How University Students Use Claude

I'm an undergrad at a T10 college. Walking through our library, I often notice about 30% of students have ChatGPT or Claude open on their screens.

In my circle, I can't name a single person who doesn't heavily use these tools for assignments.

What's fascinating, though, is that the most cracked CS students I know deliberately avoid using these tools for programming work. They understand the value in the struggle of solving technical problems themselves. Another interesting effect: many of these same students admit they now have more time for programming and learning they “care about” because they've automated their humanities, social sciences, and other major requirements using LLMs. They don't care enough about those non-major courses to worry about the learning they're sacrificing.

> the most cracked CS students I know deliberately avoid using these tools for programming work. They understand the value in the struggle

I think they are in the right path here

> they've automated their humanities, social sciences, and other major requirements using LLMs.

This worries me. If they struggle with these topics but don't see the value in that struggle, that is their prerogative to decide for themselves what is important to them. But I think more technically apt people who have low verbal reasoning skills, little knowledge of history, sociology, psychology, etc, is a net positive for society. So many of the problems with the current tech industry is the tendency to think everything is just a technical problem and being oblivious to the human aspects.