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Northface University - Computer Science in Half the Time?

Posted by michael on from the revenge-of-the-nerds dept.

prostoalex writes "Associated Press runs a nationwide story on Northface University. The school, founded by a pair of venture capitalists and former technology chief found a niche with its highly intensive curriculum and corporate software development specialization. For example, a BSCS degree can be completed in a little over 2 years, and it comes with IBM's WebSphere and Microsoft's MCSD certification. Northface is also promoting its corporate partnerships, which allow current students to feel more secure about future employment. Grady Booch from IBM is quoted to be 'jazzed up' about the program, although there are many who oppose such approaches to college education."

14 of 666 comments (clear)

  1. Everything will be half by suso · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Half the time
    Half the money
    Half the college experience.

    1. Re:Everything will be half by ari_j · · Score: 5, Funny

      Right, because Physics, Calculus, Economics, and even Latin have no bearing whatsoever on real-world employment.

    2. Re:Everything will be half by AKAImBatman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      While I agree with what you're saying, this change does have me a bit fearful. College curriculums have been slowly dumbed down as companies demand trained code monkeys from these institutions, instead of highly educated individuals with free-thinking ability. The result is that too many of today's college grads couldn't find a binary tree structure if it bit them in the ass. They just put one line of code after another and work on tying their shoes. The problem is, I could hire a fourteen year old to do the same thing.

      As for degrees as job qualifications, this is seriously beginning to irk me. On one hand, companies supposedly want the best and brightest employee possible. On the other hand, they shirk the guy who's got the experience, the knowledge, and the proven ability but no degree, for some degreed idiot who doesn't know the first thing about software development.

      Of course, these are the same companies that think that more warm bodies == faster development. In their never-ending pursuit for more warm bodies, they've outsourced to more warm bodies in India so that they can get even more warm bodies for the same price! Next they'll cut costs by going for more cold bodies!

      Maybe Google will finally teach the business world something about proper engineering. Then again, maybe not.

      --
      Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
    3. Re:Everything will be half by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Remember, eventually, there will be another IT crash. Just studying CS gives you little head start on another career. If you think school is hard, changing careers 10 years down the line is even harder.

      Even more so, most people change careers regardless of the market. A lot of people are in CS because they enjoy it, but a lot are there for money. Even the ones that enjoy it might not forever. When they see a chance to do something they've always dreamed of, they are going to want to know about more than just programming. Someone that hasn't had economics, or statistics can be crippled in many real world situations (and often not even know it. If they knew it, they could learn.)

      Extra exposure also gives you insight to do your programming. Sure, you can write code to spec without knowing what it's doing, but you can make better designs if you understand the problems you're working on. The design team for an accounting package should involve accountants, and programmers who know something about accounting.

      I also question whether they drop the less used CS stuff, too. I got my mechanical engineering degree, and, as they say, I wan't immediately useful as a designer. They could have made the curriculum more practical, and I would have been more useful straight out of school, but it would have sacrificed theory and fringe situations. Part of what sets me apart from the non-engineer people around work is knowing the theory, so I understand what's happening and why, and can design better for it. The fringe situations are those rare occurrances that we almost never see, but when they happen they're very hard to figure out, or they could kill someone. I have to keep those in the back of my head, just in case they ever come up.

      This school sounds like a glorified trade school. It's very useful, and I'm glad somebody is teaching people how to program, but I don't know if they should call it a BS degree if it isn't well rounded in worldly matters. Someone with a degree should be educated, not just skilled.

  2. Technical school? by jridley · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That's nice and all, but don't confuse it with a 4-year university, unless they're doubling up everything. A technically intensive degree doesn't produce the same kind of individual that a normal 4 year degree, with a variety of disciplines and experiences, provides.
    Taken in that light, 2-year technical schools are nothing new. Any university could get you through in 2 years if you took nothing outside your major.

