5 ms·

I'm sorry but I can't see any more then 10% of the curriculum of the standard CS class is required to learn about software engineering. This is more so true gi

I'm sorry but I can't see any more then 10% of the curriculum of the standard CS class is required to learn about software engineering. This is more so true given that my school requires: - 7 Humanities classes - 5 Math classes - 3 "Interdisciplinary Studies" courses which are any science that isn't CS - 3 Social Science classes - 2 "General Electives" which are any class that isn't CS-related - 2 PE classes - 2 Physics classes (With labs) - 1 "Science Electives" class (Most with lab) The Science Electives and Interdisciplinary Studies are basically just CHEM, PHYS, MATH, or BIO. Nothing in CS is offered. How many CS classes do I take, you may wonder? Only 16. Now I ain't no mathematician, despite my college wanting me to be, but that don't smell a no good. With some fancy adding I come up with 25 non-CS classes and 16 CS classes. Pile on some fancy division and we get to an amazing figure. Only 40% of my degree is CS. This was counting everything in the "CS" course label but many of those courses aren't technical. Counting only "real" cs courses (where you learn theory or implementation of computer science topics) there are only 12 CS courses. The rest are non-CS classes under the same name. Things like 1 class about how the university works, 2 classes about teamwork (which is also done in the management GUR I need to take), and 1 class in Discrete Math..... notice the "Math" suffix. That brings us down to a whopping 30%. Only 30% of the money I am paying for college is going towards something I want it to (in the case where all of my money is spent on academia rather then sports) and it is also assuming that all of my classes are actually teaching me something. Most classes are just professors coming in, telling us stuff that is blatantly incorrect (I keep a list now to pull out when this point I'm bringing up comes into an argument) and then they can't even implement the assignments they are giving us. A more realistic number is that ~50% of my CS classes actually teach me something I've never learned before. So we are down to a sad, sad number of 15%. A measly 15% of my time is actually spent learning about computer science. Now, let me ask you. Would you think that the 15% of my time in Computer Science will actually teach me as much as 4 whole years of computer science? You cannot ever convince me that someone wouldn't come out of a course like that knowing less then one of the 15%-educated students. So I guess it's turned out that I was wrong. It's not 10% of my education it's 15%. > And yet the CS curriculum is exactly what you need in terms of foundation so you can learn all of that. > What you are asking for is a (probably several) lifetime of information in 4 years. Wouldn't we all like this? I'd say that my fellow students would be better served with 4 years out of that lifetime of CS knowledge checked off rather then learning to find the area under the curve. > Take the track that leads to your "Compilers" class. You will get most of the pieces you are asking for along the way. The only track thaparserst leads to a "Compilers" class in my school is a Masters. The class on compilers that actually touches on things I haven't experimented with in my own time (LLVM, writing parser, writing interpreters, reading through some books here and there) are classes that lay in the 600 level. > Sure you get a say, but those of us with experience also realize the sheer enormity of what you asked You don't think that I have enough experience to understand that this is a massive undertaking? I do. Ask for everything but settle for half because every victory, no matter how small, is still a victory. Now there are exceptions. Are you going to work in finance? You probably need to know a bit of calculus. Are you like me and want to go into R&D? You are definitely going to need to know a lot about signal processing and some machine learning is always helpful. Are you interested in contract software development again like I am? Then you will need a little bit of background on software ownership, copyright law, and general contract negotiation. The only common thread through these fields is a heavy reliance on your ability to program. Everything else can be bolted onto your degree. But I don't think it's wrong to say that someone needs to take 21hr of English classes, 20hr of Math classes, or 6hr of Physics classes, to be a Computer Scientist. Edit: List ordering

