Fast Tracking: Completing an MIT CS Degree in 12 Months

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Scott Young’s thirst for knowledge is truly remarkable. Not only is he attempting to complete a 4 year MIT Computer Science degree in only 12 months, he won’t be receiving credit for any of his work. Scott is famous for his ebooks and online courses that teach advanced and alternative learning skills; helping students to learn faster with greater understanding of the material. Although he’s a recent graduate, he’s decided to put his teachings to the test, returning to the virtual classroom through his MIT Challenge.

I encourage you to follow along with Scott in his journey, what he’s attempting is incredible. It’s a shame he won’t be receiving any credit for his work, or is it? This is a perfect example of a student taking learning beyond classroom, a student who is taking their education into their own hands. Although Scott won’t have a piece of paper that says he’s an MIT grad, there’s no question that if he succeeds he’ll be as proficient as one. This relates to Kelly’s sentiments outlined in his essay “Fixing Computer Science College Education” Students should be encouraged to learn outside of the classroom, whether it be through personal projects, attending events such as conferences and hackathons or through ambitious challenges like Scott Young’s MIT Challenge. Even though you won’t be rewarded in credit, the experience gained will be invaluable.

What are you doing beyond the classroom?

Pimp Your Dorm: Magic Walls

Photo courtesy of Flickr user jawcey. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Need a laptop? We've teamed up with Intel to bring you the HackCollege Laptop Chooser. If you share the Laptop Chooser, you'll be entered to win a Intel Core i5-powered Samsung Series 9 Notebook!

Looking to add a little spice to your dorm room? With some special paint and primer you can turn any wall into a whiteboard, chalkboard or even a magnetic wall. Intrigued? The possibilities are endless.

We’re big fans of whiteboards here at HackCollege. Not only are they tons of fun, they’re also great tools for organizing your college life. Somehow though, they never seem big enough. Sure you could make your own, but nothing beats the sleek appearance of a giant whiteboard wall. The fine folks at Rust-Oleum make a superb Dry Erase Paint. Just roll it onto a wall of your choice and voila!, you’ve got a whiteboard. Perfect for keeping track of to-dos, assignments and for diagraming those pesky mechanisms for your Orgo class.

Although chalkboards are slowing fading into extinction in the classroom, they still have a certain nostalgic aesthetic appeal to them. To keep score of the beer pong games we’ve been playing on our shiny new table, my roommates and I decided that only a chalkboard wall would do. Sure enough, Rust-Oleum has done it again with their Chalkboard Brush On Paint. It’s the bee’s knees.

Here’s where we get really fancy, magnetic walls. Just like hanging pictures on your fridge, a magnetic wall is the perfect way to jazz up any bare wall. Use it to post notes, your favourite pizza joint’s fridge magnet or even some humorous decorations. Rust-Oleum’s Specialty Magnetic primer is applied as base coat, which is then painted over with the paint colour of your choice. Here’s the best part, using the Magnetic primer, you can magnetize your whiteboard or chalkboard walls just by layering the products.

Have fun turning your bland walls into fun and functional surfaces for creativity!

Preview: The Most Underrated Note-taking App

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Use DropDAV to Bring New Functionality to Dropbox

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Apple’s iCloud data storage solution promises to solve many of the woes of accessing your documents on the go, unfortunately it’s not available yet and is an Apple ecosystem only solution. In the mean time, many app developers have elected to go with Dropbox syncing. Although we’re big fans of Dropbox’s simplicity, there are situations where it falls short. Take Apple’s iWork suite of iOS apps for example, in order to sync your documents over the air you require a MobileMe account or access to a WebDav server. You’re probably already keeping your class files in Dropbox, wouldn’t it be nice if Dropbox acted like WebDAV server? DropDAV is your answer.

