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>Instructors don't generally spend time with you while you are actually programming, so you won't be missing the kind of 1 on 1 feedback a music major would get

by ciaranm 12y ago

>Instructors don't generally spend time with you while you are actually programming, so you won't be missing the kind of 1 on 1 feedback a music major would get. Really? That wasn't my experience at University at all. Every practical assignment had at least one lab session, where usually both the lecturer of the module, and some more senior students (final year undergrads for 1st/2nd year classes, typically PhD students for 3rd, 4th year classes) to help with implementation. We got feedback on every piece of code we ever wrote. >Tons of my friends work at YC companies with either unrelated degrees or none at all. That's great. How many jobs are the YC companies contributing? I'm sure they're (mostly)all amazing places to work, but there's plenty of jobs you wont even be picked up from the pile of CVs if you haven't done a degree. You might not like HR departments, but most companies have them, and it's generally not a good move to alienate them if you don't need to. >Unlike a lot of posters here I really don't see anything wrong with not getting the degree. I think it's important that I reply to this point, just so you don't misunderstand me. I don't think there's anything _wrong_ with not getting a degree - I have plenty of friends who either didn't finish or didn't attend University, and many of them are in good jobs (some of them in tech). That said, it's important OP knows what you _do_ get by having a degree - and I'd strongly disagree with your statement about it being one of the least useful degrees.

xiaoma 12y ago
Yes, really. By "spending time with you while you're actually programming", I meant instructors literally being right by you correcting mistakes and giving feedback in real time. This kind of feedback isn't uncommon in music programs but is very uncommon in engineering programs. Did your instructors or TAs pair program with you? If so, what school were you at? I would consider it to be a very positive indicator of your program. >We got feedback on every piece of code we ever wrote. Sure, but asynchronous feedback on code certainly isn't something that can only be had at a university. Every bit of code I wrote while on the merchant engineering team at Groupon was reviewed by at least two people and the same is true of most my open source contributions. >How many jobs are the YC companies contributing? I'm sure they're (mostly)all amazing places to work, but there's plenty of jobs you wont even be picked up from the pile of CVs if you haven't done a degree. That may be true of many places, but at I can claim with certainty that FB and Google will both give interviews and even recruit engineers without CS degrees. It wouldn't surprise me if it were the least appealing jobs that most strictly adhere to credential-based hiring decisions. FWIW, I used to run an HR effort at a tech start-up before I became an engineer myself, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with how they operate.
- ciaranm 12y ago
  > Did your instructors or TAs pair program with you? If so, what school were you at? Yes! As with many things in life, you get back what you put in. There were plenty of TAs and Lecturers who would happily sit and work through a problem or alternate solution with you. The key factor was them knowing you weren't just trying to avoid doing it yourself. > Sure, but asynchronous feedback on code certainly isn't something that can only be had at a university. The point you made originally was alluded to that this sort of thing not happening at Universities. I was simply using my personal experiences to assert that, in my case at least, it did. For what it's worth, I went to University in Glasgow - the University of Strathclyde. > That may be true of many places, but at I can claim with certainty that FB and Google will both give interviews and even recruit engineers without CS degrees. I'm sure they do, and I know the company I work for does as well, but I also know the people who don't have a formally educated background tend to get grilled harder on CS theory than those who do. Having a degree in CS is not a useless thing. The point here of course, is whether it's right for the OP (:

by ciaranm 12y ago

xiaoma 12y ago

Yes, really. By "spending time with you while you're actually programming", I meant instructors literally being right by you correcting mistakes and giving feedback in real time. This kind of feedback isn't uncommon in music programs but is very uncommon in engineering programs. Did your instructors or TAs pair program with you? If so, what school were you at? I would consider it to be a very positive indicator of your program. >We got feedback on every piece of code we ever wrote. Sure, but asynchronous feedback on code certainly isn't something that can only be had at a university. Every bit of code I wrote while on the merchant engineering team at Groupon was reviewed by at least two people and the same is true of most my open source contributions. >How many jobs are the YC companies contributing? I'm sure they're (mostly)all amazing places to work, but there's plenty of jobs you wont even be picked up from the pile of CVs if you haven't done a degree. That may be true of many places, but at I can claim with certainty that FB and Google will both give interviews and even recruit engineers without CS degrees. It wouldn't surprise me if it were the least appealing jobs that most strictly adhere to credential-based hiring decisions. FWIW, I used to run an HR effort at a tech start-up before I became an engineer myself, so I'm not completely unfamiliar with how they operate.

ciaranm 12y ago
> Did your instructors or TAs pair program with you? If so, what school were you at? Yes! As with many things in life, you get back what you put in. There were plenty of TAs and Lecturers who would happily sit and work through a problem or alternate solution with you. The key factor was them knowing you weren't just trying to avoid doing it yourself. > Sure, but asynchronous feedback on code certainly isn't something that can only be had at a university. The point you made originally was alluded to that this sort of thing not happening at Universities. I was simply using my personal experiences to assert that, in my case at least, it did. For what it's worth, I went to University in Glasgow - the University of Strathclyde. > That may be true of many places, but at I can claim with certainty that FB and Google will both give interviews and even recruit engineers without CS degrees. I'm sure they do, and I know the company I work for does as well, but I also know the people who don't have a formally educated background tend to get grilled harder on CS theory than those who do. Having a degree in CS is not a useless thing. The point here of course, is whether it's right for the OP (: