General Student Advice
This high level advice is for college students regardless of major. Some of my advice differs from what you typically hear in academia. Everything is informed by my personal experience through undergrad; they’re what worked for me. You and I might be very different. Pick and apply the tips you like, ignore the others. 🤘
The content that follows reflects my personal views and opinions.
Wait and go to college when you’re ready
Our society sets this expectation that to be successful, you must go straight to college out of high school. This path is often wasteful, because you might squander the resources that allow you the time to go to school. Instead, go live in a fun place and do things you like! Work a seasonal job and travel. When you travel, you’ll meet young people from all over the world, and have a great time. You have the whole rest of your life to be responsible.
When you’re ready to go back to school, you can go to any community college. On average, my community college teachers were better teachers than the Professors at UC Berkeley, who are famous for their research. You’ll do better when you’re ready to focus, and you have an idea of what you like. The older community college students in any math or science class are quite focused. They know where they want to go, and that it’s going to take work.
Of course, don’t wait too long. If you have kids, your time vanishes, and you’ll have to arrange childcare, so everything is harder. I’m typing this with a kid hanging on my leg, begging for attention. Duty calls.
Work hard
You must put in the hours to learn. Study hard, without distractions, at a time when your brain works best, and save easier tasks for when you’re tired. Cal Newport’s Study Hacks Blog has many further suggestions.
Make good financial decisions
It’s easy to get deep into debt while studying. This debt will affect you for the rest of your life, from buying your first house all the way through to retirement planning. It’s not necessarily worth it. Ask people hard questions, look objectively at the data, and determine how much your degree will really be worth, before you commit to it. When listening to success stories, ask yourself, “Is this typical for a major in this field, or is this person an anomaly?”
Seriously consider a career in the skilled trades, like being a nurse, plumber, or an electrician. These careers offer many advantages compared to white collar work, and you don’t necessarily need a college degree. They typically pay well, and there are jobs everywhere. Physical work, making something come together and happen with your hands, provides direct and immediate job satisfaction. It’s not possible to outsource these jobs to another country.
A mathematics undergraduate degree is also much more practical and general purpose than many realize. Math teaches logic and reason, which makes it excellent preparation for law school, medical school, or any other graduate school. Graduate level study in any STEM subject always becomes more mathematical. In my statistics PhD program, at least 90% of the students had a bachelors degree in mathematics, not statistics.
Manage your workload
Allow enough room in your schedule to dedicate yourself to the classes that you’re taking. It’s better to get good grades in two classes than average grades in four classes. When I was an undergrad at Berkeley, this meant taking only two upper division math classes during one semester, and never working during the semester. These math classes took a huge amount of time for me, and I needed my schedule open to give myself enough time to put in my best effort.
Challenge yourself
Take challenging classes. Find out what you can do. It’s a fabulous feeling when a concept you’ve struggled with suddenly clicks inside your head.
Don’t be afraid to do things where you might fail. Indeed, we don’t get enough ways to safely experience failure in college.
Maintain a can-do attitude
This can be extremely difficult when you’re in a challenging situation. You might think that you cannot do it, because the task is simply harder than you can handle, and you other students appear to breeze through the material. Self-doubt begins to sabotage your effort. It has happened to me.
Use all the resources you have available
Go to your professor’s office hours.
Engage with others
Form study group with other students. Teach others the material, and you will learn it better. Professors love it when students engage with them and the material, because it allows them to see the material from a fresh viewpoint.
Don’t worry about grades
It’s easy to get caught up in grades. Don’t let a bunch of letters and numbers control your life. If you put in your best effort by following the tips above, then you will earn the best grades possible.
Questions
Students asked me these questions, and here are my responses.
I’m graduating soon with a bachelor’s. Should I work or go to school?
This is a very personal question, and the answer depends on which options you have available. In general, it’s better to have options, so apply anywhere that interests you.
I had this same question when I was graduating college. The summer before my last year of college I had an internship in San Jose, so I commuted to work on the Amtrak capital corridor train from Oakland. A few people called it the “brain train”, because so many riders had PhD’s. The general consensus among those on the brain train was that if you were offered a good, interesting, high paying job, then take it.
I took the job rather than going to graduate school, and I’m glad I did. Work exposed me to the whole culture of tech and data science, and I learned more about what skills were valuable in industry and what the state of the art was. At work I learned where the limits of my knowledge were, and what holes in my background I needed to fill to do the kind of data science work I was most interested in.