system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is it like to study philosophy as an undergraduate?

So I want to know what the experience of studying philosophy is like for people. For some reason I feel "called" to study philosophy more deeply and I assume that studying in a university setting would be the best place to do this.

My inquiry isn't concerned with the practical aspects of getting a degree, going to graduate school, career, or employment. I'm more curious about the quality of the education, what topics would likely to be covered, what skills would be developed, as well as the the things people liked *and* disliked about studying philosophy in school.  

How is it different from studying philosophy on your own? Is there something special to be gained from studying it academically that cannot be gained on ones own? And perhaps the most general question: what did you learn?
gpt
It's pretty awesome. In terms of work load, even fairly rigorous philosophy programs won't be as straining as doing, say, engineering or computer science. Of course, you will have work to do and you will have to work very hard to get high grades, but the work itself isn't painful, mainly because there is virtually no brute repetition required. Philosophical learning does not require rote memorization, and neither does a lot of the grading (thank goodness)!

In undergrad, you basically learn about the landscape of philosophy. You learn about the history of philosophy, who said what, and your course syllabuses give you an idea of what is relevant in the field. That's why learning philosophy on your own informally is quite difficult; you don't know what to focus on.

You get to read primary texts and understand them. Reading primary texts in philosophy without professional guidance is remarkably difficult. Doing an undergrad in philosophy gives you the necessary context to even begin seeing the point of the texts, and to begin seeing how all the ideas connect up in one bigger picture.

The skills you'll develop are serious reading comprehension skills (this is huge) and writing skills. You'll learn how to extract arguments from texts and *not miss the point* or say something irrelevant in response. (In everyday life, you'll likely be shocked at how frequently people miss the point of something, and how much misery, suffering and anger is caused due only to basic misunderstandings among people.) Ideally, you learn to *be intellectually charitable* (huge), and learn to be very open-minded. The open-mindedness, really, comes from being repeatedly humbled by ideas you've never thought of and analyses that go over your head because you really aren't as smart as you think you are!