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Surviving College With Gear And Sanity Intact?
Mshift2x writes "Like many others, I'm shipping off to college for the first time in a few days. I'm excited, nervous, and a whole array of emotions at the same time. I'm sure many slashdotters have gone through this already, and I'd appreciate any wisdom, suggestions, or thoughts the community could provide." More specifically, phrogeeb writes "Per our earlier Slashdot article on laptop lock insecurity, I've been looking around recently for other options as far as keeping track of my laptop and other semi-expensive and certainly valuable (for a college student) stuff in a dorm room setting. Any ideas? I'm looking for both laptop-specific and comprehensive solutions. Locks? Alarms? Video cameras? Trip wire? (A few serious suggestions would be appreciated.)"
rottweiler ;-)
just tell all the chicks you meet that you had a front page post on slashdot. They love that.
When you meet the "morpheus" on your floor, remember to swallow the blue pill and not the red one.
Just kick someone's ass your first day. They'll leave your stuff alone.
In my college days, I didn't have any high-tech gadgets at all, I only need to worry about people stealing my lecture notes!
But seriously, don't bring too many expensive devices, and if you have to, don't show off them in the public.
Uselessful technology (Air-Charged
Either kick the crap out of someone the first day or become someone's bitch. Then nobody will mess with you. ... Wait, that's something different.
There's only one thing that is almost guaranteed to work, and thats locking your door. When you sleep, go to class, take a dump, take a shower, lock your door. If you don't you're just asking for trouble no matter how well you trust your floor.
Depending on your dorm layout the person responsible probably doesn't live on your floor. That said there's plenty of outsiders who might pass through looking for goodies. If you live near the ground floor don't let things be easy to spot through the window, and keep it shut with the shade closed when you're gone if you're on the ground floor.
Presently here, but not there.
Get Renter's Insurance. That way you no matter if your security fails or not, you can still replace your stuff.
Most campuses offer insurance policies for your dorm room. They aren't that expensive ($25-50) and will replace the gear if your stuff gets stolen. Granted it won't keep your stuff or data from being lost...but it will help replace it.
is the one the on your door. Virtually everyone I knew who had anything stolen from them freshman year in my dorm had left their doors unlocked or open - even for a second to go to the bathroom. If you have an incompetent roommate, then I'd hide your laptop whenever you leave the room - prefereably in your underwear drawer. Or better yet, take it with you and surf in class if you're lucky enough to have a 802.11b school (like mine).
I know that people sell things like safes, etc. to paranoid college students, but honestly, don't waste your money. Take a few minor precautions (a laptop lock is a good idea for use in libraries where you're going to be up and about getting books and want to anchor your effects in a secure location) but basically you need to remember that, by and large, college kids are really stupid and naive, and they leave lots of expensive stuff lying around everywhere. It a criminal comes into your room trying to steal some quick booty, and doesn't see three iPods and a digital camera lying out in plain sight, he/she will go on to the room next to yours, where said items will amost certainly be in plain view on a desk. Lock your door; you'll be fine unless your college is in a really bad area. Also, for the love of god, lock up your bike. As far as more general advice, heck, I'm still figuring college out myself, but I'd say be open and don't slack off too much. Also, take advantage of what will almost definitely be the best library you'll ever have access to, no matter where you are.
1. Don't let the laptop out of your sight unless you have to, unless it's locked behind a private door (i'm serious).
2. Since you will have to, buy insurance on it. It's about $75 a year for $5k of coverage and that covers everything in the room, including your clothes.
I had someone walk into my room, and steal my camera from me while my roommates weren't looking (I was gone at the time). There isn't much you can do to stop that, except buy a safe.
Second, try something like stuffbak.com (I haven't used it myself, but i hear good things). If you leave it somewhere and a good person happens to find it first, you get it back, and they get a reward.
-Ryan
AUWYHSTOT (Acronyms are Useless When You Have to Spell Them Out Too)
Don't use any gadgets! Use pencil and paper, they're cheap!
*patiently waits to be modded up to +5 Insightful even though this answer isn't the least bit helpful*
"Derp de derp."
Living on campus is a money racket for colleges.
Rent housing in a nearby ghetto (there's always one) and get broadband. You'll enjoy yourself much more not living beneath the college administration's thumb, you'll receive a basic instruction in how things work, and you may not even need roommates to pay for your dwelling.
Also, consider downloading scans of textbooks and auditing classes, if you are a college student on a minimal budget (you will not receive credit for audited classes, but some of us value knowledge for its own sake, as opposed to knowledge as a means of obtaining a piece of paper with a seal of approval on it.)
Write down the MAC Address of your Laptop. If yoru laptop gets stolen contact who ever runs the DHCP server on campus. They will be able to tell you what the last IP Address of the laptop was and where it was plugged in and when! (what dorm should depend on what subnet). I have recovered laptops for people using this technique at my University sometimes finding it is plugged in right as we checked! Call the local cops and they bust right in and your laptop is back! Nick D
I'd hate to get all relativistic on you, but it's an official physics standpoint that objects at rest can be stopped if regarded from another frame of reference that is moving with respect to the original frame. Just so you know.
*blinking cursor*
I had a friend who got a laptop stolen. As he was also running a side business as an alarm installer, this pissed him off. So he installed the most ridiculously HUGE alarm system, everything you can think of...Then got his new laptop stolen because he didn't have it on.
What it really all comes down to is: Keep an eye on your stuff. Lock your doors, keep your valuable stuff out of plain sight.
A weird one: Where I went to school, if you lived in the better part of town, you were MUCH more likely to have your stuff stolen, even if you took precautions. If you lived in the "bad" part of town, you could leave your doors unlocked---and this is New Jersey we're talking here.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
Later, once classes start to kick in you can start to distinguish yourself as the alpha-male of the technology realm. But if the first impression people have of you is a computer geek, then they won't bother to get to know you and you won't have an opportunity to know them.
"Oh dear, she's stuck in an infinite loop and he's an idiot" -Prof. Farnsworth (Futurama)
Behave like a psychopath, start your own murder for hire business and post information about it on your door, make it known you plan to take over the world, and then develop a reputation of divinity...
Worked for me!
If God had had a computer it would have taken him 7 months to create the earth...if he even bothered to do it at all.
With duct tape.