throwaway729 10y ago
> Are you like me and want to go into R&D? An intro in each of the basic sciences is indispensable for a career in R&D. Taking only 5 math courses (3 calc + discrete + linear?) is likely woefully inadequate, unless they're all taught very well or you plan to teach yourself a bunch more math. In fact, you should take abstract algebra, probability, and as many analysis courses as you can while you have the time. In either case not sure what you're complaining about. The humanities courses are a good place to practice your writing and argumentation; those skills are transferable to negotiation of every sort. Also, you could've knocked a bunch of those required courses with AP/IB credits in high school (2 history courses, 1 or 2 english, intro bio/chem/phys (3), intro CS (1), calc (1-2) = 7-10 courses).
- gravypod 10y ago
  > An intro in each of the basic sciences is indispensable for a career in R&D. That's why I've been pitching in time and helping Drs at my university with their research in fields like RF and Physics. I learn much more then anything I've gotten out of a classroom. > Taking only 5 math courses (3 calc + discrete + linear?) is likely woefully inadequate, unless they're all taught very well or you plan to teach yourself a bunch more math When I'm taking on a problem that needs to be solved I immerse myself with information about the problem domain. Linear algebra is the only thing that you've talked about at all that I've found useful so far. I did a bit of game development in my own time in high school and ended up teaching myself a lot about it. Mainly I just dicked around with implementing parts of a physics engine and taught myself a lot. So yes, the reason I want to go into R&D is because I like to learn about many different things but only if there is a reason. But still, I don't want to be the only person in a team in R&D. I want to write firmware, software, and work on implementing designs. I've also proven to be fairly "ok" so far at management. I've got a lot to learn but it is something I can do, so I might bark up that tree. > The humanities courses are a good place to practice your writing and argumentation; those skills are transferable to negotiation of every sort. I do more writing and argumentation in my own time. I spend about 10 to 15 minutes > Also, you could've knocked a bunch of those required courses with AP/IB credits in high school (2 history courses, 1 or 2 english, intro bio/chem/phys (3), intro CS (1), calc (1-2) = 7-10 courses). If these are things that could have been "knocked" out in high school then they definitely shouldn't be part of a high school curriculum. I had a lot of family problems in high school and that lead to a large problem with my "behavior" in school. Mainly not wanting to take shit from my teachers after hearing everything all night from my parents. Here are some antidotes from my high school "experience" (which I also consider to be mostly useless and feel a majority of the time I spent there could have been better spent someplace I could have actually learned something rather then just sit and stair at a wall all day) - My math teacher told me that any problems that I didn't show work on would result in a 0. This was after the game-dev time in my life and the class was only algebra 2. Everything was easy and I didn't show any work. I just took the zeros on the homeworks/exams until I was called into the guidance office to "explain' myself. I said for them to give harder problems or for them to leave me alone. - My math teacher didn't like me using pen on the exam. She said I'd loose 5 points every time if I did. I just kept doing it. I think my highest grade from that marking period was a 95. - I gained access to the schools camera/DVR system and used it to find my friends between class. Principle threatens to call the cops and I just gave them all the info I had and told them I was sorry. - I didn't do any of the homework or classwork for my English class one semester, scored AP on all the standardized exams and 80+ on all the class work. They put me into a remedial class for English where I put in the same amount of effort but ended up getting an A. - I managed to get a D in gym class some how. I don't even remember how that happened. - Pre-Calc my senior year I again didn't do anything except now we where allowed TI NSpire's so I ended up installing Pokemon on my calculator. I played that. - My last two years I was able to take programming classes, I helped the teachers clean up their material since they where teaching from books. Nothing good ever comes from that. I've probably got more stuff I'm not remembering but you might be seeing a common trend. High school is basically just a place to get you used to working in a factory and making sure you wont drool on yourself in public. It was a huge waste of time that basically kept me away from learning about the stuff I wanted to: computers Anything that carries over from that shit show into academia is again a huge hint that you've got a large problem. I also don't think my time should be wasted learning things I don't need nor do I want to pay for it. I'd understand if most people actually remembered the materials taught in these classes. That's one thing. But that is seldom the case. There are very limited things that college has been good for: - I've got a lot of debt which makes me now applicable to some government loans/small business programs. - I've met 1 or 2 professors who are actually good at what they do AND want to share their secret sauce - I have access to a library with academic subscriptions (although the library won't subscribe to JOM... bastards. I pay them 15k/year they can spend a bit of that on important reading material) - I can help people build things that I like Without these I'd just drop out. I'm 100% sure this isn't worth what I'm paying but I'm in so much debt now that the FAFSA will finally help me a bit so I might as well just hate my life a little longer, struggle through the BS, and at least get a piece of paper that other people will think is impressive.

throwaway729 10y ago

> Are you like me and want to go into R&D? An intro in each of the basic sciences is indispensable for a career in R&D. Taking only 5 math courses (3 calc + discrete + linear?) is likely woefully inadequate, unless they're all taught very well or you plan to teach yourself a bunch more math. In fact, you should take abstract algebra, probability, and as many analysis courses as you can while you have the time. In either case not sure what you're complaining about. The humanities courses are a good place to practice your writing and argumentation; those skills are transferable to negotiation of every sort. Also, you could've knocked a bunch of those required courses with AP/IB credits in high school (2 history courses, 1 or 2 english, intro bio/chem/phys (3), intro CS (1), calc (1-2) = 7-10 courses).

