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I finished my CS degree 4 years ago at a state school with an average program. I formed a close relationship with one of the professors and we talked many times

by avgDev 5y ago

I finished my CS degree 4 years ago at a state school with an average program. I formed a close relationship with one of the professors and we talked many times how there is pressure from the top to make things easier, to get better graduation rates. Programming requires a certain individual that likes solving problems and learning. Not everyone is made to program. Currently, software engineers in US are some of the best paid individuals with just a bachelors degree. Frankly, if you are intelligent, can code, and learn math on your own you don't even need one. That kind of money drives more students towards CS programs. In my programming 101 70% of students did not even attend the final. Then, next programming class was a better with high percentage of students passing. Eventually, when we got to class like theory of computation 80% of people failed to finish. I met a guy who graduated after trying to obtain his BS in CS for 7 years. He still is not employed in the tech field.

mips_avatar 5y ago
The purpose of a college degree (even an applied one like computer science) is not to teach students how to be good tech workers. It's to develop as a person and generate a philosophy on work and life that can guide them through the career and life challenges ahead. I think your professor is perhaps missing the point if he thinks it's about making classes easier/harder.
- ralph84 5y ago
  Who decides what the purpose of a degree is? Certainly for the majority of people paying six figures the purpose is to be able to earn a return on that investment from employment. Figuring out a philosophy on life can be done at a much lower cost elsewhere. In fact college life is so unlike non-college life it's unlikely to be very useful for that purpose anyway.
  - mips_avatar 5y ago
    In university you’re paying for a bunch of esteemed professors to do something. What do you think they should do? I would want to get something a little more valuable than some calculus homework sets.
eli_gottlieb 5y ago
>In my programming 101 70% of students did not even attend the final. Then, next programming class was a better with high percentage of students passing. Eventually, when we got to class like theory of computation 80% of people failed to finish. I'm kind of astounded that your program was so badly calibrated that first 70% of freshman dropped the major rather than take the final exam, and then, several years of curriculum later, the 300 or 400-level theory class still fails 80% of its students. What the hell? But I suppose by my own definition, that's basically what we should expect from using weeder courses to stop people majoring in a field for money. Still, at least at my undergrad institution, once you got past the weeder courses, a fail or drop rate of 80% would be considered pretty bad.

by avgDev 5y ago

mips_avatar 5y ago

The purpose of a college degree (even an applied one like computer science) is not to teach students how to be good tech workers. It's to develop as a person and generate a philosophy on work and life that can guide them through the career and life challenges ahead. I think your professor is perhaps missing the point if he thinks it's about making classes easier/harder.

ralph84 5y ago
Who decides what the purpose of a degree is? Certainly for the majority of people paying six figures the purpose is to be able to earn a return on that investment from employment. Figuring out a philosophy on life can be done at a much lower cost elsewhere. In fact college life is so unlike non-college life it's unlikely to be very useful for that purpose anyway.
- mips_avatar 5y ago
  In university you’re paying for a bunch of esteemed professors to do something. What do you think they should do? I would want to get something a little more valuable than some calculus homework sets.

eli_gottlieb 5y ago

>In my programming 101 70% of students did not even attend the final. Then, next programming class was a better with high percentage of students passing. Eventually, when we got to class like theory of computation 80% of people failed to finish. I'm kind of astounded that your program was so badly calibrated that first 70% of freshman dropped the major rather than take the final exam, and then, several years of curriculum later, the 300 or 400-level theory class still fails 80% of its students. What the hell? But I suppose by my own definition, that's basically what we should expect from using weeder courses to stop people majoring in a field for money. Still, at least at my undergrad institution, once you got past the weeder courses, a fail or drop rate of 80% would be considered pretty bad.