What is the Academic and social life like at College?

What is the college life of a CS major like compared to a software developer under another major, or a software developer with no college experience; individual differences or indifferences?

• Namely, is college life as a CS major FUN? How about for any other variations of software, web-related college courses? Or how goes the life of the freelancing software mogul who works at McDonald for all you know? Please share experiences, opinions, & so forth. & yes, I am interested in software.

• Answer:

  I'm studying CS and Math at Harvard, and I'm having the time of my life. I've got the opportunity to learn things just for fun (I'm writing this answer from my Quantum Mechanics course), hear lectures from legendary professors (my Operating Systems professor and lab head is the president of USENIX), and hang out with brilliant friends my age who are interested in CS, Math, Physics, Economics, Statistics, Government, Psychology, Russian Literature... (and that's just my roommates!) I can't imagine that any career job could ever be this challenging...or rewarding. No one in the real world asks you to build an entire operating system in a semester...but I've done it. In the real world, you don't ever get the endorphin rush of finally solving a problem set that you've been working on for 30 hours...or at least, if you do, you don't get to share it with friends who are suffering (but enjoying every minute) beside you. I can't imagine that any career job could match the experience of spending years surrounded by brilliant minds, for no other purpose than to learn...everything. So yes. My life is fun. I can't speak to the other, because I've not yet reached that point in my life. But I can already tell that I wouldn't trade these years for literally anything in the world.