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Universities should be more than toll gates

(www.waliddib.com)
140 points wdib | 6 comments | 21 Sep 25 07:19 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source | bottom
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constantcrying ◴[21 Sep 25 13:55 UTC] No.45322776[source]▶
From my experience at a German university, it was very clear that every student with a desire to learn would learn relevant skills and have no trouble passing any exam. The exams never were easy and studying was required,but if you understood the subject you would definitely pass.

The experience the author describes seems totally disconnected what I have ever experienced in university. The author believes (which I think is unlikely) that the university had nothing to teach to him, in my experience this always was the fault of the student. Often blaming "esoteric" and "irrelevant" subjects such as linear algebra for their lack of success, while not understanding that it is a vital course for any engineer.

replies(1): >>45323359 #
yobbo ◴[21 Sep 25 15:01 UTC] No.45323359[source]▶
The poster was achieved success in all metrics he was exposed to.
replies(1): >>45323386 #
1. constantcrying ◴[21 Sep 25 15:05 UTC] No.45323386[source]▶
Did you read the article? The author laments that he did not learn anything relevant to him during his degree.
replies(1): >>45323732 #
2. yobbo ◴[21 Sep 25 15:43 UTC] No.45323732[source]▶
He graduated with "some of the highest grades" in his class.
replies(1): >>45325396 #
3. constantcrying ◴[21 Sep 25 18:36 UTC] No.45325396[source]▶
How is that at all relevant to what I am saying. The author explicitly said that it wasn't.
replies(1): >>45329011 #
4. yobbo ◴[22 Sep 25 04:06 UTC] No.45329011{3}[source]▶
> Often blaming "esoteric" and "irrelevant" subjects such as linear algebra for their lack of success, while not understanding that it is a vital course for any engineer.

The author was successful in his particular environment. It was only much later he understood that the content of his education wasn't valuable in itself.

He is not blaming linear algebra, rather complaining that he was graded on memorisation rather than understanding.

replies(1): >>45330445 #
5. constantcrying ◴[22 Sep 25 08:08 UTC] No.45330445{4}[source]▶
And? How is that relevant at all to anything I or the author said?

His success, as the author makes explicit, has nothing to do with his university education.

replies(1): >>45333740 #
6. yobbo ◴[22 Sep 25 14:12 UTC] No.45333740{5}[source]▶
The argument you started off making was that his "lack of success" was because he didn't have the desire to learn and thus wasted the opportunity.

But - he achieved some of the highest grades, so by all accounts he was successful in his education.

Much later, he understood that the contents of his education lacked intrinsic value and the only effective value it offered him was an opened "toll gate".