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Is university worth it in 2021? Pros & Cons
So, was it worth going at university? I just completed bachelor's degree in software engineering and wanted to share my thoughts on the experience.
🔗 Great podcast episode on the subject: https://youtu.be/aOkFBm5Hezw
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- Getting into Microsoft https://youtu.be/CxF5Qvc_BE4
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📖 CHAPTERS 📖
00:00 - Cinematic intro
00:13 - Intro
00:52 - Was it worth it?
01:53 - Disclaimer
02:15 - The GPA
04:02 - Best part of university
05:12 - Visiting the school
06:07 - Why it's disappointing?
06:48 - Broader understanding
07:12 - The format of the classes
08:11 - The exams
08:38 - Conclusion - Thanks for watching!
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[Music] it's finally done hello everyone i'm lebron mahalford today we won't talk about photography or filmmaking and instead talk about the boring subject of school and more particularly my thoughts on university if you didn't know i just completed my bachelor's degree in software engineering a few days ago now let's go back to my university for the first time since the beginning of this pandemic [Music] so was it worth it i would consider my experience as being disappointing in reality university just isn't made for everyone and i think that the university i choose just wasn't the right match for me don't get me wrong i really like learning i really like software engineering but i'm also very much self-taught and also have a very much entrepreneurial way of doing things so one really useless fact i have is that i used to run up the stairs here because the escalators were always jam-packed so let's just say it was a pretty good workout in the morning before getting to class i cannot do it today because of my knee injury so we're gonna take the skeletons this time [Music] i don't want this video to be only me complaining about what i didn't like in university instead i'm going to talk about very specific things that most universities could improve pretty easily i'm also going to talk about why i would go back to university if i had to make the choice right now it's also really much based on my experience and doesn't apply for all domain or for all other students [Music] the biggest part of university and just school in general is that we're reduced to a single number as human beings were much more complex than a number out of four another problem is that that number is mostly based on theory we learned not anything else i also doubt that in the real world in my job and we're using more than five maybe ten percent of the whole theory i learned at school so my question for you is why do we use a gpa to represent who i am i know some of you are maybe thinking that i must have had a pretty terrible gpa to be complaining so much about it the reality is that it varied a lot at the lowest point it was about 2.4 and at the highest it was 3.7 what the gp doesn't represent is that when i was at 2.4 i also had a startup on the side was working to build the first student-run vc with some other people and also had some other jobs on the side all of these were jobs where i had a lot of valuable skills i was building but they were not represented inside of my gpu i think there's a pretty easy way of fixing a gpa first of all i think it shouldn't be just one number but multiple numbers to allow to show a bit more who we are so for example it would show i was pretty good in my software engineering classes but it wasn't as good in my math classes i also think it should represent a little bit more the skills that we have so it's not just a number that doesn't take into account other skills like teamwork which are much more important in the end when you're doing your job [Music] if you thought that the first stairs were pretty bad sometimes i had to go up another 12 stories to get to my class in the morning we have mechanical stairs inside but they usually pretty much pack so i prefer taking the fresh air outside and going up here i'm gonna show the stairs inside because it looks a little bit like inside of harry potter so that's pretty cool [Music] now let's talk about the most beneficial part of university this is by far the people you meet and the connections you create from developing multiple friendships joining a photography club helping build the first hackathon or just the many social events i attended these are all moments that wouldn't be possible without a university context as being introverted it was really geary to have like-minded people to whom i could easily talk and learn from i also don't think that i would have had the same chance of getting inside of my dream company microsoft without being in university i remember really well the day that i brought my cv for the first time and a recruiter actually helped me correct a few things and i brought it back the next day with the correction and what did you know a few days later i was doing an interview i didn't get the job the first time but worked harder for next year and then got two internships in vancouver they were totally a blast and it was a little bit like living a dream for eight months i don't think any of this would have been as easy or even possible without being in university in the first place now let's go inside because it's actually pretty cool how the school looks like in this new part especially with a harry potter like stairs going through the school [Music] [Applause] i'm going to say that walking through the school after not being here for a year and a half brought back so many good memories it's probably just nostalgia that it's hitting but it's still pretty cool to see the school and remind me how cool it looked even though it has nothing to do with most american campuses you're used to have in your head when you're thinking of a university the reason i say i'm so disappointed with university is that i finally thought that i would understand why we're learning this sort of theory and how to apply it in the real world but that didn't really happen i only had two teachers that talked about the research and i think it's