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From the article: "Most satisfied: Those with science, technology, engineering and math majors, who are typically more likely to enjoy higher salaries, reporte

From the article: "Most satisfied: Those with science, technology, engineering and math majors, who are typically more likely to enjoy higher salaries, reported more satisfaction with their college degrees. About 42% of engineering grads and 35% of computer science grads said they had no regrets. Most regrets: Humanities majors, who are least likely to earn higher pay post-graduation, were most likely to regret their college education. About 75% of humanities majors said they regretted their college education. About 73% of graduates who studied social sciences, physical and life sciences, and art also said the same. "

dr_dshiv 7y ago
I'm really curious how they worded the questions.
stargazing 7y ago
Important to note the phrasing of this. 58% of engineering grads and 65% of CS grads still said they regretted their degrees - which isn't far off the numbers of those in the humanities.
- daveslash 7y ago
  Yeah, their phrasing is atrocious on this...
- tomohawk 7y ago
  This really surprises me. I would have expected maybe 30% based on so many people not making it through the program. At my school they had to get 2/3rds to drop by junior year or there would be too many in the program, and they never missed that goal. I saw very few make it through who were not genuinely interested in the subject.
  - hinkley 7y ago
    How many young devs have you met who you were sure were going to wash out? Many of them got the degree to have a comfortable life, not because it felt like a calling. All of those people are going to regret struggling through the CS program only to find out that the programming problems in school were trivial and the real stuff is messy and confusing as hell. I tell anyone who asks that they should get some sort of programming job as an undergrad. If you can't hack it, you can get some other degree in 5 years. If you can, you'll learn so much more from your classes, because you'll have the practical bits down pat and you can focus on the theoretical. One of my friends got a job junior year. I would ask him how long the homework took him and he would say something like 2 hours. Bullshit. It took me 10 and there were people in the lab a lot longer than me. There is no fucking way that's true. I stopped asking him because it just pissed me off. Senior year I got a job working at the same place, and within a couple months I was down to 4-5 hours. Ok, maybe he wasn't bragging. Maybe practice really is that important. By the time I left, with maybe a couple thousand hours of programming under my belt, I had one class with a shortage of machines (3D cards). I would sit in my apartment writing code in a terminal window on one of those machines, essentially blind, for two hours. When I'd get a clean compile I'd go over to the lab to debug for 40-75 minutes. Because doing the homework was just doing the homework, like a math class, instead of a huge production. Then I'd go back to work and stare at a complex memory corruption bug for 5 hours...
remeq 7y ago
People don't realize that whatever path in their career they choose it is going to have its own set of obstacles, pitfalls and frustrations which results in false impression that would they choose something else they would live happily ever after.

dr_dshiv 7y ago

I'm really curious how they worded the questions.

stargazing 7y ago

Important to note the phrasing of this. 58% of engineering grads and 65% of CS grads still said they regretted their degrees - which isn't far off the numbers of those in the humanities.

daveslash 7y ago
Yeah, their phrasing is atrocious on this...
tomohawk 7y ago
This really surprises me. I would have expected maybe 30% based on so many people not making it through the program. At my school they had to get 2/3rds to drop by junior year or there would be too many in the program, and they never missed that goal. I saw very few make it through who were not genuinely interested in the subject.
- hinkley 7y ago
  How many young devs have you met who you were sure were going to wash out? Many of them got the degree to have a comfortable life, not because it felt like a calling. All of those people are going to regret struggling through the CS program only to find out that the programming problems in school were trivial and the real stuff is messy and confusing as hell. I tell anyone who asks that they should get some sort of programming job as an undergrad. If you can't hack it, you can get some other degree in 5 years. If you can, you'll learn so much more from your classes, because you'll have the practical bits down pat and you can focus on the theoretical. One of my friends got a job junior year. I would ask him how long the homework took him and he would say something like 2 hours. Bullshit. It took me 10 and there were people in the lab a lot longer than me. There is no fucking way that's true. I stopped asking him because it just pissed me off. Senior year I got a job working at the same place, and within a couple months I was down to 4-5 hours. Ok, maybe he wasn't bragging. Maybe practice really is that important. By the time I left, with maybe a couple thousand hours of programming under my belt, I had one class with a shortage of machines (3D cards). I would sit in my apartment writing code in a terminal window on one of those machines, essentially blind, for two hours. When I'd get a clean compile I'd go over to the lab to debug for 40-75 minutes. Because doing the homework was just doing the homework, like a math class, instead of a huge production. Then I'd go back to work and stare at a complex memory corruption bug for 5 hours...

remeq 7y ago

People don't realize that whatever path in their career they choose it is going to have its own set of obstacles, pitfalls and frustrations which results in false impression that would they choose something else they would live happily ever after.