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- Hacker News
- I've been considering doing the same (going back to uni, not moving to Barcelona). But I find the choices are overwhelming, and the time investment is no joke.by elric
- This makes me want to join again to uni and finally get my degree, but man, I haven't enough time to do that and also have some "myself" time.
Leisure time is a human need btw, I learnt it too late after a burnout.
by jmrm - First and foremost, congrats!
In Argentina doing a bachelor + master while working is called a Monday. It's partially unfortunate since it "delays" the finish date of the degree and even makes a lot of people drop out because they found a cushy enough job.
But coming out with a degree along with years of professional experience makes up for the "delay" in getting the degree at least tenfold.
by igleria - Super grateful to read stories like these.
I'm studying part-time to complete a BA in political science while working full-time as a software developer. I love learning the subject, but the workload can be tough. Happy to hear it's not just me.
Thank you for sharing!
by taveras - My pleasure. Good luck with your studies!by MHard
- Felicidades. Sometimes I think about returning to a public university to have something structured to do, especially since I've been in a way educating myself through AI and I appreciate the idea of an environment dedicated to people with a similar intellectual interest. I don't really care about academia, if I do it it would be an experimental change of environment. If there is even a place for people like me in that public university at all (older people).by madprops
- I think it’s worth a try. Being a bit older than the rest (almost thirties) when I started also gave me pause at first. But I felt that people were very welcoming regardless of your situation.by MHard
- I know of a pensioner who successfully did up to a Masters in astronomy, so there are definitely examples of older people as students in academia (not to mention many the professors are older, and especially the emeritus professors).
- > Culture-wise, the professors at the university were also very different than what I was used to in Germany. [...] My thesis advisor, Alicia Ageno, for instance, had a meeting with me about every two weeks and sent me relevant papers and advice on a subject that was not her current research topic anymore.
This makes german supervision sound pretty abysmal! Maybe that's why the thesis project I had with a German professor crashed and burned (I was to implement an simulation method, and he wouldn't help with debugging), they are just raised in a culture where you don't help students?
- Your mileage may vary.by pvaldes
- I have never heard of a professor at any level helping a student debug code past maybe CS1.by ecshafer
- Every school, branch, class, hell - even year at the same school with same profs is differentby high_na_euv
- I believe it comes down to the difference between master‘s and bachelor’s as well as the size of the university.
After showing the article to one of my friends who‘s doing the thesis right now, he told me that his experience with his supervisor is very different from mine. In my case I might have gotten very lucky.
by MHard - Doing my thesis in The Netherlands I got guidance on my thesis three times. Once during the start to get an initial baseline of what is expected of me, once halfway through as a quick call to see if everything was going according to schedule and once when I had the concept ready.
If you need someone to hold your hand every other week perhaps you shouldn’t go into academics. You should be operating autonomous at that point.
by retired - I am 31(still fell 20) studying Electrical Engineering, while working full time as a Software Engineer, its tough, I wouldn’t have it any other way.by shivajreddy
- Where?
- It feels like the real reason many people go back to school: not some grand career optimization plan, but being bored, stuck and wanting life to move againby ErigmolCt
- I did study for my undergraduate degree( design & business) full time whilst also working full time. Graduated when I was almost 30. It took me 10 years until I wanted to study anything again.
Now I'm studying part time for my masters degree( cybersec) whilst also working full time, only this time the job is very mentally draining.
by cosmodisk - Respect for going back after 10 years, honestly. Cybersec while working full time sounds useful but definitely not lightby ErigmolCt
- Great job! A few months ago I was kicked out of university for failing my Real Analysis course a second time (4 years of CS suddenly gone, thesis was half done) and had to get a full time job. Now I got accepted to a different public university to study on a weekend basis. This article makes me less anxious about my upcoming studies.by cjd8
- Very sorry to hear that. Glad you're still going on, that's the right mindset!by ramon156
- That sounds incredibly harsh. What kind of university was it? Is there more to the story?