gravypod 10y ago
> An intro in each of the basic sciences is indispensable for a career in R&D. That's why I've been pitching in time and helping Drs at my university with their research in fields like RF and Physics. I learn much more then anything I've gotten out of a classroom. > Taking only 5 math courses (3 calc + discrete + linear?) is likely woefully inadequate, unless they're all taught very well or you plan to teach yourself a bunch more math When I'm taking on a problem that needs to be solved I immerse myself with information about the problem domain. Linear algebra is the only thing that you've talked about at all that I've found useful so far. I did a bit of game development in my own time in high school and ended up teaching myself a lot about it. Mainly I just dicked around with implementing parts of a physics engine and taught myself a lot. So yes, the reason I want to go into R&D is because I like to learn about many different things but only if there is a reason. But still, I don't want to be the only person in a team in R&D. I want to write firmware, software, and work on implementing designs. I've also proven to be fairly "ok" so far at management. I've got a lot to learn but it is something I can do, so I might bark up that tree. > The humanities courses are a good place to practice your writing and argumentation; those skills are transferable to negotiation of every sort. I do more writing and argumentation in my own time. I spend about 10 to 15 minutes > Also, you could've knocked a bunch of those required courses with AP/IB credits in high school (2 history courses, 1 or 2 english, intro bio/chem/phys (3), intro CS (1), calc (1-2) = 7-10 courses). If these are things that could have been "knocked" out in high school then they definitely shouldn't be part of a high school curriculum. I had a lot of family problems in high school and that lead to a large problem with my "behavior" in school. Mainly not wanting to take shit from my teachers after hearing everything all night from my parents. Here are some antidotes from my high school "experience" (which I also consider to be mostly useless and feel a majority of the time I spent there could have been better spent someplace I could have actually learned something rather then just sit and stair at a wall all day) - My math teacher told me that any problems that I didn't show work on would result in a 0. This was after the game-dev time in my life and the class was only algebra 2. Everything was easy and I didn't show any work. I just took the zeros on the homeworks/exams until I was called into the guidance office to "explain' myself. I said for them to give harder problems or for them to leave me alone. - My math teacher didn't like me using pen on the exam. She said I'd loose 5 points every time if I did. I just kept doing it. I think my highest grade from that marking period was a 95. - I gained access to the schools camera/DVR system and used it to find my friends between class. Principle threatens to call the cops and I just gave them all the info I had and told them I was sorry. - I didn't do any of the homework or classwork for my English class one semester, scored AP on all the standardized exams and 80+ on all the class work. They put me into a remedial class for English where I put in the same amount of effort but ended up getting an A. - I managed to get a D in gym class some how. I don't even remember how that happened. - Pre-Calc my senior year I again didn't do anything except now we where allowed TI NSpire's so I ended up installing Pokemon on my calculator. I played that. - My last two years I was able to take programming classes, I helped the teachers clean up their material since they where teaching from books. Nothing good ever comes from that. I've probably got more stuff I'm not remembering but you might be seeing a common trend. High school is basically just a place to get you used to working in a factory and making sure you wont drool on yourself in public. It was a huge waste of time that basically kept me away from learning about the stuff I wanted to: computers Anything that carries over from that shit show into academia is again a huge hint that you've got a large problem. I also don't think my time should be wasted learning things I don't need nor do I want to pay for it. I'd understand if most people actually remembered the materials taught in these classes. That's one thing. But that is seldom the case. There are very limited things that college has been good for: - I've got a lot of debt which makes me now applicable to some government loans/small business programs. - I've met 1 or 2 professors who are actually good at what they do AND want to share their secret sauce - I have access to a library with academic subscriptions (although the library won't subscribe to JOM... bastards. I pay them 15k/year they can spend a bit of that on important reading material) - I can help people build things that I like Without these I'd just drop out. I'm 100% sure this isn't worth what I'm paying but I'm in so much debt now that the FAFSA will finally help me a bit so I might as well just hate my life a little longer, struggle through the BS, and at least get a piece of paper that other people will think is impressive.