My experience has been that there really isn't a strong correlation between what degree you hold and your ability as a developer. But I've only worked with abo

My experience has been that there really isn't a strong correlation between what degree you hold and your ability as a developer. But I've only worked with about 20, so my sample set is significantly smaller than yours. The best was an incomplete theory-heavy B.A. in CS from UofIowa, with a close runner-up being an EE from a university in India with a name I've since forgotten. I'm guessing it was their best engineering school because this guy was wicked smart and left to do grad work at CMU, and now works for (I think) Google in London. Worst: Degree-milled Ph.D in Astrophysics. Runner-up: CS degree from UIUC (circa 1993). BTW, don't be terribly surprised by CS majors not leading the pack in software development. Even with a coding-heavy curriculum, you're looking at a student who has to write maybe 100,000 LOC over a 4 year duration, in an environment where expectations are exceedingly low for SD skills. In academia, there really aren't any coding role-models to set them straight on proper techniques, design patterns, style, SCM, debugging, documentation, etc -- that is, unless, they read, filter, practice/experiment, and internalize some of the gems that float around on proggit/HN/etc.