Well, I am not really sure on how to begin this thread but I will do my best. Here we go:

I am a greek high school graduate and I am currently doing a foundation course in UK. I was planning to stay on the university I am right now and follow their Computer Science course but, after around 2 weeks here, I am having some doubts about my final decision. Good thing is that I can transfer to some other Universities. Bad thing is that my high school marks aren't that good for the so called "good" universities and they are most probably not accepting me after a foundation year neither.

You may wonder why I didn't stay in Greece: The fact is that 90% of the greek universities are really bad and it's difficult to get into the reamining 10% (mainly because it reduces to around 2 or 3 choices if ie you only want to study Computing/IT).

You may also wonder why I am dissapointed about the university I am currently in: Well, it's only a foundation year but my idea of a good university consists of teaching staff that are really interested in you and are always there to hear you and generally consider you as someone with ambitions. Things weren't like that and today it got worse: We had our first Programming Lab and to my great disappointment we were "thrown" in a big class with PCs, were given a bunch of papers with C++ examples (but no explanation, just the code) and were told to write what we read. So, I spent two hours of my life copying C++ code without understanding 99% of it. I understood 1% of it, but that's because of my knowledge and if it is about to go on like this I can return to Greece and spend my family's money in another way...

So, here I am, alone in UK with no idea on what to do. I am really disappointed that I sometimes think it was a big mistake coming here. It's not just a money matter, it's that I am probably wasting a year of my life.

I am really lost as you can probably understand. Any piece of advice?

P.S 1: I don't want to write the university's name, just in case I am really wrong about it.

P.S 2: Only encouraging thing is that Steve Jobs had eduaction "issues" too so I can hope...

if you are learning anything, even culture, it is never a waste of time

I will not attempt to tell you what school is better, Some people think the univ i am attending is lower on the scale (though it is true i was accepted to more prestigious schools) I chose this school, because i was impressed by the knowledge my high school computer's teacher had, and he received his degree from this same school.
I also based my decision on the amount of funding schools received from companies such as MS, Adobe, etc and how their influence affected the courses/material taught.
The most important thing to me, was that I would be happy in the city I am living. Some cities just don't have any nature... and I wouldn't be able to handle that, thus my choice landed me where I am in a happy medium getting a great degree.

As far as courses, a broad spectrum is nice, if they have courses in cryptography, animation, OO, and some off beat comp classes, i've taken scheme and prolog, which are less known, but still job worthy and worth learning in a school environment.

If C++ is what you are after, nearly any school can teach you the basics, what can set you apart is what you do in your spare time and teach yourself.

It isn't a clear cut decision you need to weigh what is important to you.

Howzit,

I read your post and I can really relate to most of what you have said. I'm going to create a post in the caffeine lounge and hope that it might shed some light on your topic. . . the masters who reply I mean, not myself.

Regards
Digital101

sometimes you get stuck with crappy classes, and in that case the best you can do is either do what you can to get a decent grade or study on your own to figure it out.

i find all the computer science classes i have taken so far at least somewhat interesting (most very interesting). I cannot say however I am always thrilled with the assignments and what not that I have to do.

I've found that when instructors and labs dump you into weird stuff that seems really confusing is mostly just for exposure. Several semesters later I end up encountering the same topic in much greater detail, but I've already at least seen it so I am a little more comfortable with it.

I can't really say that I've ever seriously doubted my choice of choosing computer science as a major, but I have different plans in case I just decide I hate it one day.

This post has been edited by Dark_Nexus: 3 Oct, 2007 - 11:00 PM

Agreed. Don't base your opinion of the university on a few days of ONE CLASS. Give it some time. Also, look at this as an opportunity to get a badly needed skill that many university graduates don't have (in my experience): the ability to help yourself. Read ahead in the book and read online tutorials - anything to get ahead. Don't quit because of one class. If everyone quit when things got tough, no one would finish calculus. At my university, Calculus was designed to be difficult and humiliating and to weed out weak Science/Engineering majors. The tests were designed to be several problems too long for the time allotted. It really wasn't a fair course (especially if you had other classes and/or a job), but if I'd quit, I would not be working as a software developer right now. Don't let them make you quit.

I think it's general knowledge that college life is not as easy as high school. Professors tend to hand out materials which leave students on how to handle 'em.

College is a way of life. Its not a choice whether you'd rather be streetsmart or booksmart. Its a combination of the two. Take this opportunity for you to learn things your way.

Besides, IT thought me that only by self-study (edit: grammar reconstruction) will I be able to learn new things. Not instructors or professors.



This post has been edited by maggie_noodles: 4 Oct, 2007 - 02:17 AM

First of all thank you all for your replies, the interest you showed made my day!

There we are with my replies to your replies:

@ William_Wilson:
I left Greece and went to UK. I mean, I chose not to attend the greek university I was accepted in to go in UK in search of a better one. As a result, my parents are spending their money for me to have a better education and more opportunities in the future. So it isn't just a matter of which university I prefer. It is a matter of if the university I am now worths the money being spent.

@ maggie_noodles:
If it's only about self-study, what's the point of going in a university? Is it just the certificate you get?

Hopefully your computer science courses go well, but if in the even they do not..stick with an information sciences area..My observations have been that CS students that do no enjoy CS courses for one reason or another still enjoy programming or the theory behind CS. A field like business information systems would give you a well rounded experience in business programming and probably a better understanding of some concepts that CS cannot offer..an example would be at my college we have a database class in CS..but only 1..the BIS college has 2 or 3 courses in database management, it all depends on your area of interest. another example would at my school is that both colleges have very nice computer security paths (my preferred area). while the Business programming is mostly Visual Basic, Fortran and a little Java with some HTML/JavaScript/CSS thrown in to advanced classes you should get a firm grasp of OO concepts from them. And hey, if you just cant decide between information sciences and CS..do a major in one and a minor in the other.

yup, sometimes that is right. you know C++, C#, Java, SQL, (web development) php, javascript.... but anyway you got go to school just for that certificate

usually in computer science a lot of what you learn is out of college, like:
being active if programming forums like this, self study, once you're done studing one "programming" look for more advance thing, try to get involved on some open source project, "if your not working in the field" think of project to do by your self.... there are some goods online classes that you can take too, and you can earn creadit or certificate. link:
http://www.gameinstitute.com/courses.php

You should crack open your text book and do some studying on your own. Maggie Noodles is right. The professors are there to help you and guide you. If you approach them in a respectful manor, after you have studied on your own and you don't understand something, then they should be happy to help you. They won't just give you answers with no prior investigation on your own. You have no idea how blessed/lucky you are to be going to school and have it paid for. Make the best of it, and study study study

Yeah I have been in a few courses that was just giving work with no explanation; I wouldnt fret to much though, because college really is where you "get out of it what you put in". You could go to the elite of colleges and still get nothing out if nothing is put in. If you havent taken any basic programming courses (fundamentals) then I dont know what your doing with a C++ class first .... once you have the fundamentals then you just learn the language (per say)...

the teacher also may have wanted you to see the language and the format in which is is laid out. before he dove to deep

This is pretty solid as well, in fact it's very similar to what I am doing.