You won't be able to get in or out, but that's the price you pay for security.
sulli
RTFJ.
I can't emphasize that enough. Get up, and actually make it to those classes that you or your parents are paying good money for you to attend. Most professors don't care if you go or not, your roommates certainly won't care, and unless you live at home, you're parents won't know if you do or not, until you flunk out. Too many of my friends, when they first taste the freedom of college, decided that since no one is forcing them to go to every class, they don't actually go to any of them.
I don't care how smart you are, if you don't attend the classes, you won't learn the material. Trying to keep up by just reading the textbook won't cut it anymore. You will often cover things in the class that won't actually be in the book, but will help you understand the material better.
Oh, and don't forget to do all those papers, homework assignments and to study for the tests too.
Ok... I don't know if you're a troll, but you have a good point. I hated high school. Not so much the learning part, but the people I had to go to school with. My parents always told me that 'it will be so much better in college because those people are usually too stupid to go to college.' Boy were they wrong. Those kind of people are the same ones that have rich parents.
MY rule for college (I'm still in it) is the same as it was in high school. You know the kind of people you like hanging out with. Stick with them! Since you're on slashdot, you're probably pretty computer smart, and you'd be AMAZED how many CoSci majors are really cool people.
I usually keep to a smallish group of friends. Makes staying out of trouble easier.
Not Free(as in beer). Free(as in "I'm free to beat you over the head for being a dumbass")
If you have high end flashy electronic devices to bring to class, don't brag about them being big time expensive, and hold on to them. Don't leave them on a bench in the library while you go look for books, keep them in your backpack and cary that around with you. If someone wants to give you trouble, and try to take your stuff from you just contact campus police--they should be easy to find(lots of schools have blue light thingys that will call them). Better to call campus police and look like a dork than lose a $3k laptop ;)
Boxing Equipment Reviews
Treat your penis the same way, lest you contract malware that even Norton Anti-Virus won't clean up.
I'm not exactly a sage old man (I'm merely a sophomore), but there are some things I've learned: /., you're probably more interested in a college's academic program more than its party school ranking. It's a lot harder than what you're used to (and this comes from someone who blew off high school and was fine). Don't skip classes either, there's a lot of money invested in that 8 AM lecture (or 7:30 if you go to Purdue).
1) Dorms are your friend, and your home to friends: Regardless of what you're like, you're bound to find someone with whom you can hang out. Don't be afraid to knock on some doors.
2) Colleges have lots of neat convocations and clubs...join them and check things out. You'll probably try and join different stuff from the things you were involved in back in high school. I've switched from somone involved in band and speech to someone in fencing and our physics chapter.
3) Study. If you're on
4) Have fun. Your life takes on a whole new meaning, it truly becomes yours in a way that wasn't possible back in high school. Make the most of it.
You zap the moderators with a wand of humor! The moderators resist!
We all know that there are millions of pimple-faced teens lurking about /. but most of the time, they stay out of sight with their GNAA posts getting quietly modded down to -1. No need to bring them to the fore with an article like this.
Incidentally, I am a pimple-faced teen, but I am not proud!
Everything. Especially the MAC addresses of all your devices. Most people who would steal a laptop wouldn't be smart enough to change it. When I was in college I would occasionally run into a student who had the foresight to do that. When they came in to report something stolen we could help them out. It's relatively easy to search a network for a specific MAC address and determine which ethernet port or WAP it's connected to. The only people who got their gear back did that, or got really lucky.
If you have a laptop, get insurance. I got burglarized my freshman year, although they didn't see the laptop under all my papers. They did find the playstation 2 though.
If you're worried about data lost, get an external firewire or usb 2.0 and a long cable and hide it away. They're not going to go through your stuff just to find where the usb cable leads to.
As for other matters that are far more important than any laptop:
Make new friends, but keep your old friends from home just as close. Friends from college are different than friends you grew up with. If you're computer science or computer engineer (I assume something along these lines since it's slashdot) make friends in your major. Stick together and do homework together. There's no need for competition and you'll connect with them on a specific level since they share your interests.
Of course, use the internet to find books. Go to the campus bookstore ahead of time, get the ISBNs and go to cheapesttextbooks.com and find the best deals. They search all the sites, like pricewatch, for the best deal.
And finally, don't underestimate the power of alcohol. It can make great friendships, but don't abuse it too much.
Ultimately if someone really really wants to steal your notebook. They will. There is nothing you can really do.
:). Insurance is frequently overlooked, and while getting your laptop stolen would be shitty - being unable to afford to replace it would be far far worse.
The one thing I've recommended to friends of mine, and I will be purchasing one myself - is a backpack with a notebook slot. They are a bit less obvious on campus than traditional laptop bags which will reduce your likelihood of someone just walking past and grabbing the bag when your not looking (as they would be expecting textbooks not a laptop in a backpack).
But ultimately you need insurance. I don't know what insurance policies are like around the world, but I'm a unviersity student with 'tenant' insurance, not in dorms though, its only a $500CDN deductible if my laptop gets stolen, be it on campus or from my home. As well it is replacement insurance - not cash value insurance - so that I don't get a lower payout as my laptop depreciates in value - they would be paying for me to replace it with a laptop of equivalent value in the future.
That's what I've done to protect my shiny new IBM Thinkpad T41 that I love so much
I thought the correct thing to do when you lose your "really good paper" is to get really stoned and do Apple "switch" commercials.
Mal-2
How is the Riemann zeta function like Trump rallies? Both have an endless number of trivial zeros.
An unlocked minifridge, full of beer and Malibu, with a stack of porn on top, is not only guaranteed to prevent further intrusion into your stuff, but it will, like flypaper and often just as sticky, entrap any pests and hold them fast until you return.
"Even for Slashdot, that was a very obscure reference!" - Anonymous Coward
As for gear I haven't had any problems and I dont employ any uber security methods, other than data security which really doesn't help for gear getting stolen, so I'll answer the sanity part since few people have.
Pretty much every one of these I violated my first semester, and have since changed and had a significant improvement in my college experience.
Don't bring 6 computers, two monitors/keyboards/mice, two PDAs, a PS2 + dreamcast + gba, a stereo, two TVs, a dvd player, a few old hardware for "conversation pieces" and your laptop. I did this my first semester, and while I won the "most geeky person in hightower hall" contest (not a real contest), I had no need for all that stuff. Bring a laptop, one desktop, one test machine, a TV, one or two game consoles which at least one should double as a dvd player, and some speakers. Maybe a PDA if thats your thing.
