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I'm currently pursuing my CS degree after a couple of decades working as a programmer. The big difference is that you will miss "why" and learn mostly "how", un

by goranb 7y ago

I'm currently pursuing my CS degree after a couple of decades working as a programmer. The big difference is that you will miss "why" and learn mostly "how", unless you have a very inquisitive mind. On the other hand, not everybody can afford years of no income or crippling debt.

medymed 7y ago
I imagine other students would be extremely grateful to have your experience to know the motivation behind some of the seemingly arbitrary ‘whys’ they are required to learn.
learc83 7y ago
I worked for almost a decade before going back, and I had the same experience. As for debt, there's no need for crippling debt though if you go to a state school and are planning on working as a programmer.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
czbond 7y ago
I agree with you; I have a CS degree, and when I work with those who learned the programming mechanics (aka making code work) - are often skipped other topics that came in handy for me making other decisions. I can understand why code is slow (eg: BigO for cpu or memory), what structures and algorithms to use in different scenarios (Data Structures & algos), how things are working (Computer Architecture, Programming Languages [theoretical construction of languages], Compiler design), and Automata. Absolutely, these can be learned by oneself - but I find they rarely are. Edit after thought: Of course, when to use an Array vs a Linked List in your specific language (for example), might not matter if you're doing web apps of medium scale taht one can throw more EC2 instances at
- hellisothers 7y ago
  This edit is the critical leap, 99% of software engineering doesn’t benefit from this depth. For sure there are positions that do but they’re the edge case.
- jcims 7y ago
  Is there any part of a CS degree that educates students on how networks operate or what a protocol looks like on a wire? Most of the new grads I work with seem to think of all of that as a black box and are completely stuck when things aren’t working.
  - thethirdone 7y ago
    There are certainly classes that cover networking. IP, TCP, DNS, and HTTP were covered in classes I took. As for actually on the wire. I haven't studied anything about how ethernet actually works. I assume its kindof like i2c, but I don't know more than that and haven't needed to.
    - scarface74 7y ago
      So if college was so invaluable teaching networking, how do you think people who went to school before http existed learned? Just like everything else, you can learn as needed.
      - thethirdone 7y ago
        > So if college was so invaluable teaching networking, I never said or implied that college was invaluable for teaching networking. I just answered a question about what was taught.
  - roywiggins 7y ago
    My undergrad had a good computer architecture class, but it didn't cover networking. That's definitely a pretty big hole in my knowledge. A networking class would absolutely have slotted in quite easily to the CS curriculum.

by goranb 7y ago

medymed 7y ago

I imagine other students would be extremely grateful to have your experience to know the motivation behind some of the seemingly arbitrary ‘whys’ they are required to learn.

learc83 7y ago

I worked for almost a decade before going back, and I had the same experience. As for debt, there's no need for crippling debt though if you go to a state school and are planning on working as a programmer.

deleted 7y ago
[deleted]

czbond 7y ago

I agree with you; I have a CS degree, and when I work with those who learned the programming mechanics (aka making code work) - are often skipped other topics that came in handy for me making other decisions. I can understand why code is slow (eg: BigO for cpu or memory), what structures and algorithms to use in different scenarios (Data Structures & algos), how things are working (Computer Architecture, Programming Languages [theoretical construction of languages], Compiler design), and Automata. Absolutely, these can be learned by oneself - but I find they rarely are. Edit after thought: Of course, when to use an Array vs a Linked List in your specific language (for example), might not matter if you're doing web apps of medium scale taht one can throw more EC2 instances at

hellisothers 7y ago
This edit is the critical leap, 99% of software engineering doesn’t benefit from this depth. For sure there are positions that do but they’re the edge case.
jcims 7y ago
Is there any part of a CS degree that educates students on how networks operate or what a protocol looks like on a wire? Most of the new grads I work with seem to think of all of that as a black box and are completely stuck when things aren’t working.
- thethirdone 7y ago
  There are certainly classes that cover networking. IP, TCP, DNS, and HTTP were covered in classes I took. As for actually on the wire. I haven't studied anything about how ethernet actually works. I assume its kindof like i2c, but I don't know more than that and haven't needed to.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    So if college was so invaluable teaching networking, how do you think people who went to school before http existed learned? Just like everything else, you can learn as needed.
    - thethirdone 7y ago
      > So if college was so invaluable teaching networking, I never said or implied that college was invaluable for teaching networking. I just answered a question about what was taught.
- roywiggins 7y ago
  My undergrad had a good computer architecture class, but it didn't cover networking. That's definitely a pretty big hole in my knowledge. A networking class would absolutely have slotted in quite easily to the CS curriculum.