A degree of perspective
Today I finally handed in the last paperwork to complete my degree. Learning is important to me so I want to take some time to reflect on my experience at Cal Poly. Keep in mind when I provide criticisms it is because I wish to see education improve.
Different people go to different colleges and have different experiences at different times, so of course my perspective is one of many. My perspective is grounded by my values, and as such the most important part is how college promotes personal growth.
Lecture us to sleep
I certainly find that college promoted personal growth for me, but only when I reached out to find the experiences that lead to it. I find projects are one of the better ways to learn. In general lectures are less effective than active learning, not to mention slow. The average person can read faster than listening to someone speak, and average college students read faster yet. Growth plodded along for me in the lecture classes, and they are a significant issue in general. When it comes to alternatives, I would pick almost any other option. Repeating the same content over and over is for videos, humans are more valuable than that. It varies by type of class, but great teachers know better ways to engage and support learning than lectures. A great example was systems programming where we could watch or read the lectures online. That way we spent class solving programming problems and projects so when we got stuck we directly engaged with our teacher and TAs. They spent that much more time cultivating critical thinking and problem solving, a far better investment than teaching information we can Google. This won’t work for every class, but it makes me optimistic that classes can be upgraded to an effective way to learn in the 21st century.
Cal Poly’s motto is learn by doing, so if you look for the opportunities you will find them. Almost all computer science classes have lab sections to work with the knowledge learned, which made them more engaging for me. Senior project and an independent study were awesome ways to grow by learning and applying knowledge; they allowed me to get credit for prototyping software to measure the digital distractions that lead to internet addiction. Along the way I learned a new programming language, half a dozen software tools, countless curious psychological phenomena, and more.There were some flexible project based classes like human computer interaction and user centered design, but given the massively positive impact these classes had I only wish there were more. You will be hearing more about the projects those classes inspired and how they can benefit you in future posts.
Learn to learn
Looking towards the future we are increasingly involved in a knowledge economy. Everyone must continue learning our entire lives just to function in society. Personal growth will require us to learn even more effectively than that. Unless we want to stay in school our entire lives we need to become autodidacts — people who can teach themselves. Already teachers expect you to fill in the gaps on material they don’t have time to cover. This leads me to the conclusion that we need to learn how to learn more effectively, but have you ever seen a class on that? Coursera is the only place I have seen such a class and it barely scratches the surface. This is a fundamental that everyone can benefit from. We all need to learn, so why don’t we optimize this more? Cal Poly is just as at fault about this as the rest of our educational system.
People make all the difference
One thing I do appreciate about Cal Poly is the teachers and their passion. It is sad to see them underpaid so much, the recent fight to raise their salary 5% follows years of falling behind inflation. Thankfully a deal appears to have been struck, but it seems like a pittance in comparison to what many of them contribute. In computer science the professors could easily get paid twice as much in industry! They are teaching because they care and while hard to quantify, I see this shine through every time I talk to them.
The administration certainly has its flaws, they have a habit of admitting more students than they can provide classes for. The administration is a facade behind which stand humans both competent and incompetent. To be fair their issues have been magnified by years of budget cuts. With a culture where tuition increases can “make a university more prestigious” efficiency is nowhere near the priority it should be. Cal Poly administrators nearly implemented a 170 million dollar building…while students can’t even get the classes to graduate on time(29% graduate in four years)! On the other side of this issue I have a strong sense of respect for some administrators like Cal Poly’s president Armstrong. He took money from his office’s funding to support the Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs program, the most impactful program I took part in.
Student entrepreneurs
This program partnered with Draper University to experiment in teaching students entrepreneurship. I had implicit assumptions going in that pushed my interest in entrepreneurship far into the future. I never would have realized that 22 can the best time to try starting a company because there are minimal repercussions for failure. No family to feed, car payment, mortgage, etc. I just dust myself off and keep building on what I learned. That just compounds with what I learned at Cal Poly and Draper University. Was the program a completely different type of learning? Yes it was, but I love trying new things with big potential. In terms of accelerating personal growth my time at Draper University involved the fastest growth I have had so far. It built on my Cal Poly experience in a complementary way, my last few quarters at Cal Poly were better spent because of my new focus on entrepreneurship. Draper University is unique and unlikely to retain its intensely positive impact if scaled to many students sadly. I think this is primarily due to there being only one Tim Draper. Still, other educational programs could adopt more immersive experiential learning for its potential for highly positive impact in less time.