Cancel your Everquest (or whatever) accounts. I was a 4-year Everquest player and got to college and found out that Everquest didn't work on the university network. I was pretty pissed off about it for two weeks, but after a month or so I realized that I was much better off than had I been playing Everquest. I didn't even care about losing my multiple level 65's with 200+ AA after six weeks.
Get involved. We have a linux users group here at my university which is really active and very awesome. Met a lot of my now college friends this way. I'm sure your university will have an ACM chapter, an IEEE chapter, and a bunch of other geeky stuff. Join all of them. You also have a good side effect here of resume-whoring.
Don't be afraid to have fun. If you get arrested a few times, its no big deal. Do stupid stuff often and without premeditation. You'll have alot more fun this way.
Go to class at least half the time.
I was going to mod you up, but you are anon.
:
Actually this is the smartest thing I expect to read in this thread, while also being the simplest and cheapest.
Lock your damn door, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It doesn't matter if you are in the room, not in the room, just running real quick down to the bathroom or across the hall to another room with the doors open. If you don't have one foot in the door and one foot out the door, throw the deadbolt.
As for your sanity, here are some rules for life in college
1. Sex. Women do all their freaky stuff in college, so have an open mind and hit as much of it as you possibly can. Buy a big box of condoms and some good lube (google for 'millenium id').
2. Class. A good education is important, but don't let it interfere with #1.
3. Network. Not TCP/IP, but people. Every job you get in the future is going to be because of who you know, so get to know a LOT of people. Get to know them well so they don't forget you.
4. The Law. Graduating from college doesn't erase your law record, so don't get arrested.
5. The Dollar. You are going to get a lot of offers for credit cards. Credit cards are not 'free money'. If you can't pay cash for it, and if you haven't managed to save enough money to buy it in the last 6 months, what makes you think you are going to earn enough money in the next 6 months to pay for whatever you are considering putting on plastic? Graduating from college doesn't erase your credit history either, so don't screw it up.
6. The Warez and MP3z. Add #5 and #6 above up and decide if you can afford it. I'm guessing you probably can't, so don't do it from your own computer.
7. Take a few classes for personal enrichment. You aren't going to meet the best chicks in your software engineering classes.
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
Do your homework as soon as possible, the longer you wait the more homework will be stacked up with it.
Grades are determined on Friday Nights:
A students take notes from class and notes from chapter reading and combine them
B students take their notes and file them away
C students watch the D students start to drink.
College is about adapting
WoW: Scheod 70 orc warlock on Shadowmoon
Bah.
The best solution for taking notes (other than perhaps a tablet PC) is a cheap laptop. Not valuable enough to get stolen, not a replacement for a real machine (so you still have a real machine to back up onto and stuff in the very likely event that your laptop is damaged/broken/stolen), but very very useful.
With some creative Word customization, I was able to keep up with most classes. So my notes were much better, especially given that my handwriting sucks.
PDAs are wretched for taking notes on.
Gentoo Sucks
This is very simple actually: Get renters' insurance and stop worrying about all the rest of it. Bottom line is that there's just no way to ensure in a dorm environment that everything is safe. Even if you lock things down like a government agency with high tech surveillance and alarms, your roommate will leave the door open one day and then it all is for naught.
Renters insurance will cost you for the year far less than a single piece of security equipment, probably about the same as a cheapass webcam which would probably get stolen too if it ever comes to that. Back up the critical data to cd and leave it with a friend in another room from time to time, and password protect your laptop in hopes that whoever steals it won't be able to hack in. Beyond that its just not worth the headache to try to keep an eye on everything, its just equipment that you can buy again down at Best Buy with the insurance check should somebody ever get to it. Besides that, the best security system on the planet won't help you if somebody steals your bike from the rack in front of a lecture hall, or snags your iPod in the cafeteria while you're not looking. Insurance will cover all of this and you don't have to worry about making sure its working every time you leave the room.
Get some insurance, and get some sleep.
Do all the stuff you are supposed to do:
Exercise 30 minutes a day 5-6 days per week. Find people who want to exercise with you, and mix up your routine with fun things. This is, I think, the most overlooked thing at school. Exercise will give you more energy and a higher IQ.
Take vitamins every day, especially on the days you are hung over. Vitamins are pretty cheap, especially if they give you a little bit of an edge in avoiding sickness.
Drink lots of water. Drink 3 glasses of water right before you go to bed if you have been drinking, and drink another 3 when you wake up after drinking.
I presume you are going into a scientific or computational field. Make sure you have a firm grasp in math and physics before you jump into your other courses--these subjects provide the mental framework you need to succeed.
If you aren't already thinking about it, consider getting a minor in business, or try double-majoring in business along with your primary degree. Figure out the registration system, and locate areas of overlap in requirements for your liberal ed and major classes.
Do your homework right after class, and enjoy your evenings.
When you visit friends and family back home, do not try to show them how much smarter you are than them. Instead, try to understand what they are saying.
Get on a regular sleep schedule.
Here's the real answer. Get a gun. And then make sure everyone knows how badly you want to use it.
The only regrets I have (I'm now married, with child-no fun allowed) are what (who) I didn't do in college. I never tried acid. I never got wasted every night for a month. I never slept with a hooker. Actually the biggest regrets I have are for the chicks I never did. Except for the fat girl I woke up next to, after drinking tequila. She was naked but I had my clothes on so I hope nothing happened but the fear is still there.
As for school, it doesn't really matter what you do. Once peak oil hits, it's all a white line nightmare and, unless you're good with a supercharged V8 and a crossbow, you'll be dog food.
I drank what? -- Socrates
tell your roommate to lock up also! i once woke up to a very large set of nostrils staring down at me because my roommate left for his early theatre class and left the door unlocked. even though the guy was cool and my neighbor, having a huge football player's head in your face going,"WAKE UP, FOOL!" was not fun. if your roommate is lax or not respectful of your property, start looking for a new one right away.
The biggest problem with using a computer to take notes is duplicating diagrams and equations quickly. In physics classes, these are the entirety of your notes. Equations you can sort of do if you're good with TeX, but the effort involved might distract you from the material. Diagrams are almost impossible to keep up with.
