As entertaining as his lectures were, it was still pretty easy to leave with barely any more knowledge than you had going in. Especially as the topics got more complex.
I had him for my Waves class, and kids found it to be incredibly hard (and to require lots of on-your-own learning) even while Lewin was jumping around the room and making cool things happen with light and sound.
The focal point of the argument seems to be whether CS "education" and "vocational training" should be separated.
P.S. Nice to see another UIUC student. I've been accepted there and would possibly end up enrolling unless I get into some long shot universities. How is the scene there?
You are coming in at a good time, actually. We are just now launching the iFoundry program, keep your eyes on it. E-mail me sometime, I'm always interested in meeting people from HN at school. Check out my profile.
The golden rule any developer must know: never use the mouse. Multiple desktops and Quicksilver (instead of the dock, which is quite distracting) are far more efficient.
Theory: a well-substantiated explanation of some aspect of the natural world, based on a body of facts that have been repeatedly confirmed through observation and experiment. e.g. General relativity has a lot of mathematics backing it up.
Law: a scientific generalization based on empirical observations of physical behavior. e.g F = ma. We don't know why it's true, it just is some sort of an axiom.
I'm a high school senior student who has applied to several public universities; mainly a subset of Berkeley, UIUC, UWash, Michigan, UT Austin, GATech, and Purdue.
I'm wondering if you are at one of these these places (or a university of a similar reputation.) Do you think attending a private university such as Chicago or CMU is a better option?
I go to UCLA. I personally think it's an awesome program (I think we're ranked top 15 in CS). I would definitely recommend it given that UCLA is ridiculously fun, the people there are pretty smart, and LA is a great city for the young and wild.
As a side note, my parents saved up enough for me to go to a private school, but I chose to forego that option to go to a public school. As such, my parents gave me the difference to spend at my discretion and I'm currently using it as seed money for my startup (the disparity is about $100,000 over 4 years, not withstanding scholarships or grants).
I think it's worthwhile to point out that with financial aid and other scholarships, it's often cheaper to go to private schools. All competitive private schools guarantee to meet 100% of demonstrated need. That being said, if no need is demonstrated via the FASFA form, obviously it's going to be cheaper to go to a public school.
Those public universities are great. You have nothing to worry about. Pay no attention to those damned U.S. News rankings or anybody else.
Apply to the private schools if you want; I got a great deal and a great education at CWRU (which is CMU but in a different Midwestern rust-belt city). All else being equal, though, I'd go to the school that puts you in the smallest amount of debt. Once you're out of the realm of the DeVrys, and you've applied to schools with more than two or three professors teaching in your intended major, one undergraduate education is much like another. The key variable is yourself, the availability of at least a few other smart people, and a library. And now that the Web has been invented, points two and three are less important -- you can watch MIT lecturers, read MIT textbooks, and chat with MIT students and alumni over the web for free.
Other considerations worth mentioning: Do the students in your intended major seem happy? Can you stand the neighborhood and the weather and the social scene? Do the undergrads get to do any research or do the profs and grad students just hold them at arm's length?
If you're worried that you'll need a prestige degree later on in life, in case you want to be elected President or teach at Oxford or something, you can just apply to prestigious grad schools. The smart-shopping academic snob knows that after two years in a Harvard masters' program you can call yourself a Harvard grad instead of an Ohio State grad. Just work hard and get good grades...
I think I might have some insight. I'm a sophomore in the Computer Science Department at UIUC, and my college choice came down to the Econ program and Chicago, or here.
The only thing that matters for the colleges you mentioned is what you want to study. Public or private doesn't make as much of a different as the strength of the department. It would have been silly to study Econ at UIUC instead of Chicago, and vis versa for Computer Science. If Computer Science is what you want to study, you can't go wrong with UIUC, Berkeley, or CMU. If you want to study Math on the other hand, you should definitely give Chicago serious consideration.
Besides the strengths of the departments, there is no different in terms of education. Just because CMU is a private school doesn't mean it's not a research institution. Same with Chicago. You may get a slightly better student to faculty ratio at a private school, but if you are in a top ranked department you will run into many professors who simply think teaching is a waste of their time and you will still have classes taught by TAs. You will need to be a motivated, independent learner, no matter what. You wont have anyone holding your hand. If you want a more interactive educational experience, I highly recommend checking out some of the top liberal arts schools like Amherst.
This is not to say that you can't get to know professors at research schools, because you can. You just need to work hard in order to do so. This is as opposed to Amherst, for example, where the vast majority of professors are there because they _want_ to interact with students. At CMU or UIUC, the vast majority of professors are there to do research. If you do go the research school route, you'll just need to try harder and find the professors that do care. It's definitely doable.
Of course, I have only addressed a few academic aspects about choosing a college. You should put equal weight on where you feel the most comfortable, where you think you would be the happiest. For example, if drinking really makes you uncomfortable, you'll need to recognize that Greek life at UIUC is huge. Similarly if you are worried about being in a large city, you might want to consider that when thinking about going to Chicago. All of these things are just as important to consider as academics. It is four years of your life, after all =).
You can post back here, or my emails in my profile if you'd like to know more.
EDIT: Something I forgot to mention is money. Public schools have none of it. If you actually need money from financial aid, go to a private school that guarantees to meet 100% of demonstrated need (all competitive private schools do).
I'm a 5th year at Georgia Tech graduating in 2 weeks. In a bit of a rush now, but feel free to email me (email in profile) if you have any questions about GT.
Go to the place with the nicest area around campus. Then you can live right there and so will all your friends. This makes a big difference to me.
All universities have great and poor professors. Its just part of the ballgame. Once you reach the upper levels you will learn who is the best and worst and just take classes from the great ones and learn a lot about all kinds of things.
I mainly mean you should avoid consumption debt-- you should avoid living beyond your means. Debt incurred as part of a project your'e working on could be ok. (Could.)
If you work hard on things you like, you will impress people.
Except heroes and house. Ohhh. The daily show. Colbert Report. Gotta catch south park and sarah silverman. Six feet under was pretty good, too...
Other then that TV sucks. I watch TV shows, but have no TV. The trick is to download your tv from the internet so you can dodge the ads concentrated power scientifically calibrate to manipulate you, and still get a dose of culture and electronic sedation.
Walter Lewin did a lot more than just that.