such a lost opportunity that the others didn't by talking about their research it would have made it a lot more interesting to come to school and listen to them about what they're doing and also help bridge the gap between understanding the theory and also how to apply it in the real world i also think this would be a huge benefit for universities because it would differentiate a university to a simple online class which is part of the biggest threat to universities right now great thing about university is that it helped me widen my vision and get a much broader understanding of how software engineering works from the bits that are moving in the middle to how a user interacts with an interface the only thing i don't understand is why i've passed so much time on math and physics classes when i think that my software engineering classes are much more important [Music] now let's talk about my last problem with university and this is the format of the classes i simply cannot listen to a professor reading a powerpoint for free hours or writing down some notes on a blackboard if you asked me after any of my classes i probably wouldn't have remembered anything and had to relearn everything by my own at my house afterwards so this just wasn't efficient at all i know my school is pushing for inverted classes and this is a much better model in my opinion it allowed me to listen to classes at my own pace at home then do some exercises to know which one i understood or not and then go in the class with that knowledge and ask questions to the teacher if i need it and learn more by doing more exercises with the teacher in the class i just think it's a much better law model to learn the problem is that it's the exception not the norm at my school right now i really hope that if i have children one day and they go to university it's going to become the norm to have inverted classes instead of having our normal three-hour classes in a classroom right now oh and was going to forget the last thing that really annoys me inside of engineering schools in canada and that's the exams it's normal for us to have exams where the averages of a class is under 50 percent and also it felt like the more i would study the exam the less chances i would have to get a good grade which is just totally crazy if you're doing an exam it should really reflect what you've learned in the class not just be normal to the class average fails in the end i want to end this video by saying that i recognize that i'm very lucky to live inside of a province where most of the cost of university is actually subsidized by the government this means it's much more accessible for more people and i don't end up finishing university with a huge debt which is really nice if you're wondering if you should go to university or not i would still study to go to university because there's so many companies that still require you to have a degree i would just say don't make your choice as fast as i did and really find the university that you like so you pass the four best years of your life not the four oldest ones i'm going to be back in my normal content next week so see you in the next one bye you
Video Links
- 🔗 Great podcast episode on the subject
- Getting into Microsoft
- Whistler Ski Trip
- Tofino Trip
- Instagram: @loic.bellemare.alford ()
- TikTok
- My online store
- Affiliate link for Epidemic Sound
- https://kit.co/loic.bellemare.alford/youtube-gear
- DJI Pocket 2 Creator Combo
- 128 gb MicroSD card
- Canon 6D Mk
- Google Pixel 4a
- Canon ZOOM LENS EF24-105mm F4L IS II USM
- Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 Lens
- Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0L-IS II USM Lens
- VANGUARD VEO 2 265CB CARBON FIBER TRIPOD
- DJI MAVIC AIR
- http://bit.ly/loicba
What is this video about?
I just finished my bachelor's degree in software engineering, and I've been thinking a lot about whether the whole thing was actually worth it. The answer is more complicated than a simple yes or no—which is kind of the point of this video.
Let me be clear: I found my university experience disappointing overall. But it wasn't because I don't love learning or software engineering. The problem is that university just isn't built for everyone, and I'm not sure it was the right match for me. I'm very self-taught, entrepreneurial by nature, and I learn best by doing—not by sitting in lectures.
The biggest issue I had was with how we're evaluated. University reduces us to a single number: your GPA. But that number is built almost entirely on theory, and honestly, I doubt I'll use more than 5–10% of what I learned in my actual job. My GPA swung wildly—from 2.4 to 3.7—but it never captured the real work I was doing on the side: building startups, co-founding a student-run venture capital fund, working multiple jobs. Those experiences taught me way more than my grades ever reflected.
Where university genuinely shined was the people and connections. I met incredible like-minded people, joined clubs, attended hackathons, and built a network. As someone pretty introverted, having that community made a real difference. And honestly, I don't think I'd have landed my internships at Microsoft—one of my dream companies—without being in a university context with recruiters and resources available.
My other main complaints: The teaching format is inefficient. I can't absorb anything from a professor reading slides for three hours. The few professors who talked about their research made everything click—there's a huge gap between theory and real-world application that most instructors don't bridge. And the exams are brutal in a way that doesn't reflect learning; sometimes studying harder actually hurt my grades because the test was designed to fail most of the class.
The inverted classroom model—where you learn content at home and do exercises in class—is so much better, but it's still rare where I studied.
Would I do it again? Yeah, probably. Many companies still require a degree, and the connections and credential do matter. But I'd tell anyone considering university: don't rush the decision like I did. Find a school that actually fits who you are. Don't just accept four years of frustration.