Comment In my university CS = math (Score 1) 521
I'd say it was 75% math, 24% programming, 1% other junk they force you to fill your required credits.
It was hard. I didn't really know what to expect going into a CS program that gave you a degree that read "Bachelor of Mathematics", but those math courses were some of the most difficult things I ever took. Some of the third and fourth year courses which combined both math and algorithms were the litmus test of a true computer science student. We had a third year course (345 or 360?) that was focused on exactly what I just mentioned. We just to joke (grimly, downwardly) that if you could pass this, you were basically a CS major. The count of false fire alarms/bomb threats/suicide notes during the examination period of that course indicated how hard it was. My exams got rescheduled 3 times just for that one course. 2 bomb threats, 1 suicide note.
I don't remember programming anything interesting or useful or dot-com like. The algorithms and problem solving techniques were pretty interesting but only here and there. A lot of it was a lot of grunt work through very obscure material 99.995% of the human population does not care about. And you will not use in your future job. I think I used recursion once, and a binary search once in the 5 years since I left the university. And both tasks were easier than the first year homework assignments they gave us (and also everyone in the industry would know about it i.e. manufacturing bill of materials, and calculating the COGS in financial applications).
I felt a lot of the material was very academic in nature and unless you went all the way to a Ph. D, you weren't going to be able to leverage the material in a job. Interesting in it's own right if you are into these kinds of things.
That being said, my interest from computers originally came from doing little programming things on my spare time and playing computer games, which I'm assuming most guys get their thing for computers. But it doesn't translate into being a CS major. I'd say CS majors were people with an affinity for mathematics, and not very much interest in why Linux is better than Windows. Sure there were those kinds of people in my class, but out of a class size of 50-80, I'd say only 5 fit that bill. I managed to make it through the curriculum but if I had to do it again, I'd major in something like law and do a minor in information technology which is a lot more useful.
The worse part is, I think CS majors now have exceptionally difficult times landing a first job with little job experience. When I graduated, outsourcing was already moving ahead and many fellow graduates were being sent down to the states, Mexico, India or China to train their own replacements. I can only imagine what the situation is now.
As far as job security, a bachelor CS is pretty bad unless you have a well-established set of technical skills. A CS job != comfy Linux admin job with 3 monitors and a free reign to abuse your peon users. This you can get from any technical college. If you are really interested in the material itself, go all the way to Ph. D and consult big firms who will pay for your brains.
It was hard. I didn't really know what to expect going into a CS program that gave you a degree that read "Bachelor of Mathematics", but those math courses were some of the most difficult things I ever took. Some of the third and fourth year courses which combined both math and algorithms were the litmus test of a true computer science student. We had a third year course (345 or 360?) that was focused on exactly what I just mentioned. We just to joke (grimly, downwardly) that if you could pass this, you were basically a CS major. The count of false fire alarms/bomb threats/suicide notes during the examination period of that course indicated how hard it was. My exams got rescheduled 3 times just for that one course. 2 bomb threats, 1 suicide note.
I don't remember programming anything interesting or useful or dot-com like. The algorithms and problem solving techniques were pretty interesting but only here and there. A lot of it was a lot of grunt work through very obscure material 99.995% of the human population does not care about. And you will not use in your future job. I think I used recursion once, and a binary search once in the 5 years since I left the university. And both tasks were easier than the first year homework assignments they gave us (and also everyone in the industry would know about it i.e. manufacturing bill of materials, and calculating the COGS in financial applications).
I felt a lot of the material was very academic in nature and unless you went all the way to a Ph. D, you weren't going to be able to leverage the material in a job. Interesting in it's own right if you are into these kinds of things.
That being said, my interest from computers originally came from doing little programming things on my spare time and playing computer games, which I'm assuming most guys get their thing for computers. But it doesn't translate into being a CS major. I'd say CS majors were people with an affinity for mathematics, and not very much interest in why Linux is better than Windows. Sure there were those kinds of people in my class, but out of a class size of 50-80, I'd say only 5 fit that bill. I managed to make it through the curriculum but if I had to do it again, I'd major in something like law and do a minor in information technology which is a lot more useful.
The worse part is, I think CS majors now have exceptionally difficult times landing a first job with little job experience. When I graduated, outsourcing was already moving ahead and many fellow graduates were being sent down to the states, Mexico, India or China to train their own replacements. I can only imagine what the situation is now.
As far as job security, a bachelor CS is pretty bad unless you have a well-established set of technical skills. A CS job != comfy Linux admin job with 3 monitors and a free reign to abuse your peon users. This you can get from any technical college. If you are really interested in the material itself, go all the way to Ph. D and consult big firms who will pay for your brains.