Metrics matter
I really wish I had the data to quantify how much potential we have for better learning, but that remains a project for another day. The data you collect is backed by your values though, which is where we get into another issue. Our education system is predicated on GPA being the metric of academic achievement. It seems ridiculous when different majors and individuals are compared by the same number while seeking different learning outcomes. I value data when it aligns with reality, but GPA fails at this. I got on the dean’s list again at Cal Poly last year and tore up my certificate in sheer frustration. That certificate felt hollow and unrepresentative of what I learned. Tests are an inaccurate shortcut to measure what one learns. Multiple choice tests are more logic puzzles than tests of the actual material but remain common due to their cost effectiveness.
The issues run deeper, my frustration lead to a conversation with the dean. I hope she realized that I tore up the certificate because of my passion for academics. Our conversation ended with her recognizing that GPA was broken and doubly so for Cal Poly Engineering. I hope she works to solve this, but it will take many more people to fix this. Where other universities might have grade inflation, grade deflation exists throughout the college. Despite the highest GPA in high school, Cal Poly engineers graduate with by far the lowest of our six colleges in GPA. I don’t have a citation for this, but several administrators and faculty have confirmed this. The only teachers I have seen implementing curves to limit the number of A’s were teaching engineering and math classes. This appears to be bordering on systemic with other universities having issues as well. Thankfully being an entrepreneur allows me to avoid the focus on GPA. Plenty of people want to go to graduate school, so they won’t be so lucky. It is sad that such an arbitrary policy decision can play such an influential part of what school to choose…If GPA is to stay the standard to measure students by, at least make it a fair standard. What we really need is a standard that quantifies how much students actually learn, but doing so with reasonable certainty and cost looks like a monumental challenge. We don’t have the technology to tackle it…yet.
Honors
Before I ramble off too much I have one other story to consider. My first two years at Cal Poly I was a part of the honors program. It meant being in classes with fellow students who cared more about learning and it showed in group discussions. The program also provided additional ways to engage like improving psychology articles on Wikipedia for psychology class. I also got involved with volunteer opportunities I wouldn’t have found without the program. It also saved me from several more quarters of graduation delays due to a more effective registration system. Then one day we got an email saying the program is to be shut down. The provost came to “talk” about it, which mostly meant a room of frustrated students grilling her for two hours. One argument was that Cal Poly was prestigious enough and didn’t need an honors program. “Good enough” isn’t reason to rest easy let alone lower standards, especially when higher education should be about aspiring to greater intellectual heights! Those arguments were likely covering up more political reasons for the move, which represents a problem with no easy solution.
Despite political attack the honors program appears to be alive, which is great to know for future students. I stopped being involved, at that point I had experienced most of their programs, and the political issues made the program appear doomed at the time. From what I saw it didn’t survive totally intact… Also, can it really be that effective of a program when it builds its foundation on GPA requirements? Given my previously stated concerns with GPA I wouldn’t take part in such a program without further scrutiny. I still believe that the program has significant value for the experiences they enable, those are worth far more than any award or title they can give.
Conclusion
Could college have been better? Yes, but I wouldn’t know how without the knowledge and experience I gained. Ironically academia puts out research showing how they themselves can improve, but are painfully slow in the implementation. On the other hand when it comes to innovation, I am thankful Cal Poly has built the programs to support becoming an entrepreneur while still a student. They have opportunities to build a business and get credit as a student through senior projects, independent studies, and hopefully a continuation of the Silicon Valley Entrepreneurs program.
These are solid enough that if you have a business idea and can teach yourself dropping out still has competition for viability. It is tempting though, I would have dropped out without the support of my family and friends; I am deeply grateful for their support. I had an easier trade-off to make than some because I didn’t start seriously considering starting a startup until the end of junior year. Students who are pulled by entrepreneurship and school as Freshmen and Sophomores have a harder decision. I see some struggle with it regularly, and I hold deep respect for those who can find their right balance. Then again people are diverse, for some there are better paths than college. Personally my senior year turned into one of the most effective ramps for starting a business I can imagine, and that is something Cal Poly is rare in providing. The Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship is the nexus of this support, and people notice. The Elevator Pitch Competition helped me explain a business idea concisely. The Hatchery provides a dedicated space and mentorship to work on your business. Startup Weekend was a great way to prototype and test ideas in a weekend. These events are just a few of many. I am glad Cal Poly provides these programs…universities without this incredible support make dropping out a far more appealing option.
Like most teachers and students who avoid 30 page tests you probably don’t want to read 30 pages. With that in mind I will cut this off here, despite how much more there is to say. With my experiences as a college student behind me, I look forward to how much more I now know is out there to learn! I only hope that I can acquire the resources and knowledge to contribute to improving education. I can’t do much about it yet, but I know with time and effort that will change. You can make a positive impact too, and together we can do even better!