[staycoolboy]

Wow, that's wickedly cynical.

I don't know how I would have learned how to become an RF engineer if it weren't for a four year BSEE that focused heavily on DiffEq, Complex Math, Fields & Waves, and Discrete Systems... and access to patient and friendly (mostly) professors for help during open office hours, which were a necessity (for me, anyway).

I'm pretty sure I would not have been able to teach this to myself with YouTube videos. But maybe you've had better luck?

[p1esk]

I'm pretty sure many people would be able to learn it much faster if they didn't have to sit through countless boring lectures:

https://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/myprojects/mit-challenge-2/

[sushisource]

That is really amazing, but I'd just like to point out how amusing it is that he looks really tired in the thumbnail of that video.

[p1esk]

Yeah, it’s almost like if he was partying all night :)

[anoonmoose]

Some fields are exceptions to this rule. Those fields represent a small fraction of all degrees awarded per year. Yours (and mine) are part of that exception.

[Kaveren]

> RF engineer if it weren't for a four year BSEE that focused heavily on DiffEq, Complex Math, Fields & Waves, and Discrete Systems

You can learn all of this by yourself.

> I'm pretty sure I would not have been able to teach this to myself with YouTube videos.

YouTube videos suck for serious learning of non-visual activities. Written resources, particularly books, are optimal. People like to pretend that it's hard to figure out what you need to learn, but just taking a look at syllabuses and assigned readings and what the "best" books in the field are will get you plenty far.

> access to patient and friendly (mostly) professors

For many majors you can find decent help online, but often crossreferencing between different books will provide just as good results as talking to a professor.

Lectures are extremely inefficient.

The hardest part is not being able to find answer manuals, particularly with graduate-level books. Usually you can find alternatives.

[staycoolboy]

> You can learn all of this by yourself.

No, and I know this for a fact because I'm me, and you're not. But thanks for telling me I'm wrong that I can't learn something without a tutor. That's a new twist on mansplaining. I guess I'm happy for you that you are so smart.

[ironman1478]

I agree with you. I learn by listening and collaborating. That is an environment you don't get online or learning by yourself. I learned best when I went to school and even though I totally had access to all the resources outside of school, just reading something doesn't mean you understand at it. Having an expert being able to sort of validate your way of thinking (or invalidate if you are stuck on an issue) is really valuable to me.

[staycoolboy]

I really missed out by not asking for help my first year as an undergrad. With very few exceptions (maybe 2 out of 20?), every single professor was excited to explain things 1:1. My current partner is a professor and feels delighted when students don't give up and ask for help. If it weren't for freshman year I would have been a 4.0 (er, out of 4.0), so it really galls me that the arrogant commenters above insist that college is worthless or just a name game. Yes, I agree prices are out of control. That's an absolute fact. And were there boring lectures? Sure, once and a while: hell, I was 18 when I started. But overall the lectures, recitations and labs were spot on. It was like drinking from a firehose, and sometimes you need help. But to just shit on the entire institution as a scam overall is just plain sad and IMHO a political posturing of the right wing trying to demonize education. Yep, I went political.

[non-entity]

In theory it's surely possible to do so. As you mention having professors to help you when you see having issues understanding things, etc. can be amazingly helpful, but I imagine someone sufficiently motivated could teach themselves. The difference is they will unlikely be able to find gainful employment as an RF engineer, which goes in hand to what GP suggests.