The majority of the time, I take notes with a paper and pencil. If I whip out my laptop in class, it's because I'm not real interested in what the professor is saying. (Going to class and amusing yourself like this is a lot better than not going...you'll at least find out about assignments and tests and whatnot.)
PDAs are wretched for taking notes on.
Agreed. Work bought me one for a project, so I took a few notes while I was playing with my new toy. They're completely indecipherable. It's so awkward to keep your hand off the display while writing with the tiny stylus that my mediocre handwriting became awful. And if I had used the on-screen keyboard or Grafiti, I would have had problems keeping up.
PDAs are more useful for displaying information than entering it. Or if you do enter information, there should be very little of it, in a rigid format.
Sex. Women do all their freaky stuff in college
Obviously you've never met 30- and 40-somethings at Burning Man or similar...
Da Blog
You've hit the nail on the head. Have stuff that nobody wants to steal, or at least, that looks like stuff that nobody wants to steal, but that does the job good enough for you. And make sure you can live without it.
I had a crappy bike in college, but it looked really flashy. I left it locked up, but with a crappy cable lock. It got stolen.
I had a great bike that I built myself from an aluminum frame with a bunch of great components. I painted it with a tooth brush, and the handle bar tape looked like it had been put on by a monkey on speed. Don't even get me started on how old the leather bindings on the rat traps were. It looked like crap. I left it all over, unlocked. The only time anyone touched it was when the campus cops picked it up because it wasn't locked.
Most thieves, especially on or near a college campus, are looking for the easy theft and the easy sale. The want to grab something, unload it, and buy their booze/pot/coke/etc. So, don't make your stuff easy to steal, and don't make it look like it's worth stealing.
On a similar topic, don't ever buy something that looks too good to be true, either. It was probably stolen from someone else. People that buy stolen stuff are what cause stuff to be stolen.
BTW, emacs is the ultimate note taking engine. Abbrev mode and outline minor mode make it simple to get down the things your prof is saying in the correct structure.
1) Don't schedule 8:00 a.m. classes. Never. Not for any reason.
2) Go to class every session and sit in the second row. When you later have to argue/beg for a grade, it'll be much easier if the prof recognizes you. This will almost guarantee you a B.
3) Never fall into the trap of thinking that you don't need to know what one of your classes teaches. The only things I regret about my education are the things I didn't pay enough attention to, and now have to learn in a time when learning isn't my full-time occupation.
4) Buy a bottle on N-Acetyl-Cystine and take 2-4 before you go out drinking, especially on a school night. You will thank me.
5) Unless you're taking out loans to attend a private university, don't graduate too fast. You'll want to, by the end, but remember that the real world will always be there for you, whereas you'll spend the rest of your life remembering college fondly, even if you're happy with your family and career.
6) Try as many things as you can, it'll help you learn you who are.
7) Good luck.
Don Negro
Perl 6 will give you the big knob. -- Larry Wall
(Scratches head)
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
Gear -- Laptop security hardware
:)
Unless you bring your laptop to every class with you every day, or leave it in your car from time to time, your laptop will be out of your sight for several hours/day. As in, sitting on your desk where your roommate(s) and other dorm buddies might -- if they are the unseemly type -- consider stealing it and selling it while you're gone. In this case, no laptop security hardware will save you -- time is on their side, and your hardware, at best, is a lock strapped to a probably-wooden desk.
That said, a laptop lock is still better than nothing, and for that reason, is worth the investment.
Mostly though, I wouldn't worry *too* much about physical security unless your roommate is untrustworthy. Of course, you won't know that until you've lived with him/her for a few weeks, will you?
Now my other subject:
Sanity -- Self-discipline, time-management, and happiness
Here are my 3 main tips:
1) DO NOT SLACK OFF LIKE IT'S YOUR SENIOR YEAR IN HIGH SCHOOL, EVEN FRESHMAN YEAR. Your GPA is King if you want to go on to grad school, med school, law school, etc.. That said, you really only need a minimum of a 3.1-3.2 or so to get into grad school or law school. Med school is harder though.
2) DO NOT SPEND ALL YOUR FREE TIME LEARNING LINUX/*BSD IF YOU HAVE NEVER HAD EXPERIENCE WITH THESE OS'S. They will eat up all your free time (compiling god knows how many libraries you also have to download first, manhandling config files, reading poorly-written documentation, etc.). Learn them over time, but do not live them as I did. OSS is a very small subset of life.
3) DO NOT GET (too) BIG INTO THE CAMPUS LAN-GAMING AND WAREZ SCENES. Warez is too legally-risky these days, and besides, it requires lots and lots of manual searching; Google doesn't cut it here, and thus it takes lots of time to get the philez you want. It usually isn't worth it.
Welcome to the reasons I voluntarily dropped out of a major, well-funded, well-respected 2nd-tier science/engineering university, and will now be finishing up my degree at a shitty, underfunded 4th-tier liberal-arts state school.
Oh, and one more:
4) Don't fall into the "I wanna be a God admin/coder" trap and ignore women (or men, if you prefer) and dating for your 4 years of college. This has been the biggest reason I am a bitter, unhappy man in my early-mid 20s. I am only just now learning how to date women, and am still a virgin. [1] Most guys (about 73%) get laid by the time they're 18. Me? I might as well be a hardcore loony-bin Christian straight-edger waiting until marriage for sex, so far as I count, statistically.
I have a monetarily-successful life (almost certainly) coming to me in spite of all of the above, because I have managed to determine and pull myself up from my failings, but in doing so, like I said, I'm as bitter and unhappy a man as anybody I know.
I have discovered after years of soul-searching that money isn't everything (and if you read my previous posts, you will find that I am a diehard believer in the free-market, and resultingly, money transactions). Friends, love, laughter, and the free time and freedom to choose your own path in life are. Of those, my life is sorely lacking the first 3 (of any quality, at least). Money makes all of those things easier to obtain, and it makes those things go more-smoothly and easily. But money is the means, *not* the end...
Don't waste the most-vital years of your life geeking-out like I did. Go out, party, get drunk, get laid every weekend. Do your homework too, and if you're in CS or Engineering, you may well have to sacrifice a party or two to do the assignments, but what I have just described is a far-better balance than I have achieved the last 4 years in school.
