I dropped out of CS college to start my own adventure. It's been 2 years since I dropped out, and have not reached my goal. I'm still optimistic about my future and very enthusiast. There is no useless experience, I've got more and more knowledge since that day. Up vote for dropped out!
Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
71–80 of 176 posts
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#72My CS degree may have negatively impacted my career. The pressure of working while going to school was one of the things that caused me to quit my job at the time. It took me a year and a half after graduation to find another job and I'm currently unemployed again after a contract dispute; the company wanted me to agree never to take them to court under any circumstances, I asked them to take out that provision, and they fired me.
I still think getting the degree was the right choice. I learned some things and made some friends. Career-wise, I'm back to where I was ten years ago.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#73Out of high school I went to pursue a Computer Science degree because I wanted to be a programmer. First year was a lot of math, calculus and the like. First year computer science courses were kinda cool and fun, they used Scheme, a functional programming language to teach concepts. I kept telling myself though, that upper year would be more programming/cs and less math. Boy, was I wrong. Upper year "computer" scienc…
I had 3 courses for basic python, java and haskell in my first year. In my second year we were assumed to know how to use basic C, and were taught some basic assembly as a small part of another course. Third and fourth year, we were expected to use (not taught) basic C++ and advanced java. Not listed are several less popular languages which were used but not taught for other courses.
I think I would have enjoyed more programming courses, but I wouldn't have learned anything particularly useful.
I feel like a CS degree based around learning programming languages would be a huge waste of time. Languages are what you should be able to pick up very quickly on your own. They are just a tool. It's more important to understand the concepts used in computers and software. Plenty of people learn programming languages as a hobby, or as a teenager, etc. A CS degree has more to offer than that.
Similarly, getting an art degree isn't about learning how to use photoshop.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#74I did a CS minor in my senior year of college. I got my first job as a dev by reading "Programming Interviews Exposed" shortly before the interview
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#75I started programming at the age of 10, almost 30 years ago. By the time I reached college age it seemed like a waste of time to study CS, though I still wanted a degree so I studied business.
Hackers without a degree are not uncommon today but were unheard of in the 90s, when I graduated. It made it very hard for me to get the first the job, but if anything made me more motivated to prove myself. Within less than a year I became a team lead and had no issues since, because I had the track record.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#76I have a degree in history. In addition, I've studied a few CS and higher math courses in the university.
The math, algorithm and data structure courses have been useful for my programming career.
I love coding, and I'm self-taught. I believe its possible to be a great programmer even without a formal degree, if you are passionate. The vice versa doesn't hold.
The course that I miss in the CS degree I dropped out is compilers.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#77Out of high school I went to pursue a Computer Science degree because I wanted to be a programmer. First year was a lot of math, calculus and the like. First year computer science courses were kinda cool and fun, they used Scheme, a functional programming language to teach concepts. I kept telling myself though, that upper year would be more programming/cs and less math. Boy, was I wrong. Upper year "computer" scienc…
I do wish you wouldn't use quotes around "CS" so much. What you were studying is exactly what computer science is. I agree it's probably a bad name for it. Maybe "computation science" would be better. Somehow people have this idea what "computer science" and "programming" are the same thing. It gets on my nerves a little. They're both interesting and important disciplines, but miles apart. Also, if your professors di…
"Computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." - Edsger Dijkstra
The name of the field misleads a lot of people into thinking that CS is only about programming, but it's way more than that. Personally, I think all of my CS background from university is what distinguishes me as a software developer instead of just a "programmer".
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#78I dropped out but was not at a school which even had a CS Major, I have been programming since 12 and dropped out as a Junior in college because I sold my first software company.
I actually just took my first "real" job (start tomorrow) and having no degree was not much of an issue at all. It seems like to me if you can write code and answer the silly brain teaser questions that you should know reading absolutely any beginning CS books than you are good to go with getting a job.
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#79I'm just annoyed that you said "effected" instead of "affected"
Re: Poll: Do you have a CS degree?
#80Define "non-cs related".
I have a linguistics degree in which I did a good deal of computational linguistics, as well as a minor in CS, and grad classes in both the linguistics and cs departments at my university.
This is the trouble i have with "non-cs related" degrees. NAFTA doesn't recognize me for the degree I have, although at this point I have enough work experience that it doesn't matter.