CS is a young discipline compared to, say, physics. And that immaturity is reflected in how much CS curricula can differ from school to school. Just looking at

CS is a young discipline compared to, say, physics. And that immaturity is reflected in how much CS curricula can differ from school to school. Just looking at the titles of the courses he took and comparing to my own experience, there's almost no intersection between the two, and yet we both have Bachelor's degrees in CS. That would be inconceivable in a more mature field. So the question of whether a CS degree is worth getting is not only dependent on the student's own goals and inclinations but also on the specific curriculum of the CS degree program in question. Unfortunately, it's very hard to determine how well matched the student is to the program unless the student takes one or more CS classes in order to find out.