University or not?

Question

Should you go to University, or learn on your own and follow private lessons or online courses or tutorials(like here in SoloLearn), if you want to learn programming?
I'm 17, and I've to decide before long what to study at University. I'd like to listen your opinion and advices, maybe based on your own experience. Just tell me :)

Answer 1

Depends on YOU.

Are you the disciplined, willing to do what it takes type of guy? If so, you'll generate better results from self-learning and progressing quickly instead of drawing it out at a turtle pace over years.

Do you need someone to hold your hand or find yourself getting distracted when you should be studying instead? If so, then pay someone tens of thousands to baby sit you through your learning.

Basically, school is just you paying someone to tell you to read a book, which is something that you already know how to do. This doesn't apply to all fields, but it certainly does in regards to the IT field. However, if you lack the discipline to learn on your own, then it'll be worth paying someone to keep you in line while you're obtaining an education. An education will always be infinitely better than not having an education, regardless of how you go about obtaining it.

For me, this is what I do. I go to a collge/university website. I look up the program I'd take if I was attending. Then I look at their courses for that program. With that program list I can go onto Google and literally find resources (most often better resources + more additional resources) for every course in that program. I sit and teach myself all of it, which gives me a better education than if I had attended school. On top of that, I'm able to immediately do it and obtain a 4-year education in 6 months instead of a wasting time by spreading it out over 4-years.

Right now I work professionally as a programmer and I'm self-learned. I began learning programming back in the 90s when I was just 13, and I did it simply for fun because it happens to be what I'm passionate about. I don't have a degree, but I work alongside many people who do, so ultimately it just boils down to what you learn and what you can do, not a piece of paper pretending to represent you.

Again, consider how YOU learn and your general behaviors. Some people are better off being taught by someone else than teaching themselves.

Answer 2

Personally I think following a University is a good thing. You learn much more than just following an online course. It’s a life experience and can bring much more perspectives. Not that following an online course is not ok, but experience is different. You network a lot more during University years and the experience can prove very valuable!

Answer 3

It's better to start studying by yourself before entering an university. This will be helpful to going through and avoid getting stuck in the career program.

Remember... always be a step forward!! :DD

Answer 4

i graduated of the best university in my country, but right now i lost my live, you see!. No success way has an footprints of lazy person! 👻🙅👥💃💎🎓🎩. Good luck 💎!!

Answer 5

in my case I did started learning before going to university ,If you start learning before going to university then it will be easy to you in university study .You will get basic or complex knowladge before going university so when you join university the astal besta baby boom boom😀

Answer 6

I think going to university is better. You will earn golden opportunity there😉

Answer 7

@Jacob Marley i love yur post.All is inside!!!!!

Answer 8

Thank you all @Jakob @Sergiu @A Z M @Alex @Shudarshan
I'll keep in mind what you told!

Answer 9

thank yu sir....i had all my javascript an java's skills by myself...the fisrt university Where i was never taught me what my own curiosity gave me.

Answer 10

@Sergiu

I like your "debate", I'm learning from it more than I expected. I also consider myself lucky only by hearing from people with your experience.
(I'm Italian and in addiction to coding I'm trying to learn English, so I may be unclear sometimes😁)

Answer 11

Mr @Chintalacheruvu thank for answering...i agree with yu and that's i make now...soon i will enroll myself in IT university .

Answer 12

@Sergiu

Agreed. It's certainly dependent upon the person and what works out best for how they operate. I'm a big fan of education, and as I mentioned above, I'd rather everyone have an education by any means possible than to not pursue one at all. If school works best for you, do that; if not, teach yourself.

As for physical human interaction, I don't disagree with its importance. I think it's very important for people to have interactions with people offline, as well as online, since that's exactly what our world consists off. Regardless of how you learn, you'll have to interact with others in life and you'll want to have a sufficient ability to communicate properly with others. Of course, you can learn that online as well, as we're not simply isolated to text messages anymore, but it's a lot easier to avoid that situation online too if you wanted to.

It's hard for me to call the interactions (online/offline) as being real or not though. Most often, people will lie to you a lot quicker in your face than if they were online. However, offline people are more apt to protect your feelings than they are if you're online. So there are certainly pros/cons to each type of interaction, but I believe it wise to master the interactions of both.

