Re:Questions (Score 1)

1. Horrible public university student-teacher ratios making assistance...

...elided...

4. Rote assignments that are equally dull, unchallenging and time-consuming

I think there are a few possibilities here. First, this might actually all be true and characteristic of an entire department, in which case I would recommend that a person change schools immediately, even at high cost. If you find yourself in a situation where you are rationalizing cheating due to the quality of instruction, it's time to get out.

This might just refer to one class in an otherwise fine learning establishment in which case I recommmend just sucking it up, doing the work, and chalking it up to experience. It's hardly time to start gaming the system.

This is just whining that life is hard, classes are hard, accents are hard to understand, etc., in which case getting other people to do work assigned to you is the start of a long road.

Seriously, if you're so above the level of teaching and the work being assigned to you, you should be able to convince a better institution somewhere to take you, and you should do this instead of wasting time trying to survive the experience. This will not be the case at many, many half-decent universities.

5. True students seeking more elegant/better/high-graded solutions. How many times have you cobbled together something that was ugly, functional, but practically a monstrosity. Spend a few more hours on it, with 0 forward progress, or outsource the work, then analyze the solution to see a better algorithm and incorporate it? Why get a C, when you can outsource some superior work, get a better grade, and learn more in the process?

So it is a "true student" looking for "elegan[ce]" that "cobbled together something that was ugly, functional, but practically a monstrosity" in the first place? In my CS education, I found that implementation was a great way to fully grasp the details of any algorithm, be it simple or mind-bogglingly complex. Conversely, I found that the ability to implement an algorithm elegantly comes from understanding. The monstrosities come from people who wander in the dark trying to implement an algorithm they do not fully comprehend. If a person is unable to implement the base algorithm elegantly, I'm not sure that he should move on to trying to improve it just yet.

I do not doubt that a person can get superior work and a better grade by having someone else to do it for him, but I doubt that he will learn more in the process.