Another advice...
A student wrote to me: “It seemed that your advices are aimed at technology students but many of us are not technology students. Do you have any advice for us?”
Answer: If you read my student advices carefully, you will see that they can be applied to any college students, regardless of your fields of study. Of course, I teach science and technology so I write more articles about these topics but my advices are for all students.
My current concern is about your professional career because it is the big part of your life and you will be much better if you find the career that meets your need. I always advise all students to plan their career early by research the job market trends and talk to people who are working on specific field to learn more about it before select a field of study. Do not wait until you graduate to learn that there is no demand for your skills or even if you have a job but do not like it.
The reason you go to university is to get educated so you can be valuable persons for your society. You have a lot of responsibilities to yourselves, to your family and to your society and should take it seriously. Do not let anybody tell you otherwise, you are the future of your country and you can do a lot for it. I know many students prefer to take easy courses so they can enjoy the time in college since there are many interesting activities there. Do not make that mistake. You should take advantage of your precious time to develop certain skills that you CANNOT learn elsewhere. You may like literature so you take literature classes where you can read interesting books from famous authors. But you can do that outside of university, you can read as many books as you like when you have time, when you have good job and comfortable life. Some of you may not agree with me but my logic is you go to university to learn something that you cannot learn by yourself because you need instructions, guidance, and application.
I think you should learn science, technology, engineering, math, statistics, computer programming, accounting, chemistry, and physics etc. These are subjects where you learn from professors who can guide you through these difficult materials. They can help answer your questions and encourage you to develop certain skills that you will need for your future career. I know these are not easy subjects but they form the foundation for most of the good jobs in today's market. When I think about classes that helped me the most, I think of Calculus, Differential Equation, Software Architect, Statistics, and Physics. These are all difficult subjects and as student I struggled to pass these courses but I learned a lot by put in more efforts. In contrast, I did not remember anything about the easy courses that I took, I enjoyed them at that time but it does not mean much to me now. I still remember all the professors that forced me to study, who scolded me because I did not do well. If they did not do that, I will not be who I am today. Only from these difficult professors that I learn how to study, how to think, how to organize and develop good learning habit that help me in my career.
Beside technical courses, I think foreign languages are also very important in this connected world. As students you should learn at least one foreign language. When I was young, I learned French because it was the popular language but after few years, my father told me to learn English. I did not like it because I had to leave the French class where most of my friends studied and went to another class where I did not know anybody, and even worst I had to start from the beginning. But it was the best decision because knowing English helped me to get a scholarship to study in the U.S. If you must learn a foreign language, my advice is to learn English because today most technical books, articles, materials, and websites are written in English and if you want to further your learning, you need to know this language.
As young people, you need to have certain mental challenge to build your courage and develop good character. Many students prefer easy courses and hope that they will get an easy job after graduate since they will have more time to enjoy life. But in reality, easy courses will not build good study habit; easy courses will not challenge you to put in more efforts. And even if you get an easy job, you probably will be bored and never have a sense of achievement anything in your life. There are evidences that easy work do not last long and often lead to a lot of unhappiness. You cannot go through life the easy way, you must have a sense of meaning, and you must have certain direction that motivates you because these are the foundation of overall happiness. You cannot be scattered leaves floating on a stream but you must be carps, the fish that swim upstream, against the current, to become dragons.
Students in schools do have certain influence on your learning. You should select friends carefully because these are the people you are going to be spending a lot of time with. Choosing good friends who share your direction will help you a lot, especially when you are doubtful or depress, they can encourage you and help you to overcome the difficulties. Selecting wrong friends can get you into trouble as they may impact your study, distract your concentration.
As students, you must set goal for your education, you must set goal for your life. You need to have career plan to direct you toward your goal. Learning your way through a number of tasks will helps you to feel that you are making progress. Having progress will motivate you to learn more and you will have a sense of achievement. For every course you take, make sure you know precisely what that course requires, how much efforts you must put in, and what the outcome (goal) should be. You should monitor your progress on a weekly basis on whether you need to do on a daily basis to achieve your goal. You should organize your learning in a way that it suits you. Maybe you want to study by yourself in a quiet place or with a small group of friends? Maybe you want to study late in the evening, or wake early and study in the morning. That is your choice, as long as you put in the efforts and determine to succeed, you will.
Sources
- Blogs of Prof. John Vu, Carnegie Mellon University