Kicking someone out and effectively voiding all progress just for failing one challenging final year class twice is completely mad.
Was it rather that you lost a scholarship and couldn’t afford to finish or something like that?
Sorry to dwell, I’m sure it must be painful, I wish you the best luck.
by oersted - You can reapply as a new student and get your finished classes accepted as finished in the new study.
My friend was in a similar situation as you, the same school, possibly, except it was "Electric Circuits 2".
On Wednesday he failed the last exam, Thursday he applied as new student, on Monday he was 1st year student and by Friday he was 3rd year student with all classes accepted. Still had to do the Electric Circuits 2 of course.
- I'm finishing a masters here in Spain about HPC (uploaded the thesis last night). It's a joint program by two universities from Galicia (USC/UDC). I paid about the same the author did. The programme is great, loved the professors --- I contacted them after the class and the interactions were helpful/interesting. Like in the author's case, my master had a lot of practical work (which is good, being in computing/HPC). But the workload is *really crazy*. Assignment pretty much every week, with overlapping deadlines.
There's something here called "second chance", which I don't remember seeing this in Brazil. My wife did a masters at University of Barcelona and they also had a second chance. In every subject if you fail, then you take the exam or submit some assignments to get the required grade. Some students realised they wouldn't get a good grade, and preferred to skip the exam or assignment, just to get a better grade on the second chance to graduate with a good score/honours/etc.. I found that interesting, but I focused more learning things that would help me at $work and tried to avoid stress (I was probably the oldest student in my class, 40+ yo).
by kinow - We will be hopping over to Italy/France/or Croatia in the next year or so. Work will not be the motivator, but we both have options.
In the states during late covid, I thought the downtime would be good to do a second masters in something unrelated to working in software. I chose a remote program with a univeristy here in the states, I did the first year, but it reminded me that studying - especially a program unrelated to anything you have currently done - is actually not easy.
I chose Geology. I have BS/BA in Comp Eng and Chemistry and an MS in Comp Eng. So this was personal interest.
Revisiting math I hadn't used in awhile was the easy part. Making the time, while working, reminded my why I also ended up ABD (all but dissertation - toward PHD) post masters. Sometimes your brain needs to relax.
Glad it worked for you. And the European Universities are significantly cheaper than Universities in the states (this was a state univerisity which is - per state - considered a step above a state school. For instance a UC vs a CSU in california).
by jmspring - I studied in The Netherlands about ten years ago and it was very cheap. Around €10k a year total for tuition, room and board. Most of my peers graduated with only €30k in debt as they worked evenings and weekends during their education. Meanwhile I read online about Americans going in debt for $200kby retired
- You are welcome in Europe, we need all the talent we can get :)by alpineman
- > Work will not be the motivator, but we both have options.
Which work visa did you apply for? Or do you have an EU passport?
by gib444 - Geology is a great choice. I sometimes think the best subjects to study are the ones that have nothing to do with your job, but they're also the hardest to justify when your brain is already tired from workby ErigmolCt
- so you go to university just for the joy of learning?
to be clear, i think that's cool, and i might try it at some point.
but how do you deal with the fact that university, in practice, is not "for the joy of learning"?
for most people there, students and professors, it's more like "just a job". and this does have an effect. colleagues that only want to pass the test and are watching out for their careers (or even worse, don't even care about anything and are there because of societal expectations) do not make good learning companions. professors who are very dispassionate about the subject don't want you taking up their time with fancy questions and administer dumb tests such that studying for the test is useless beyond passing the course.
(to be clear i'm not criticizing these people directly. obviously, i understand that bills have to be paid -- after all, i took some fun electives, not a degree in fun)
personally, during my time in university i did try a lot of elective courses "for the joy". it forced me a schedule, which was good, because it's something i struggled with self-studying. a few times, professors offered some real gems of knowledge which i wouldn't have found otherwise. and obviously, in practical classes, i got to play stuff i otherwise wouldn't. but the battle against the bullshit took up most of my time and energy.