Work hard during the week, and party hard on the weekends. That is how co
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
Try to apply this to more than sex. If you're going to a good school, people are doing a lot of freaky cool stuff. Get involved, and keep an open mind. Don't give into conformity when it comes to any group, jock or geek- try a lot of things out, figure out what you like, and persue it.
If your college doesn't have lots of crazy/cool/fun stuff going on, and you aren't finding anything you really enjoy, transfer, take a year off, or at least find some new friends. It's a big world and there are lots of options, so don't squander your time doing the same old BS. Find a way to grow, learn, find talents you didn't know you had, whatever.
2. Class. A good education is important, but don't let it interfere with #1.
Actually, yes- class is very important, but never let your schooling get in the way of your education. Focusing too much on grades and toeing the line can make you miss out on truly educational experiences. Learn everything you can from wherever you can. Work hard on your classwork, work hard on your social life, work hard on your soul. And remember: Life moves pretty fast, if you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.
3. Network. Not TCP/IP, but people. Every job you get in the future is going to be because of who you know, so get to know a LOT of people. Get to know them well so they don't forget you.
True. Knowing people can be a great resource. Also, learning how to deal with people can be a great resource, and college is a good time to practice on a wide variety of people. Ignoring all that, knowing lots of people and staying pretty much on people's good side will make college a lot more fun, whether it's useful or not.
4. The Law. Graduating from college doesn't erase your law record, so don't get arrested.
In other words, a little mischeif makes for good memories, but keep it light and harmless. One really bad mistake can screw your life up for several years, so just try not to get into too much trouble.
5. The Dollar. You are going to get a lot of offers for credit cards. Credit cards are not 'free money'. If you can't pay cash for it, and if you haven't managed to save enough money to buy it in the last 6 months, what makes you think you are going to earn enough money in the next 6 months to pay for whatever you are considering putting on plastic? Graduating from college doesn't erase your credit history either, so don't screw it up.
Not really going to add anything here. I just quoted it for repitition. This is one you can't hear enough.
7. Take a few classes for personal enrichment.
I have to shout this, being slashdot and all: DON'T JUST TAKE COMPUTER/ENGINEERING COURSES! Take some philosophy, psychology, literature, etc. You know, useless stuff. Read some Plato. If you don't like it, find me in the forums, I'll talk to you about it.
This hooks in nicely with my adaptations of #1, #2, and #3. College should be opening you up to new things. Try things you don't know about. Make friends with good people you don't understand. Take classes about interesting topics that are over your head. Learn a musical instrument. You'll be glad you did.
Most of all, have fun. If you don't like what you're studying, then what you're studying is preparing you for a career that you won't like. Find something you love, and study that, and you'll figure the rest out later.
What else... what else...? Ok, I can only think of one more thing. Don't believe everything "smart people" tell you. Smart people can be wrong too, professor or not. Stupid people can be right. Like I said before, keep an open mind and learn whatever you can where you can. If someone says something you don't understand, don't just assume he's right and you don't understand, and don't just assume he's wrong, and therefore not worth paying attenti
Unfortunately, my whole world came unraveled when I began to suffer from a mental illness called schizoaffective disorder.
It turned out to be a lot worse than it had to be because I would not seek treatment. I thought shrinks were for crazy people, and I didn't think I was crazy. Well, it turned out that by the time I got to see a shrink, I was crazy.
If you think you're mentally ill, get help from a mental health professional. Most colleges have some kind of counseling center, and often have staff psychiatrists and psychologists.
Life was pretty damn grim for a long time, but it got better because I finally got help.
I finally got my degree in physics, in 1993, after transferring to UC Santa Cruz.
This advice is particularly pertinent to college students because schizophrenia, manic depression, and schizoaffective disorder almost always strike a victim when they are a young adult. I knew a number of other people, both at Caltech and UCSC, who became quite crazy when they were students.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
1) Don't get drunk. I'm not saying don't drink, but don't get drunk. I believe the statistic goes that 1 in 5 girls are raped in college, and that alcohol is involved in most of the cases. Besides, don't you want to remember your fun and sexual experiences? I'm glad I remember mine.
2) Don't accept drinks from others or leave your drinks behind and pick them up later. I don't care if s/he's your best friend, turn it down and get your own drink. Doesn't matter what time of day it is. Be careful. If this doesn't make sense to you, reread #1.
3) Read "The Debt-Free Graduate", "You Are Smarter Than You Think!", all college advice books, and anything by Patrick Combs. Good advice there. Check them out at your college library or at the college bookstore. I ran into these my fifth year of college, and I wish I had read them sooner.
4) Major in your passion, not what your parents or teachers suggested you major in. I majored in Computer Science and I don't regret it. Unfortunately, I majored in it too late in my college career, and it didn't work out, so...
5) Always have a backup plan when things don't work out. If you end up not majoring in your passion for some reason, at least come out with a degree, even if it's a Bachelor in General Studies.
You do realize you've just depressed the hell out of all the geeks out there who will never have sex in college...much less in life.
There's a silent majority of people for which sex doesn't play a major part in their life. For one reason or another, mostly looks and the inability to socialize, there are some who will go their whole life without the sex you describe as "freaky". I've longed for "freaky" sex with a hot college chick all my life, thing is, now I'm old enough to be their dad. If I were you, I'd simply shut the hell up about how great sex is in college, because it pisses the hell out of us who don't get it to no end. Keep your sexual acts to yourselves. It just isn't good for a person to know about the enjoyment other people are having.
So piss off!
ps-be wary of the combination of credit cards, alcohol and women ; )
harmonious design
Tip: if you are taking English lit, make a lot of your notes in the novels and poetry books. This will save you a ton of time during in-class exams and will even help you with term papers. For novels, I used to write topic headers on the blank pages at the front/back of the book, then note the pages with notes on them. This helped me ace my English degree.
-- SYS 64738 --
That won't help a bit. You can still end up spending a LOT of money following this advice.
Go and meet your professoes. Really. This was advice I got from the dean my freshman year. So, I took it. The almost never see anyone during office hours so go sometime in the first week say hi and chat with them for 10 minutes. Most are just floored since it so very rarely happens. Some will resent it but that tells you that you should probably dorp the class since oyu probably have an asshole. Nearly all I've met have chatted with me about the class, their research, the university, etc.
