Weekly Homework Report: Fill & Download for Free

High school teachers and college professors do not teach respect for the occupation of businessman. That is perhaps their greatest failing. Why this arrogance? I think part of the reason is that when they were in school, their professors and teachers were the smartest and most knowledgeable people they ever met, and they aspired to be just like them. When they succeeded, they considered themselves to have joined this most elite group.Many people think that we should add “vocational” subjects back into the academic study. I agree, but I think the key such subject is business. This is what you, nominally a plumber, are really doing.What would study of business mean? Much more about the way the world operates. Students would be assigned to read articles on the financial pages; they would read the Wall Street Journal and The Economist for weekly homework reports. Their classes would include financial studies, and they would know what it takes to start a small business (a restaurant?), a technology startup (how does the venture capital / private equity world work), or what it takes to become the CEO of a large business. Everyone should study the financial institutions that are central in all business, and some of the “instruments” that are used to make the economy work; when they graduate, they would know the difference between credit default swaps and market-traded derivatives.One time I walked into a physics department lunch, and one professor was complaining that most people don’t read the science pages of the New York Times. I then asked all of those present how many of them had read the financial pages that morning. Two of the 20 physics professors raised their hands. My point was made.You are a successful professional. Don’t pay attention to the arrogant academics who have no sense whatsoever of what it means to be a businessman.

I have a review of the MIDS program here: What is your review of datascience@berkeley?, but for this question I’ll speak more specifically about life as a MIDS student.Like most of my classmates, I work full-time. I am occasionally able to get some classwork done if things are slow at work (I work in consulting, so it’s very up-and-down), but for the most part I try to separate school and work. I get most of my schoolwork done in the evenings and on the weekends.The time I spend on school is composed of 1) Live class sessions; 2) Video lectures; 3) Readings; 4) Weekly homework assignments; 5) Longer-term projects and finalsLive class sessions: Classes are once a week and 90 minutes long (though we usually go a bit over). It’s “Brady Bunch” style where everyone’s webcam is turned on and each person’s face is displayed in a little square on the screen. It was a little strange at first (although maybe not for younger generations), but I quickly got used to it. It’s fantastic to be able to attend class from anywhere in the world and to not have to drive to a campus in traffic after work. Classes are only held M-F at 4pm Pacific and 5:30pm Pacific.Video lectures: Imagine that in undergrad, instead of saying the same thing every semester, over and over, your professor recorded each 90-minute lecture. Imagine your professor took the time to shoot high quality video, fully annotate everything in the lecture, and organize it into manageable chunks. That’s what all of our weekly lectures are in MIDS, and I love it. I can rewind, fast forward, and watch just as much or as little at a time as I want. The notes are already taken for me. I know, it’s important to write my own notes too, but sometimes it’s really helpful to have them all laid out already. I watch lectures while stretching, eating breakfast, taking public transportation, and flying, so it isn’t much of a burden on my week.Readings: The readings do tend to be fairly dense/math-heavy, depending on the class. So I do kind of dread them, to be honest. It can take me quite a while just to read a dozen pages from some of my textbooks. Most weekly reading assignments take between 3–6 hours, though that can be much higher or lower.Fortunately, we don’t get graded too hard on being able to derive formulas or regurgitate recondite information. We need to understand proper application of methods, and we need to gain real-world knowledge context for such applications, but the densest readings are largely there for the times when you want that deeper understanding. I often bookmark readings and take note of sections I want to come back to when the topic comes up at work or on a project.Weekly homework assignments: Some classes have weekly assignments, and some classes just have say, 5 big problem sets due over the course of the semester. The first semester was by far the easiest, but my second and third semesters have required about 3–8 hours a week on average, per class. I know there is at least one class with students reporting 10–15+ hours a week just for the homework. At lot if it highly depends on your prior background. For me, the Storing and Retrieving Data class took a TON of time because I had no background in Linux or systems administration, but I know for some of my classmates it was a breeze.Longer-term projects and finals: Most classes just have one big project due at the end of the semester, but often with multiple milestones laid out by the instructor along the way. It’s largely up to you and your group to decide how intense/complicated you want to make your project. In every case I’ve seen, students are ambitious and creative and end up with impressive projects that they are proud to put into their portfolio. The time commitment might just be an hour or two a week early on in the semester, but near the end of the semester, you might find yourself working 30–50 hours a week or pulling all-nighters, if you haven’t been disciplined in earlier weeks.I spend a significant amount of time on the MIDS Slack (Slack is an instant group messaging application, for those who haven’t used it). It’s not required for the program, but I find the chatter invaluable for career advice, tool recommendations, coding help, statistics/math discussion, articles and news, class recommendations, and much more. It’s like hanging out in your department’s hallway after class, but with the advantage that you get to be part of every conversation. The community is one of the biggest benefits of MIDS that I didn’t expect going in. It’s great to be part of a community where everyone is fun, smart, and interested in the same things you are.

Students need summer breaks.The rest of the year, students are busy all day, all week, all month. There is no end to stuff that other people want them to do: classes, homework, reports, sports, clubs, after-school activities, etc etc etc.But here’s the problem: when is a student supposed to do things just because they want to do them?In order to have a meaningful career and a good life, you have to be doing stuff you want to do.How are you supposed to find out what stuff you want to do if every waking hour is spent doing stuff which other people told you to do?Long summer breaks might not help students’ grades. But they do help students souls. Breaks give students time to relax, time to try projects that they wouldn’t have time to do at school, time to explore, and even—dare I say it—time to do nothing at all.Students need breaks.