

So, you really need to decide what you want here...and this decision can't come from what your parents will think. If what you want is a CS major and a career in the field, if you want to complete college successfully...then you might want to drop not just your precalc course but also your 2+2 course.

Will