I loved electronics and had self taught myself before Uni, but the university material was mostly theory and maths, and I was put off the career for life. (Note: I had no trouble with the mathematics).
Other negative values:
Much of what was taught was useless knowledge. Some of it was harmful (the pet theories of wacko lecturers).
Anything useful was still rote learning with zero reality.
It is all channeled towards exams of well defined problems with correct answers - harmful at the meta level.
Note that Canterbury University engineering school is well respected in New Zealand.
I happily believed in the schooling system for the first two years (a simple continuation of high school), but the final year of uni then became an insane grind after I realised how pointless the material was (I am more academically inclined, so it took me a while to learn my stupidity). I still wanted to finish the degree - possibly due to sunk cost fallacy - although the piece of paper got me my first software job.
Opportunity cost of 3 years of life is insanely huge (I didn’t really get anything long term out of university socially: the first two years were fun at the time). It is normally a four year degree, but I skipped the first year (no academic consequences, although the decision probably had social repercussions due to my young age compared with majority of classmates).
I sadly still see the same issues happen with university these days: I have seen a nurse (University degree) and a early childhood teacher (University degree) get “taught” the most insane useless shit. The degrees cost years of life, lots of money, and a heavy cost to their egos (it is an extremely evil system at times: compulsory arselicking etcetera).
I'm also a kiwi, also went to UC and also did engineering (Mech) :). I dropped out though.
The rote learning and pointlessness of the material were the biggest things I hated as well. 3 years is definitely a long time. Though something I realized after I left uni is that the value doesn't come from the education really, it comes from all the events and opportunities the uni affords you access to and the social component.
> It is all channeled towards exams of well defined problems with correct answers - harmful at the meta level
Absolutely agree with this as well. I can see why you thought uni had negative value. I think it destroys the skills you need to tackle real-world problems, which is why new grads tend to be seen as useless.
It's really curious to see someone else with a similar POV. I haven't met many people in NZ who think like this, or at least they haven't admitted it to me.
My guess is that when you have a degree you're more likely to want to believe it was worth it, whereas I have no such qualms. Though in saying that my best friend who also did eng said he thought the degree was pointless.
Certainly other graduates from my year have said they thought it was worthwhile - but I always wondered whether their opinion is rooted in sunk cost psychology.
I know two fantastic makers that have no higher education, yet they should have been mechanical engineers due to their skills. One was dyslexic, and both would not handle the academic structure, yet it was a waste to see that their talents were never used properly.
Mechanical engineering seems like a dark art to me!
I hope that you found a niche…
I wish I had been smart enough to quit my degree early. Some of the most savvy people I know well, quit school early because it was constricting them.
I was lucky to fall into software which is really easy and financially it has been astonishing. Apple ][ at school and home, writing 6502 assembler as a teenager, helped immensely.
Other negative values:
Much of what was taught was useless knowledge. Some of it was harmful (the pet theories of wacko lecturers).
Anything useful was still rote learning with zero reality.
It is all channeled towards exams of well defined problems with correct answers - harmful at the meta level.
Note that Canterbury University engineering school is well respected in New Zealand.
I happily believed in the schooling system for the first two years (a simple continuation of high school), but the final year of uni then became an insane grind after I realised how pointless the material was (I am more academically inclined, so it took me a while to learn my stupidity). I still wanted to finish the degree - possibly due to sunk cost fallacy - although the piece of paper got me my first software job.
Opportunity cost of 3 years of life is insanely huge (I didn’t really get anything long term out of university socially: the first two years were fun at the time). It is normally a four year degree, but I skipped the first year (no academic consequences, although the decision probably had social repercussions due to my young age compared with majority of classmates).
I sadly still see the same issues happen with university these days: I have seen a nurse (University degree) and a early childhood teacher (University degree) get “taught” the most insane useless shit. The degrees cost years of life, lots of money, and a heavy cost to their egos (it is an extremely evil system at times: compulsory arselicking etcetera).