[blackhole]

So at this point I'm fairly certain I will not be majoring in computer programming during college, because I have serious doubts about whether I will learn anything even remotely useful. Instead, I'm going to major in Business and possibly minor in Music, because I'd rather spend tens of thousands of dollars actually learning something. I might be able to push myself into more complicated classes, but in general, I refer to this XKCD comic:



Thoughts?

[Kosh]

The biggest problem with CS is that the market is still saturated with them. This unfortunately isn't the good old days of computer programming.......

[blackhole]

The biggest problem with CS is that the market is still saturated with them. This unfortunately isn't the good old days of computer programming.......

Correction, the market is saturated with IDIOT PROGRAMMERS who clog up the plumbing like a slightly nauseating wad of chewing gum.

[BloodEagle]

Be wary, many CS degrees are really Math degrees in disguise.

[DragonClaw]

I majored in CS and am about to graduate from a very prestigous CS school, and I feel like I haven't learned jack and could have spent my time much better self-learning. We had a career fair this week specifically for ECE and CS majors and the 'good' companies asked very specific questions about things that were not covered in any curriculum that I took. I'm very disappointed with the college education now, it seems to me like it's now what used to be the useless High School degree to get a job; you really don't learn anything practical for a job.

[Flipside]

I nearing the end of the last year of an Honours Degree in CS at the moment, if I could, I'd seriously consider going on an doing the Masters degree just to ride out the financial storm.

[BloodEagle]

I majored in CS and am about to graduate from a very prestigous CS school, and I feel like I haven't learned jack and could have spent my time much better self-learning. We had a career fair this week specifically for ECE and CS majors and the 'good' companies asked very specific questions about things that were not covered in any curriculum that I took. I'm very disappointed with the college education now, it seems to me like it's now what used to be the useless High School degree to get a job; you really don't learn anything practical for a job.

Apprenticeship based education systems would make this a thing of the past. I've heard countless stories from people about how their AA degrees are next to worthless, or they feel like they didn't learn anything useful during their terms. :/

[redsniper]

Be an engineer. They're in demand right now.

[StarSlayer]

Depends entirely on the program I suppose.  I took Computer Information Systems at Bentley College.  I didn't learn tons of programing languages but rather it built the foundation for learning them quickly.  It also focused on teaching much of the software development process as well as how to integrate software with business.  Being able to interact with clients and apply your software knowledge to various problems and understand the requirements in my opinion is still a high demand skill.

I tend to think a good program teaches you how to become a good software developer and to adapt, integrate and expand in the professional realm rather then walking off campus knowing how to code a few languages real well.  Once you understand the basics, then picking up new languages is generally pretty easy.  Knowing how to interact, understand the problem and implement the solution is the more important part.

[DragonClaw]

Don't get me wrong, I learned all the development basics and stuff in my term here, but they teach it in such an abstract way that it's almost useless. I learned far more about development when I interned for a semester than I did in classes. And the way they teach material, at least at my college, was on their own 'simulated systems', so you don't gain ANY practical knowledge on real-world systems. The only class I took that I found helpful in the real-world was my processor design class where we worked as a 3 person team to build a processor pipeline on an FPGA board using verilog, from scratch. Everything else just runs on simulators or is so abstract that the end result is companies don't want to hire you based on 'theoretical' knowledge, they want experience.

If the material was taught using real-world examples rather than such abstract systems than I feel I would have gotten far more out of my education. I don't know if it's the college's laziness with trying to keep up with the times or what.

[Nuke]

once you know a couple languages its real easy to learn others. how do i do a loop in java, a function in perl. and so on. and thats from somone with no real cs education cept maybe 3 semesters of a hs level class. looking through the job ads here in phoenix there appears to be of programming positions available, escpecially for high level languages like java, perl, and stuff like that.

i like to think my aa for network admin is pretty much useless. they pretty much only showed us how to create a statically addressed network with obsolete hardware. read to us out of books while they told us what buttons to click while we install windows. they didnt even show us the proper way to hook up a cheap router and configure it properly.

pretty much the whole education system is shot. they are half assing it and nobody seems to care. they seem to think its possible to train anybody to do anything. and as a result flood the market with people who not only suck, but believe themselves capable of doing the job because they went to school for it. the come out of it to a market with few entry level positions and lots of special skill requirements.

so instead of dropping a few grand on a program, get a stupid part time job, live in a cheap apartment and spend all your free time teaching yourself stuff. then find some 40-60 year old engineering type who runs a business and impress them with your home brew gadgetry. he might give you a job.

