Why i left the university

September 2, 2023

My description of the university is;

A place where you go to learn about a specific subject and learn to think from experts in the subject. There are also other people who came with the same reason that you can discuss and explore more about that subject.

So, why did I leave this magical place in my fourth semester? I have a couple of reasons:

  • There were no experts
  • There were not so many curious people on the subject
  • Curriculum was outdated
  • Education was slow
  • The education system does not look like the real life

We have many universities in Turkey, most of which opened in the past years. We chose quantity over quality, and that created an army of unemployed college graduates because diplomas are scattered like candies. Most people go to university to escape from real life for a few years.

I studied Computer Engineering at two universities for one year each, after than, I left the university completely. So, let’s look at my reasons one by one.

Experts

Wikipedia says an expert is: “a person who is very knowledgeable about or skillful in a particular area.” I studied at two universities and saw only one person who met the definition. Other 10-15 people weren’t even close to that definition. We sat in there, and they were doing their jobs for hours.

Universities were designed thousands of years ago. At that time, you can only get information by talking with an expert or reading from the books. Universities had both of them: experts and books. Getting an education from a university could be reasonable.

However, we skipped ages. We work with people from all over the world. We can learn most of the things without leaving our homes. Why would you go to school if you know what you want to learn (if it can be done on a computer)? For example, let’s say you want to be a Swift developer. You can watch lessons from those who worked as a Swift developer for years. If you wish, you can watch lectures from Stanford, too. I prefer to watch a Udemy course or read the original documentation instead of this because it is much more practical.

Those kind of prominent universities could be good for learning computer science, I don’t know. But, it is not the best option for learning software engineering.

Comrades

As I said, most people attend university to escape from real life. My classmates were not passionate about learning computers. I had only one friend from each university. Now, one has his own mobile game company and the other one left the school like me and worked on his interests.

There were over a hundred people in those classes. So, I was lucky to find those two friends. They were good at socializing online. I didn’t have to go to school to talk with them.

Besides, I can find people like me more quickly in forums, discord channels, X, and other tools.

Curriculum

We were learning PHP in 2020. Would you like me to say more? Okay, the teacher wanted us to buy a book about PHP, and if you didn’t take your book to the class, you were getting a minus. Sounds like primary school, right? Do you believe those students who work hard on what the teacher teaches will create a new unicorn? That was ridiculous.

Another funny story is that a teacher tried to teach us C++ without knowing it. He couldn’t even use Eclipse (we had pre-installed in our labs). I have an Object-Oriented trauma thanks to the school and that teacher.

Most of the developers use open-source projects/tools, and they get updates frequently. We can’t depend on someone else to learn and teach these to us.

Speed

Classes are an outdated format of education. Some of us learn better when the lesson is based on visuals, and some learn better with other types of learning. Some people are interested in one thing, and others are interested in another. Maybe some of the students don’t even want to take that lecture. You can’t put all of these people and try to teach them. It’s not productive.

We should minimize this as much as possible. Teach students how to learn and give them starting resources. If they are interested enough, they will find their way.

Real Life

Our education system does not look like real life. One of the most essential split points is that failure is an end in the education system but a step in real life.

I see that a lot. People come to me and say they want to be a software developer. I give them resources and help when they need it. I see them believe it’ll be like in school. There are two types of them:

Give me the resources, I go through them, take me to a quiz, and if I pass, we go to the next level.

Learn, Learn, Learn, I can’t build, If I try to build and fail, it will be an end for me.

The first one’s problem is that usually there is no one to take you a quiz. You need to do this for yourself. Since there is no one for the quiz, those people wait or slow down what they are working on and give up at the end.

The second one’s problem is that they don’t understand learning is mostly about exploring what doesn’t work. I love this mantra. Failure is not the end; it’s a step. If I fail at doing one thing 100 times and succeed 1, I know 100 ways that thing can’t be done and one way how it can be done.

When Universities are Good?

I don’t say universities are entirely unnecessary. On the contrary, it helped me a lot. I believe universities are suitable for the following:

  • Learning new cultures and meeting with different people
  • Learning how to think (ideally)
  • Learning how to learn (ideally)
  • Who doesn’t know what to do
  • Social life
  • Jobs require a diploma (doctors, lawyers, etc.)

If you already have these or don’t need them, I think going to a university would be a waste of time.

Conclusion

For me;

  • I know a little bit of how to think and trying to improve it
  • I know how to learn
  • I know what I want to do
  • I have a couple of good friends who are enough for me
  • My job does not require a diploma (I worked for three companies and as a freelance for tens of them without a diploma)

As I said, meeting with new cultures and different people is a fantastic opportunity. I am glad I went to the university for a short time. If your living environment is available to meet different cultures and people, you are one step ahead of most of us.