There are two good side effects of this:
1) If you need help, you are much more likely to get it. Maybe you want in a class in the future, and the professor remembers you and lets you in. Maybe you need some advice, and the professor give it to you. They are generally much happier to help those they know, and that have shown some initiave and intrest, than those that never say anything.
2) Grades. As mentioned by the parent, they'll give you more leanincy. Not even just for begging, you can just generally slant the grading in your favour. It's just human nature. They feel that they better know you, so they are more likely to cut you some slack.
. . . I'm scared to death of getting my girlfriend pregnant
1. Condoms are at least 98% effective. Combine that with another form of contraception, and you stand a very good chance of avoiding pregnancy.
2. The morning-after pill is available throughout the US for emergency situations.
3. Abortions are not "easy" -- I've had relationships with women who've had them, and it's almost always been a harrowing experience. But, it was always the right choice for them, and they would do it all over again.
4. Only have sex with people you trust.
5. Either lighten-up about sex, or practice abstinence. There's no reason to be scared to death about sex if you're properly educated about it (and I don't mean the Right-wing Christian Fundamentalist "sex-ed" so popular in high schools these days).
1. Drink. None of that pussy "I don't drink" shit. Learn to suck it up and drink like a real man, that's what college is for. Trust me, soon enough you'll have all sorts of annoying health problems and aging concerns, and you'll have to moderate your drinking. College is your chance to get this out of your system and give your liver a good working out.
2. Have sex. Meet women and fuck them. Seriously. If you followed step 1 above, you will find step 2 much easier. I promise. If you still don't know how to do this, learn. Study the art of fast seduction if you need that sort of thing (Google is your friend), or just be yourself if you have more luck that way. Freshman year is tough, but by the time Junior year rolls around you should have your game on and the Frosh chicks and ready for action. Don't bother with the Junior and Senior chicks, they're getting banged by the grad students, or people with real jobs and incomes. Don't waste your undergraduate years in some long distance relationship or any of that crap, and don't stick with the first girl that gives you some booty. This lesson goes for the rest of life too. And if you are gay, please feel free to replace "chick" with "dude" in the above paragraph. And if you are female, well, go screw some underclassmen and stop hogging all the senior dudes.
3. Make friends and connections. The people you meet in high school and college (if you go to a good high school, maybe more there than college) are the connections you have for the rest of your life. These people are critical for building your career. You will help them out and they will help you out. Join a fraternity if that's your thing (preferably one where people aren't complete morons - my friend's frat at MIT had more multimillionaire entrepreneur alumni than I can count), or get involved in extracurricular activities. In the end, this is as important as your grades - your grades will be useful for grad school if you go that route and to a lesser extent for your first few jobs. Beyond that, the most that will matter is "cum laude", "magna cum laude", etc. People still are impressed when I say I graduated from Harvard in Physics, magna cum laude.
4. Study. Go to your classes. Except when it interferes with 1, 2 or 3. Your parents are paying for an education, get it. And not just in the area you are majoring in, branch out, take some other classes. But don't get obsessed with pulling straight As at the expense of the friend-making and networking. And definitely not at the expense of getting laid and drinking, or you'll regret it for the rest of your life. Remember, we all end up dead someday, don't forget to enjoy life while you're young.
After you've done all of the above, you are welcome to fit a few hours in of sleeping and securing your damned laptop/bike/whatever (jesus, who has time in college to obsess about their _stuff_? don't bring too much expensive shit to college, just the bare minimum, and expect to lose some stuff or have it "borrowed" out of your dorm room, etc.). Sure, play computer games, unwind, download tons of MP3s, warez, whatever floats your boat, but don't let that stuff get in the way of what really matters (see points 1 through 4 above).
You may think I'm crazy, but I have no regrets. I think I sacrificed a summa cum laude along with a few hundred thousand brain cells to Bachanallian revelry, but I will never for a minute regret it. If anything, I can only say I wish I hadn't taken on such a ridiculous workload junior year when I finished my physics honors requirements a year early, and that I hadn't worked full time at my company senior year instead of partying heartily and pursuing goals 1 and 2 above.
Yeah, there's a long story there.
Ah what the heck, I'll tell it. Not like anyone is going to read this anyway.
So, I went to visit a, um, friend, that lived on campus. I rode my bike up, and like I normally did, I leaned it up against the bike rack outside her dorm. No lock. I'd been leaving it unlocked for a long time, maybe a couple of years and it had never gotten stolen. Why should I worry?
I came out the next morning, went to breakfast, grabbed my books out of my gym locker (I was a boy scout, always prepared and all that), and went to class. Physics always makes more sense after a night of heavy, um, studying. Afterwards, I went back by her dorm to grab my bike to head home for a couple of hours of shut-eye. No bike.
I'm sure my reaction was typical. F*ck. F*ck. F*ck. Storm about a bit. Stamped my feet a good bit. Looked to make sure someone didn't move it to the next door to f*ck with me. Probably pretty funny to watch. Then, shoulders bent, I started to walk home. Thank god the Capitol bar was on the way home, and I had enough cash for a couple of pints.
I'd give you a link to the Capitol, but it couldn't do the place justice. Let's just say it's the best place on earth for a pint after your bike has been stolen. Heck, it might be the best place on earth for a pint regardless of whether your bike has been stolen or not. Thanks Stephanie for rebuilding after the lighting strike.
Anyway, I moved on. I no longer was spending nights with my friend, nor was I mourning my bike.
Losing the bike was the last bit of incentive I needed to finish my other bike project. Pissed as I was, I made my new bike from bits I had laying about the house (okay, back yard, shed, basement, you get the picture), which was twice the bike that I had lost, look like crap. I painted it with a toothbrush, and made the handle bar tape job look like crap. It worked well, though, and it actually made my commute to school easier. So, really, I didn't mind that much that my bike had been stolen.
For a while I locked the new bike up, just because the other one was stolen, but it wasn't long until I got too lazy to lock it up. After all, if this one got stolen, I had another at home waiting to be built out of parts, and that was fun for me.
To put beer on the bartop, I took a job working with the campus food service. I know, I know, you probably hate me and all the other people that forced that crap down your throat. Sorry.
My main job was handling the catering for events on campus. I delivered food, especially breakfast treats like bagels and coffee.
One day I jumped into the catering truck with a tray of (what else) doughnuts and assorted pastries for the campus police and others organizing the yearly auction on campus.