[blackhole]

I majored in CS and am about to graduate from a very prestigous CS school, and I feel like I haven't learned jack

Exactly.

Be an engineer. They're in demand right now.

I'm talented at programming, not engineering. I'd be a horrible engineer, trust me.

Once you understand the basics, then picking up new languages is generally pretty easy.  Knowing how to interact, understand the problem and implement the solution is the more important part.

By the start of my junior year of high school, I could already learn any language I wanted with little effort - I don't need a college course to teach me that.

so instead of dropping a few grand on a program, get a stupid part time job, live in a cheap apartment and spend all your free time teaching yourself stuff. then find some 40-60 year old engineering type who runs a business and impress them with your home brew gadgetry. he might give you a job.

Actually my current plan is this: Finish game I'm working on this summer, start a company, sell game on PC / Xbox Live Arcade, go to 4-year college to get a business degree whilst working on several other projects and games and expanding my company until I get out of college, all the while taking internships at Microsoft to provide income, if necessary.

[Spicious]

Be wary, many CS degrees are really Math degrees in disguise.

That may be because CS is/was a branch of Maths.

Good luck learning anything majoring in business.

I'm talented at programming, not engineering. I'd be a horrible engineer, trust me.

I think that precludes a well paying job in computing for you.

[blackhole]

Good luck learning anything majoring in business.

So should I just not go to college? Seriously, this is completely ridiculous. I will not learn anything in CS, because I'll just sit in the back of the class occasionally correcting the professor or suggesting more efficient ways to code things, and I'm not the only one either. The classes given in a CS major are flat out stupid and require things like UML, which is downright harmful to productivity. As the experiences of CS majors here have shown, majoring in CS is a surefire way to waste 4 years of your life. If majoring in business is another way to waste 4 years of my life, what am i going to do? Major in music for 4 years?!

I think that precludes a well paying job in computing for you.

I'm not looking for a job, I'm making myself a job.

[Nuke]

get a job at walmart and knock up some whore

[blackhole]

get a job at walmart and knock up some whore

I'm sure you'd love to

Actually if i just didn't go to college I'd spend my entire time in an apartment coding until my eyes bleed. I do that already, just with school being a major interference.

[Dark RevenantX]

Programming is a terrible field to pick right now, unless you are really proficient at it and can make your own company.  I'd major in business and minor in computer science if I were you.

[blackhole]

Programming is a terrible field to pick right now, unless you are really proficient at it and can make your own company.  I'd major in business and minor in computer science if I were you.

That is pretty much what the plan is right now, although based on Spicious' comments on the usefulness of a business degree, I now include "Drop out of college" as a distinct possibility.

[Mika]

I have also seen this interesting trend in Computer Sciences here. They simply don't get taught anything remotely useful in the University. Or this is how I see it. I recall seeing a photoshopping course which only assignment my roommate finished in about 4 or 6 hours with Photoshop. And they got credit point for that, while I had to write ****ing report of every ****ing experiment I did as experimental physicist (I probably wrote about 70 measurement reports during University, average length was about 7 pages I think). Add on top of that tons of calculation by hand, endless hours spent in error finding and computer programming till sunrise just to finish the paper before deadline in about 4 hours. Then my collection of calculations done at home is probably much more than 70 pages, and that is only the papers in which I didn't make a mistake!

And I know some theoretical physicists that took courses there and met fourth and fifth year students that didn't know a single ****ing programming language! What the hell? In order to design a program, I think one should know at least a single language to know what is possible and what is not. The only thing preventing me from becoming a good programmer is that Physics department was not really interested in teaching students modular programming. It was deemed that it isn't really what Physicist should be doing, and I am partially of the same opinion. But I do know students of my age that have managed to secure positions in software companies as programmers.

Mika

[Ford Prefect]

So should I just not go to college? Seriously, this is completely ridiculous. I will not learn anything in CS, because I'll just sit in the back of the class occasionally correcting the professor or suggesting more efficient ways to code things, and I'm not the only one either. The classes given in a CS major are flat out stupid and require things like UML, which is downright harmful to productivity. As the experiences of CS majors here have shown, majoring in CS is a surefire way to waste 4 years of your life. If majoring in business is another way to waste 4 years of my life, what am i going to do? Major in music for 4 years?!

Do something you like. Worrying about which field of study is the best life decision is like hiding in your house because a piano might fall on you.