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I have an English degree an am wrapping up a CS master's relatively soon (going very part time for essentially free). I've never regretted my English degree, a

I have an English degree an am wrapping up a CS master's relatively soon (going very part time for essentially free). I've never regretted my English degree, and have actually found that it has provided me a lot of really useful skills working in more technical areas. Not to mention that as you go higher and higher up in the level of classes, the ability to write and communicate becomes increasingly more important. Everyone one I know that has become reasonably successful with an English degree has also added some type of more pragmatic masters on top of it. IMHO this should be how we view liberal arts, a solid base to build more pragmatic skills off of. Additionally I find when you look at great technical minds you usually find a solid knowledge of the humanities along with it (usually not through formal education of course), the term 'quark' is pull from Finnegan's Wake, Feynman was a passionate fan of Tuvan throat singing, the quoted the bhavagad gita after the first successful nuclear bomb test etc. Education definitely needs reform but the simple "less humanities more sciences" formula would do potentially more harm than good.

Hyena 15y ago
I think that works well for computer science but possibly not so much for other fields. Comp sci seems unique in that it does not require immense background to get moving, unlike mechanical or chemical engineering. How did the master's go? What was your prior background in comp sci, if any?
- Homunculiheaded 15y ago
  The master's is going well so far, just 2 more classes and my thesis to go. I did do a fair amount of catch up before i applied, and actually started taking classes just for fun until I realized how much I loved CS. The main classes I took first were: Intro to CS, Discrete Math, Data Structures, Systems and a few more that weren't as core. I also took a compilers course in the program I eventually enrolled in (just at the local state university) which helped a lot with my application, since it had the reputation of being particularly challenging. I taught myself formal languages, programming language theory and few others (it's actually funny because I now teach a section of a plt class even though I've never formally taken one) I agree that CS is easier for non-technical majors to get started in, but really for any field there is only a handful of truly core courses, the rest can be caught up on as you go. The biggest issue with humanities is the lack of math (although as I've played catch up I'm really surprised how many technical people really don't have as strong a background in math as they should.) I would have balked at the idea when I was an undergrad,but I really feel that all college grads should be proficient in calc 1-3, linear algebra, and prob & statistics. If every English major was comfortable with those areas they would have the foundation to go in pretty much any direction they wanted. The cultural separation between 'technical' and 'non-technical' people in general is a huge problem, we need more people that can do both. Really if you want to cut down on the number of people graduating with huge debt and unable to find a job, make college harder. My passion for English undergrad would have been enough to make me push through the math reqs I proposed above, but there were plenty of people in my classes who would have definitely be driven out by them. Knowledge of Shakespeare and Probability are equally important to being 'educated' imho, many college grads have knowledge of neither.

Hyena 15y ago

I think that works well for computer science but possibly not so much for other fields. Comp sci seems unique in that it does not require immense background to get moving, unlike mechanical or chemical engineering. How did the master's go? What was your prior background in comp sci, if any?

Homunculiheaded 15y ago
The master's is going well so far, just 2 more classes and my thesis to go. I did do a fair amount of catch up before i applied, and actually started taking classes just for fun until I realized how much I loved CS. The main classes I took first were: Intro to CS, Discrete Math, Data Structures, Systems and a few more that weren't as core. I also took a compilers course in the program I eventually enrolled in (just at the local state university) which helped a lot with my application, since it had the reputation of being particularly challenging. I taught myself formal languages, programming language theory and few others (it's actually funny because I now teach a section of a plt class even though I've never formally taken one) I agree that CS is easier for non-technical majors to get started in, but really for any field there is only a handful of truly core courses, the rest can be caught up on as you go. The biggest issue with humanities is the lack of math (although as I've played catch up I'm really surprised how many technical people really don't have as strong a background in math as they should.) I would have balked at the idea when I was an undergrad,but I really feel that all college grads should be proficient in calc 1-3, linear algebra, and prob & statistics. If every English major was comfortable with those areas they would have the foundation to go in pretty much any direction they wanted. The cultural separation between 'technical' and 'non-technical' people in general is a huge problem, we need more people that can do both. Really if you want to cut down on the number of people graduating with huge debt and unable to find a job, make college harder. My passion for English undergrad would have been enough to make me push through the math reqs I proposed above, but there were plenty of people in my classes who would have definitely be driven out by them. Knowledge of Shakespeare and Probability are equally important to being 'educated' imho, many college grads have knowledge of neither.