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If you mean within academia, I agree. If you mean in the private sector, absolutely not. Mathematics and physics majors have a ton of opportunity in CS-related

If you mean within academia, I agree. If you mean in the private sector, absolutely not. Mathematics and physics majors have a ton of opportunity in CS-related fields. I hired a lot of them when I ran a data science team. Their understanding of software development from first principles usually seriously outranks CS graduates at the cost of not knowing how to program in advanced languages. I find it a lot easier to develop a Math/Physics graduate's coding skills than a CS graduate's underlying understanding of the physical world and formulaic thinking.

closeparen 8y ago
Okay, people trained in science can more easily transition to software engineering. They are still not getting paid to do science.
- icelancer 8y ago
  This all depends on what you consider science, I suppose. If you define science as work with beakers and things, sure, yeah, those positions are dying out. But genetic research is more of a CS-dominated field than it is a purely "scientific" field these days. nVidia pays technical geneticists mid-six figures to work on their projects. Science is becoming more democratized and breaking out of the academic, federally-funded, very slow process model, and plenty of people are working in private science that have nothing to do with making drugs, but rather in brand new fields and exploding existing niche ones. Some of this isn't great, I'll be the first to admit with a lot of experience on both sides of the aisle. But overall it's a massive net positive. For everyone.
- tnecniv 8y ago
  If you would like to be pedantic, only a small percentage of individuals use the skills taught to them in their major (or any traditional classroom setting really) in their daily job. The value of a classical education is that the student learns critical thinking and problem solving in a diverse set of frameworks, which allows them to adapt to the requirements of the job.

closeparen 8y ago

Okay, people trained in science can more easily transition to software engineering. They are still not getting paid to do science.

icelancer 8y ago
This all depends on what you consider science, I suppose. If you define science as work with beakers and things, sure, yeah, those positions are dying out. But genetic research is more of a CS-dominated field than it is a purely "scientific" field these days. nVidia pays technical geneticists mid-six figures to work on their projects. Science is becoming more democratized and breaking out of the academic, federally-funded, very slow process model, and plenty of people are working in private science that have nothing to do with making drugs, but rather in brand new fields and exploding existing niche ones. Some of this isn't great, I'll be the first to admit with a lot of experience on both sides of the aisle. But overall it's a massive net positive. For everyone.
tnecniv 8y ago
If you would like to be pedantic, only a small percentage of individuals use the skills taught to them in their major (or any traditional classroom setting really) in their daily job. The value of a classical education is that the student learns critical thinking and problem solving in a diverse set of frameworks, which allows them to adapt to the requirements of the job.