DropDAV is your own personal WebDAV server that mirrors the contents of your Dropbox folder, essentially adding WebDAV functionality to Dropbox. Setting up DropDAV is ridiculously simple, just sign up for a DropDAV account and authorize the service to have access to Dropbox. Going forward, whenever you wish to have access to your Dropbox files in an application that only works with a WebDAV server, just point the app to https://dav.dropdav.com and sign in with your DropDAV credentials.

Recently I’ve begun using OmniOutliner on my Mac and iPad to write and review class notes. With DropDAV, I’ve been able to seamlessly keep my notes in sync between both devices. Magical.

DropDAV costs $5 a month, however they offer a 14 day free trial to get you hooked.

Establish House Routines Early

Photo courtesy of Flickr user imallergic. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.

Moving into your own place with a few roommates is an exciting situation. This excitement can be explained by one reason: you’re free to do whatever you want. Although your new found liberty is certainly a blessing, it can also become a curse. In all likelihood, your roommates live their home life differently than you. Some might do dishes right after a meal while others may wait until the next day; some grew up in a household where they were expected to clean around the house while others had nannies to clean up there mess. Regardless of your upbringing, when living with roommates you’re forced to adapt to others.

Depending on your character, you may not be the type who speaks up when a roommate is acting in a way that seems inappropriate. Although you could certainly keep your feelings to yourself and avoid confrontation, this can often lead to a passive-agresssion.

Whether you’re best of friends or a hodge-posh of random students united by Craigslist, it’s important to establish house routines early so that everybody is on the same page from the get go. This might involve a house sit-down, one on one discussions, or simply some gentle reminders from time to time. Establishing these routines early is important as change is easiest to implement early before actions become habits and the stresses of school set in.

You can have your freedom and enjoy it too, just by establishing routines for house harmony.

College Students Don't Know How to Search

Photo courtesy of Flickr user Mads Moedker. Licensed under CC BY-2.0.Last week, Mashable published a story entitled The Google Gap: College Kids Aren’t Good At Searching where they highlighted a recent study conducted by Northeastern Illinois University which examined the research habits of 160 college aged students. Most concerning of all the findings was that the majority of students poorly use search logic for obtaining useful search results when using Google and other academic database search engines.

From speaking with the other HackCollege writers, there seems to be ample opportunities to learn how to formulate and refine a search query on campus, whether it be through a classroom lecture or by speaking with a librarian, so why is that so few students understand how a search box work?

Good search technique is critical when conducting focused research, it’s important to understand how to use a tool like Google for the classroom, but it’s also important to recognize that Google can only take you so far. Becoming comfortable and proficient with academic journal databases should be a focus of yours as they will take your research to the next level.

This story is perhaps more of a Public Service Announcement to the new Freshman than anything else; seek out guidance in formulating a query early in your college careers. You’ll be glad you took the time to learn later on when you’re neck deep in papers and you’re scraping for sources.

How to Build the Ultimate Beer Pong Table: Part 3

We're almost done building the Ultimate Beer Pong Table, all that’s left is to apply the varnish. Just to recap, in Part 1 we assembled our beer pong table from a sheet of plywood and set of folding table legs. In Part 2, we designed a stencil and used it to paint a design onto our beer pong table.

Today’s portion of the build is arguably the most important part, by applying a protective coat to our tables, we protect it against the elements. Without varnish, any beer spilt on our tables runs the risk of ruining the paint job or the wood for that matter. From an aesthetics point of view, varnish gives our tables a glossy look and a smooth feel.

Let’s finish our tables.

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How to Build the Ultimate Beer Pong Table: Part 2

Beer pong HackCollege style at the 2010 Summit in New York.In Part 1 of our Ultimate Beer Pong Table build we learned how to turn a big piece of plywood into a regulation size playing field for the best party game in existence, beer pong. Today in Part 2, we’re going to learn how to turn our generic tables into beautiful works of art. I’ll be honest, this part of the build is pretty tedious, but after amazing your friends with the finished product, it’ll all be worth it.

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