You see, each department would retire things, like computers, decks of punch cards, hydraulic rams, or APCs (yes, APCs, they were used for explosives research) that they no longer needed, and those would be sold at auction. I dropped off the tray of goodies, and took a look around at the swag. I never bought anything at these auctions, because they always sold the stuff I was interested in (like computers) in lots that put them out of my price range, but, like a good geek, I liked to drool over the things I couldn't get, like Linotype machines and welding rigs.
Wandering about, I came across, in a dark corner a bunch of bikes. In case it's not already obvious, I'm a bike scavenger. You have a bike part you don't want, give it to me, I'll figure out something to do with it. I thought, maybe nobody will be interested in these crappy bikes. So, I took a close look.
That's when I saw it. My old bike. Yup, tjere it was. Nothing wrong with it except cobwebs from storage. It was sitting there, ready to be sold to some yahoo that couldn't appreciate all the work I'd put into the damn thing.
Luckily I knew most of the campus cops (don't ask how), and I was on a friendly basis wi
Regualr guy:
"Great! I'm off to collage, need some tips on the best places to party, the best clubs, and where all the hot chicks hang out."
Geek:
"I've been looking around recently for other options as far as keeping track of my laptop and other semi-expensive and certainly valuable (for a college student) stuff in a dorm room setting. Any ideas? I'm looking for both laptop-specific and comprehensive solutions. Locks? Alarms? Video cameras? Trip wire?"
Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated up.
Also, the hot chicks are all taking Psych or Sociology.
Speaking from experience, both recent and remote, the parent is both oh so right and oh so wrong.
NEVER date a psych major. I would seriously recommend staying away from the discipline entirely as the temptation is usually irresistible. I'm convinced they learn stuff in those classes you couldn't learn from navy seals interrogation training.
I have no idea about the Sociology majors, but I do highly recommend entomology if you can take some of those classes. I've met many a very cute, super-cool bug-loving girl in my day, and have found their worth and demeanor to be much more reliable.
Of course, most generalizations are crap, but the thing about crazy Psych majors stands up to the test of time. Do yourself a favor and run like hell when that cute psych student starts making eyes, you may end up a research subject.
Of blankness, I know nothing.
This is mainly reiterating what has gone before, but I would advise that you buy a desktop computer rather than a laptop. Take lecture notes with paper, though not at the cost of listening to the lecturer. As soon as possible after the lecture transcribe your notes to your computer. The act of transcribing them forces you to reread and think about them while the lecture is still fresh in your mind.
Partying advice: Alternate soft and alcoholic drinks. Always have at least one drink fewer than the person you are trying to chat up. Party with as many different people and in as many different styles as you can over the course of the year. Never worry about not being cool enough to go to any particular party; it's staying in your room that's not cool.
Security: As has been said, always lock your door and make sure everything is insured.
Those who do not learn from Dilbert are doomed to repeat it.
Thank you very much for saying that... it's posts like these that make me regret opting out of moderating. I don't know about the rest of you guys, but I am actually going to university for the education, not for the glorified brothel.
First, you have to understand the psychology of the thief, and them make him NOT want to steal any of your stuff.
The simplest way is to make it not worth their while, and I personally think the fastest way is with a can of spraypaint and some artistic licence.
Ever wanted to spraypaint your deck cool camoflage colours just like the 'leet Hackers in That Film With The Cute Girl? Go ahead! You'll screw it up, repaint it silver, get funny bubbles on the case where the paint reacted with the plastic, and accidentally wipe off the key labels with acetone... and then your gear will be completely unique, instantly recogniziable, and often unsellable at pawn shops.
The more beige and standard your gear, the more likely it will get nicked.
My laptop got "stolen" (possibly by someone I knew) some years back, and turned up a few days later under a nearby tree. It was covered in unique PsiCore stickers, and whoever had "borrowed" it had failed to even get past the linux login prompt... CLI's are another great theft-prevention device.
Some final words of advice, since many, many other threads seem to be filled with hints on how to have Frequi Sex with Crazy Girls...
1. Never forget: Safe, Sane, Consensual.
2. Everyone else in University is having a LOT less sex than they say they are, or you think they are. (Trust me on this.)
3. The ones that tell you they're having sex don't realize how badly they're doing it. (One night fumbles simply don't compare to a lover who knows you well. Trust me on that too.)
4. Crazy girls are fun, but they're still crazy.
Jeremy Lee | Orinoco
Compelling post mostly because I am in a similar phase of life. Since I was sitting here deep in self-analysis *anyway*, might as well contribute to the mass confessional (aka group circle wank).
I spent virtually all of my college life nerding out at a highly technical university with very few girls. When not nerding out, I made periodic attempts to socialize (become involved with the rave scene etc) and, for a slashdot poster, I guess I made decent progress. However, I would quickly burn out and lose faith when I was trying to promote a party Friday night or whatever and walking around the dorms just found a bunch of guys playing counterstrike typing "pwn3d j00 m4mm1e b1tchz0r!!!1" or doing sets while all the girls were huddled in the library studying, or leaving for home to be with their parents, etc.
I've heard the vast majority of colleges have active social scenes, but at least one tech school is mostly silent on Saturday night, aside from "Terrorists Win!". No lie.
So eventually I just gave up, moved off campus, found a good part time job that rewarded me for hacking cool stuff 20-40 hours a week (on top of the 40 hour course load), and recently graduated knowing basically only the same five male friends I had freshmen year.
Sometimes I adopt the mindset in your post and worry I just opted out of the best part of my life. The thought is profoundly depressing. No doubt it is difficult to develop the social skills girls/women require if you do not do so along with your peers--the vast majority of women obey a very specific, inelastic, social ruleset and many aspects of that ruleset are challenging for highly technical, introverted males.
All of that aside, the last 10 years really have blown the lid off of some fscking awesome technology. I have deeply enjoyed thousands of hours spent on OSS, coding, etc, and draw spiritual satisfaction from my geek pursuits. As powerful as sex is, there are some people who just get off on technology (insert sticky kb jokes here), music, math, etc, more than on a skank sorroriety girl (which frankly is what most of the boring easy college girls classify as). Telling a technical person to drink/snort up and tag a skank is like telling a bunch of skanks to spend Saturday night optimizing a *BSD kernel (heh theres some fun for the ACs in that quote).
