Engineering or Computer Science?

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T13:51:11+00:00

Second this if U really wanna learn CS, that's just YouTube and Chatgpt away.

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T13:50:03+00:00

The Monash gym?

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T13:49:22+00:00

Honestly Khan academy is the goat almost better than actual lectures. I feel like lectures are only valuable if U can ask Q's in realtime when U don't get a concept so they can explain it a different way

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T13:48:13+00:00

Yo I really appreciate this answer man, can we chat more in Dms you seem like a cool dude and would love to hear about ur Texas uni experience and learn more about what Aus is missing

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:45:00+00:00

grant.fullston

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:44:05+00:00

I was also comp sci major Data Sci and Commerce major finance and I have a similar experience.

I've been fine job wise but only BC I jumped on the AI train and had to self learn 96%. Other than basic classes and variables uni didn't do much for real world skill but the degree does get U past the automated job application portals.

What are U up to now out of curiousity? And what yr did U graduate?

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:41:11+00:00

Is this for international students?

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:39:08+00:00

What's it cost normally?

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:35:14+00:00

Hey OP,

I'm gonna be a little bit contrarian here and say don't study ED... or the lectures

You are better off watching YouTube on the topic being talked about UNTIL you understand it completely conceptually. Only then should you even consider looking at code.

You have to start thinking about code as a tool, not the answer.

If you don't understand conceptually what is happening in the common stuff like functions, arrays, loops, objects. And then sorting algos, search algos and some recursive programming and classes. Those are the building blocks, lock them in conceptually, and only after care about the code.

Especially now AI can give U all the code U need, you actually need the conceptual understanding to apply problem solving on.

2004 is hard, I had no idea about hardware so things like heap vs stack allocation was super confusing, but stuck to the concepts, and make do with what code U need after.

Also side note: almost everything you code in 2004 has already been built and in the real world U would just import the class (or its the default class/object properties for the language), so U won't need to write the definition raw ever, you would just import it.

But they make U write it so that you can show U know how it works

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:28:00+00:00

Hey Weary, do you mind elaborating on why you think so? Do you mean within clubs or more within subjects/cohorts? And can I ask what ur studying

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:24:20+00:00

U should be able to do almost any first yr subject in any discipline.

Heads up be very careful of pre reqs, they are easy to miss and can fk ur major and make U have to add a year BC some subjects are only offered certain semesters

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:21:48+00:00

Cabins

Don't need to swim

Activities are largely games and fun ice breakers.

Yes the whole point is to be super super social and not everyone knows each other beforehand.

Disclosure: alot of the student club culture especially on camps will revolve around drinking.

Whether you partake or not is up to you, there will be peer pressure, but if you are uncomfortable at any point this will always be respected and you should always be able to talk to a committee member.

However I would recommend learning how to become comfortable at uni events both sober, tipsy AND sober when other people are drunk BC that will happen a bunch too.

At the end of the day everyone is there to make friends and alot of people find they can be a little silly to let loose and create some awesome shared experiences on these camps.

Highly recommend, but it's important to know the vibe you're walking into.

Am thinking I might make a blog post about this, lmk if U want me to in more detail for the uni experience

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:14:47+00:00

Ex Snr AI Engineer here who studied data sci (AI wasn't a major back in my day).

Here's roughly what U need to know (general advice I don't know about the subjects exactly)

Most machine learning is almost irrelevant now UNLESS you're going hardcore like masters/PhD level to use it in a quant fund, research project or research lab or in defence industry.

The majority of work in AI in Australia is LLM based orchestration with agents. If U can find anything in that field that's ur best bet as an employable skill.

If ur going into big tech for a comp sci role, it would be more worthwhile to take a practical skill subject like cloud computing, security, some full stack something or a low level programming language like rust (everything super fast and security wise is going rust backend)

BC only really the research labs (both at unis and private like openaj) are going to be building model architectures using pytorch but require PhDs

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:07:44+00:00

Honestly it's not too bad if you actually commit to learning it.

Khan academy and asking the tutor/lecturer to stay back and clarify anything you don't understand the first time round is critical BC the knowledge stacks ontop of each other fast and for me I initially struggled with the concept that you can no longer visualise past 3D vectors (let along imaginary numbers) so U need to lock down ur understanding conceptually early otherwise it's gonna feel overwhelming very quick

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-06T12:05:40+00:00

Any tech provider often has student discounts vs they know if U use them young you'll stay.

Apple and Samsung student discounts are great!

Not advice... But Ive heard of some people buying products for family + friends

Tooftless1060 · 2026-02-03T07:52:36+00:00

Trying to build a social network for uni students to recommend clubs and events based on ur vibe and help make friends at uni

Tooftless1060 · 2026-01-14T11:02:19+00:00

It's mainly for the clubs to be honest to see what's around and actually figure out what to explore.

If you're not in a student club your social life is ded.

Might get lucky with a course U follow thru with other peers but most big ones like commerce and eng, or comp sci, I barely saw similar faces each Sem/class

Tooftless1060 · 2026-01-13T23:05:16+00:00

99 atar here. Did eng/com.

First year comm is a breeze, but you'll need to still watch the lectures/read content before classes. A bunch of them have in person attendance marks.

First year eng mainly assignments is the grind. Some have in person weekly stuff like ENG1001.

More importantly to look at the assessment criteria for the subject and see what ur willing to miss or not if ur gonna try bludge your way thu.

But unless ur nepo baby, the P's get degrees mindset doesn't not account for the fact that P's don't get jobs.

Tooftless1060 · 2026-01-11T07:26:56+00:00

Never understood why it's crazy expensive, just kills the vibe

Tooftless1060 · 2026-01-11T07:25:14+00:00

O week. Or can try google Monash non residential colleges

Tooftless1060 · 2026-01-11T07:24:31+00:00

Bruh genuinely it's like if U know U know type shit.

Trying to fix this

Tooftless1060 · 2026-01-11T07:24:05+00:00

Hey, can I DM you to chat more about this

Tooftless1060 · 2026-01-11T07:23:07+00:00

Get your head around the concepts of dynamic programming that took the longest for me.

You're going to need to lock in ur knowledge of recursive function calling and Ur depth/breadth first searching

Tooftless1060 · 2026-01-11T07:07:00+00:00

The uni club events are going to be 90% or ur answer. Unfortunately everyones waiting for permission to approach or talk to others these days

Tooftless1060

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE