So I come from the other end of the spectrum. Studied non-CS in college, and after graduating I became a self-taught developer and am now working as a "profess

So I come from the other end of the spectrum. Studied non-CS in college, and after graduating I became a self-taught developer and am now working as a "professional programmer". I had always believed that I wouldn't need to know the CS theory because I was able to write code that worked and didn't find it too complicated. When I decided to become a developer I learned by launching a few websites, which performed horribly, but I didn't realize until I got a few users. It took me a while to even figure out what was wrong, but eventually I learned about Big-O and realized my algorithms were far from optimal. Started scrambling to teach myself all CS theory I could find online, just so I could build things properly. Then there is a phase where you are constantly worried there is something else from CS school you are missing which will cause your software to blow up, but eventually you get more confident (with shipped code/and a better understanding of CS theory). So in the end, I think the CS theory in school saves you from a lot of head banging and ignorance after you graduate. However, you will probably do a lot of this in your undergrad, so I guess it all balances out in the end!