Anyway part of becoming an adult is realizing that pop culture and modern society impose a lot of BS in the name of social conformance. You'll probably have to reject a metric ton of that BS to feel OK about your interests. I know first hand you will not agree from within the depths of depression, however: there are at least a few women who value uniqueness and will pull you into their world assuming you don't write them off as sluts, freaks, etc, or write yourself off as an inadequate social reject. I bet many women are potentially sympathetic but lack the social initiate to break rank with the Animal House hoards.
So to wrap this post up... Modeling highly technical systems is an amazing talent for which you may be highly compensated. However using that talent to model your own mind quickly becomes counter-productive. Socialization demands empathy with another person; if you are stuck deep in self-analysis you will not have mental bandwidth for him or her. Also trying to force yourself into a value system inconsistent with your past is probably not going to work, instead you need to use your rational abilities to address emotional/social concerns, yet without violating the narcissism constraints. College and life are just a case of discovering the right tradeoffs, very similar to the art of hacking.
Further Reading:
"This Side Of Paradise" by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Go grab it on Gutenberg.
Further Discussion:
brane at sdf tod lonestar tod org
Whenever you read a story like this, if you aren't a complete retard, you have to wonder. Doctors are pretty lousy at identifying the cause of rashes, and rashes from embalming fluid would have to be pretty damn rare.
So, we pop off to Snopes, and what do we find?
Of course, it's an urban legend
Don't panic, man. You should thank God you've been saved from all the hassles, fights, distractions, embarassment, emotional trauma, guilt, regret, diseases, pregnancy, financial burden, and other ripple effects that could have totally wrecked your life.
I have discovered after years of soul-searching that money isn't everything.
Perhaps, in a few more years of soul-searching, you will discover that sex isn't everything.
Patience... There is a time for everything.
There is a time to have sex,
there is a time to not have sex.
Life will reward you for waiting for the right person and the right time. It will curse you for acting foolishly. That's why it's so important to remain sober-minded - so you can make decisions that are truly in your best interest. Consequences, my friend. One stupid move could ruin your life.
I'm sitting here reading these replies and thinking how sad it is. Every school is different but I can tell you there are still many schools out there where crime is very rare. My freshmen year I went with security at the top of my mind. I had a security cable and full cabinet for my pc, a secure box for other gear, etc. My roommate and hallmates turned out to be my best friends in the world. A few weeks after moving in, all that security seemed more then a bit lame and bite-in-the-ass. By my senior year we lived in a house with no locks on the door, hell, people coming in and out at all hours, huge parties, the works all with a number of PCs, a unix (real unix not linux) box, laptops, nice stereo gear, and more and never had a single thing stolen. Use your head but still trust your neighbors. And most importantly, enjoy these four years (strike that, make it 5 or 6), works is nice but a lot less fun then college....
I asked him about it, and was told that he'd had an art-major friend do it using some sort of a thin enamel that wouldn't block small openings (like grills) but dried solid as a rock. The idea was to reduce the resale value to virtually nil while making it painfully easy to recognize, thus presenting a VERY unappealing target to thieves. So, do you know any art majors?
You learn 20% in the classroom, 80% outside of the classroom - College isn't all about the classes; they are important, don't get me wrong. No one pays $20K/year to hang out. But I learned the most outside of class in the form of social interaction, mental and psychological reform, and changing and honing of my beliefs and feelings. Understand that concept and you'll make a productive 4 years.
Party like it's on sale for $19.99 - You'll never get to do it again, and even into your twenties you'll start to slow down and start saying things like, "I used to be able to do that" in reference to long nights of drinking and partying where 3pm was breakfasttime the next day. I'm not saying you need to get so wasted every weekend that you can't see straight; have a few of those, but at least go out, have a beer, and socialize as much as possible.
Appreciate the opportunities - Picture this: it's a Thursday afternoon. The weather has just gone sunny and warm, the kind that makes you feel like everything's great. You have class at 2:30. A friend says, "Too bad we have class, we should go have a beer by the river and enjoy the weather." What are you going to do? SKIP THE CLASS! Don't do it every day, but in cases like this, you'll gain more from that skip than you would have had in class. This situation hit me during senior year; all my roommates were in the same class with me. We actually sat down, wrote and email to the prof, and apologized, saying that the day was too nice to spend inside, we hoped he understood. Then we left and went out by the river, had some beers, and shot the shit. A great, happy day. When we came home, we found an email from the prof, saying, "I don't blame you."
Women are fascinating creatures -- meet some - This is obviously for the guys, but girls, feel free to reverse the idea. Women are really fascinating creatures, and I'm not talking about just sex. Their unique perspective on life and ideas and views are great stimuli for the mind; find the interesting ones and hang out with them. Cultivate great friendships with women of all walks -- even if they never turn out to be a date or a lay, there's nothing like walking across campus and being able to yell out, "Hey, Erin!" and having that cute blonde wave back at you enthusiastically, stop and talk to you. How's that for an ego boost?
That being said, I would agree with the "get laid" sentiment to some extent. At least, there's a lot of women both interesting and just plain attractive that I wished I had gotten up the guts to approach and ask them for a night of passion or at least some friendly exchanges of pleasure. So give it a shot, you'll be glad you did.
Your friends are your rock - Make friends. Lots of them. Of all types of people, backgrounds, and interests. Don't limit yourself to geeks or any other group. Knowing people of all walks gives you the power of connections, of knowing who to contact when you need something. Need a great, raucaus party to go to? Are you going to contact a geek? No! Contact that football player you made friends with in the caf line. Need an 'in' on the setup of wiring in the buildings? Call up the weird guy that studies blueprints you saw last week! I could give a million examples, but have friends. Call them randomly. Take them out for beers at 11pm. Go over and give them 'stress breaks'. Anything.
Respect your sleep - I don't mean don't stay out late or anything -- that's fine. But respect sleep for what it is: a chance to refresh. Something that makes you think clearer. If you schedule your classes in the early mornings and you're a night owl, you WILL SUFFER. I don't care how "dedicated" you are -- when push comes to shove, and it will, you'll be screwed. Know yourself, admit your weaknesses, and get over them. Watch your schedules so you can get naps and sleep appropriately.
Take Naps - Piggybacking on the above, take naps.
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