College in a Nutshell

[John Galt]

like i said, it depends on where you go

for example, in my school we had to take a symposium class freshmen year which was a discussion class in some humanities/social science subject, where there were 12 people in the class and the professor. mine happened to be a political science one and so all it was was discussion and debate

[Professor]

[Professor]

[Saz]

[Professor]

I'd be interested in learning where people sat in class. Much research out there suggests that students who "choose" to sit in the front of the room do better in class. When seats are assigned randomly, the coincidence of better grades coming from the front rows decreases a bit, but still many studies showed that front row students did a bit better.

Me? During first 3 years of undergrad, I always sat in the back. I got horrible grades my first 2 years (GPA of 0.9, 1.2, 1.7, 2.8), and mediocre grades my 3rd year (2.6, 3.1). Starting my 4th year and through my 5th year (I started as an engineering major, and none of the credits transferred, so I basically started over in my sophomore year when I went to business), I never got below a 3.8. I showed up to every single class. I participated in class. I did projects early. I stayed after class to talk to professors. Interestingly, I tended to study the same amount or even less, though.

And, in grad school, I continued this habit, and graduated summa cum laude.

[Saz]

I never went to class unless 100% required. Class is a huge time sink and lecture is a terribly inefficient way to learn. My grades were higher in both college and law school for classes I never really attended. 99% of the stuff you "learn" in class can be googled.