3 ms·

> There's 4 years in a standard CS degree program, Depends on the nation, in Europe 3 years is the standard.

Jtsummers 6y ago
Fair enough, but my understanding of European universities is that those 3 years tend to be more focused (on a specific area of study) than US university programs. That is, this is a reasonable description of many US 4-year degree programs for CS (using semesters): Freshman: Semester 1: English 101, Math 101 (maybe calc), Physics 101, CS 101, History 101 Semester 2: English 102, Math 102 (calc by now), Physics 102, CS 102, History 102 Sophomore: Semester 1: Math 201 (calc), Chem 101, CS 201, Language 101 Semester 2: Math 202 (last calc, maybe stats), CS 202 & 203, Language 102 Junior - Senior: Mostly CS, with math or engineering support courses My understanding of European universities is that the non-degree courses are typically not present unless someone specifically elects to take them (perhaps for a dual degree or minor). Which still goes with my point. Algorithms and data structures take no more than 1 year to study (EDIT: the basics), whether in a European or US university you have 2-3 additional years to cover the rest including getting into the technical details like why you want one of these loops and not the other: for i from 1 to n for j from 1 to m a[i][j] = ... // versus for j from 1 to m for i from 1 to n a[i][j] = ...
tincholio 6y ago
For the Bachelor's, but most people in Europe go for a Master's, which is 5 years.
pjmlp 6y ago
Depends where in Europe, in Portugual it is 5 years university, 3 years polytechnic. After Bologna, Portuguese universities made the 5 year into a degre + masters, and push for everyone to keep doing the 5 years just as before Bologna. Which most do, otherwise they would be undervalued versus everyone that took the degree before Bologna.

Fair enough, but my understanding of European universities is that those 3 years tend to be more focused (on a specific area of study) than US university programs. That is, this is a reasonable description of many US 4-year degree programs for CS (using semesters): Freshman: Semester 1: English 101, Math 101 (maybe calc), Physics 101, CS 101, History 101 Semester 2: English 102, Math 102 (calc by now), Physics 102, CS 102, History 102 Sophomore: Semester 1: Math 201 (calc), Chem 101, CS 201, Language 101 Semester 2: Math 202 (last calc, maybe stats), CS 202 & 203, Language 102 Junior - Senior: Mostly CS, with math or engineering support courses My understanding of European universities is that the non-degree courses are typically not present unless someone specifically elects to take them (perhaps for a dual degree or minor). Which still goes with my point. Algorithms and data structures take no more than 1 year to study (EDIT: the basics), whether in a European or US university you have 2-3 additional years to cover the rest including getting into the technical details like why you want one of these loops and not the other: for i from 1 to n for j from 1 to m a[i][j] = ... // versus for j from 1 to m for i from 1 to n a[i][j] = ...

tincholio 6y ago

For the Bachelor's, but most people in Europe go for a Master's, which is 5 years.

pjmlp 6y ago

Depends where in Europe, in Portugual it is 5 years university, 3 years polytechnic. After Bologna, Portuguese universities made the 5 year into a degre + masters, and push for everyone to keep doing the 5 years just as before Bologna. Which most do, otherwise they would be undervalued versus everyone that took the degree before Bologna.