How much did you actually gain from attending a college computer science
course and obtaining a degree?
Quite a lot actually. But not:
Did you find your knowledge of programming in general and specific to
be vastly improved?
I studied Computing Science, and it was quite theoretical. The focus
certainly wasn't on programming, or learning programming languages.
CS as much about programming, as astronomy is about telescopes.
We were taught Pascal in the first semester (well, we only started with
Pascal after two months, that's how long we had to wait for computers
to arrive; the first two months we learned how to formally prove programs),
and afterwards we just got a small manual if we had to use a new language.
I didn't write my first bytes of C until a year after I graduated.
And I wrote my first line of Perl almost 6 years after I graduated.
But I learned a lot. From concrete things as math, data structures,
and analysis of algorithms, to more meta things like studying complex
materials, writing articles, expressing ideas, analysing problems, etc.
Most of all, I learned how to think.
The second question is how much has having a college degree, preferably in
compsci, but I'm also interested in general, helped you in obtaining jobs?
I've had several jobs, and have had jobs offered, that I probably wouldn't
have had or have had offered if I had not had a degree. My current job
being one of them.
Abigail