What's your perspective on why the interaction is more beneficial in person than online? Also, what type of IT work have you been doing?

Thanks for responding back to me. Our interaction right now has a lot more substance to me than most of the stuff people offline want to talk to me about. lol ;)

Answer 13

Well I I'm doing both so I think doing both is better 😅

Answer 14

@Sergiu

lol Nothing wrong with a good debate. I'm more curious about your perspective and potentially obtaining further insight that I may not have considered, which I imagine would help out everyone here, including Fausto.

You're right though. I imagine people lie just as much online as they do offline; maybe a matter of liars lie and honest people don't, regardless of where they're at? When you're online it's a lot easier to fact-check and keep records of what's said, whereas offline you can better assess their emotional-body reactions. Although today many people communicate with each other visually online, so you can assess the exact same behaviors as you would in person.

Yeah, a good teacher is a good teacher no matter how one turns it, so I completely understand your point on that. As I mentioned somewhere (maybe this thread) I work alongside people with degrees that have been in the field much longer than myself, and their experience/knowledge/wisdom has been priceless to me. I suppose this is one of those things that just comes down to what works out best for you, or knowing when you utilize -both- (which is really the key that we're arriving to). I can post up any question I have to StackOverflow and receive very thorough responses from experts all over the world, so there is always many perspectives on the same thing.

Sounds like you've had quite the career! :) I was originally focused in networking when I started at this job, but transitioned into the software engineering end of it some years ago. I'm more suited as one of the "basement coders" than leading the crew though, so what you do is certainly a commendable accomplishment!

Anyways, it's been a pleasure speaking with you about all of this. If you don't mind me asking, where do you reside at? I'm in the greater Atlanta, GA USA area. If we don't speak again today, hope you have a great evening, and again, enjoyed having this convo with you.

Answer 15

Yeah @Fausto. Both is implicitly telling go to college.But don't stop there, always keep learning from other resources also.

Answer 16

thank yu sir Kumar!

Answer 17

As a young boy you may continue both,here you can enrich your basics of programming knowledge.🎯🎯🎯

Answer 18

@Sergiu

I wouldn't pick SoloLearn over going to college, but I disagree that you learn more than you could online, and that's not even considering that -most- school have online programs now also. Online you have access to ALL resources, rather than the resources limited to your school's curriculum. As well, you have access to perspectives from ALL OVER THE WORLD, rather than being isolated to the people in your class/school. Equally so, you also have better access to network with people from all over the world, which is many more people than you'll find in your class/school.

Ultimately, you could gain a lot more online than you would in a physical location. However, as I mentioned in my original reply, not everyone is disciplined and able to keep themselves on track, which is why school is a better option for them.

Answer 19

In my opinion, self-learning is the way to go in the ICT field. When I was in school and Python had just been publicly released I decided what I wanted to do. So I applied for the Alberta University of Applied Sciences and got a scholarship (lucky me, I thought scholarships were a myth)!
However with all the experience I had gained in the past 4 years (I'm a fast learner when I'm passionate about what I'm learning), the uni course was way too slow for me. I asked my father, who also works in the ICT field, what he thought was best for me. He simply said:
"Drop out, that's what you should do. But remember, if you do, you're closing many doors. While you might learn faster and better by yourself, little pieces of paper make a big difference in the real world."

And he was absolutely right! Job interviews went horribly after I dropped out because I had no degree. Yet many people had better jobs than me because they had a piece of paper that allowed them to sign their name as "John Smith, *PhD*". So it really is up to you. You might get lucky and need no degree, who knows! I wish you the best luck and just follow your heart 😉🦆

Answer 20

@Jakob

I think we’re going a bit too much in a debate and that’s not going to help @Fausto deciding what to choose.

Yes, people can lie in your face offline but at least you see their reaction and you can decide if they are the right people to talk to. On the other hand people probably lie a bit more online and you probably can’t really check that.

From my experience sharing ideas with people offline and discussing different topics (social interaction but usually related to the IT field) proved more beneficial to me. Yes, I can learn nowadays C pointers online reading tutorials and watching videos but still struggle at a certain point, while a good teacher or even a colleague can really clarify things over a simple conversation.

As for experience I’ve been through different stages from a junior engineer to a technical lead over the years (technical manager at a software company in this moment, not that title says much) and I’ve interacted with lots of people and this is why I gave previous feedback.