  3. Another One by mzkhadir · · Score: 5, Funny

    Oh my god, another Devry

  4. Nitpicking Symantics by Doesn't_Comment_Code · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...can be completed in a little over 2 years, and it comes with IBM's WebSphere and Microsoft's MCSD certification.

    I've said this before, and will again. A collection of certificates is not the same as a computer science degree.

    Learning to program or to operate a specific set of programs if valuable, don't get me wrong there. But that is not the same thing as understanding the workings of a computer (which I consider Computer Science).

    Learning a set of skills is very job-applicable, and very practical. But it should not be called computer science.

    --

    Slashdot Syndrome: the sudden, extreme urge to correct someone in order to validate one's self.
  5. this is just a damn shame by Altus · · Score: 5, Insightful


    these kids are going to come out of school with a CS degree and very little of the knowledge that a COMPUTER SCIENTIST should have.

    Now Im not saying that there isnt a place for a 2 year degree that is focused on programming for corprate america. corprate america needs more programmers, especialy ones that have been custom made for the type of work that corps need, but to call them CS majors? I have a hard time beliving that they will realy learn much of the science side of CS in 2 years, while also training in 2 certifications.

    Perhaps Im wrong and this cariculum will teach excelent data structure usage, and algorithim analysis and AI and compiler design and low level architecture. But at this point i kind of doubt it.

    --

    "In America, first you get the sugar, then you get the power, then you get the women..." -H. Simpson

    1. Re:this is just a damn shame by GileadGreene · · Score: 5, Informative
      Perhaps Im wrong and this cariculum will teach excelent data structure usage, and algorithim analysis and AI and compiler design and low level architecture. But at this point i kind of doubt it.

      Looking at their curriculum course descriptions, I'd say that your doubts are well founded. Looks like a trade school with a few classes in logic and discrete math thrown in. I don't see much on software engineering (aside from lip service to "the complete software life cycle"), let alone any actual computer science.

  6. This is NOT Computer Science by hattig · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is going to be a degree in Computer Programming, or Computer Administration at the most.

    These people are not going to be taught a wide spread of stuff like in Computer Science that goes from lots of maths and theoretical stuff through to real world stuff through to hardware and all that.

    You can but hope that this course will create people that are more than unthinking code monkeys or button clickers.

  7. Let me guess by themoodykid · · Score: 5, Funny

    Their textbooks are the "Teach Yourself XYZ in 24 hours" series?

  8. Anyone remember Ars Digita University? by uncadonna · · Score: 5, Insightful
    It seems to me that this discussion will be remiss if it fails to compare and contrast Phil Greenspun's idealistic Ars Digita University which attempted to deliver an MIT-equivalent CS education in a year.

    Some of the best coders I've ever encountered were under 20. It doesn't really take that long for someone with the right sort of intelligence to develop the skills. So the idea of a two-year crash course isn't unreasonable.

    The real problem is, that sort of intelligence isn't all that rare. Which is why a coding career isn't as lucrative as it once was, I guess. These crash courses beguile their audiences into thinking they can be fabulously wealthy just as coders. You need a great deal more to convert computing skill into something other than a moderately paid high stress job.

    Know computing, but also know something else, is my advice for most people. What else? Something that you can apply the computing to, basically. There's a lot of choices. Pick one.

    --
    mt
  9. CS accreditations are worthless anyway. by emil · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Since I graduated in 1995, tuition at the University of Iowa has tripled. It has done so because the school has locked itself into a number of expensive construction projects and is not able to reduce its cash flow needs to match the decreasing state revenue.

    From what I can tell, the quality of instruction has not tripled since my graduation. Even moreso, students that I have advised to pursue Oracle DBA certification as technical electives have been repeatedly refused, even though the university listed Oracle certification as for-credit courses.

    The CS departments of most universities have been bought off by Microsoft to the extent that they already spend over a year teaching Visual Basic. They do not use open tools, and their administrative structure reflects this close-minded and obsolete path.

    IMHO, State Universities are run in a cartel system that has seen its fair share of waste and corruption. Any ideas for a system that could effectively compete with the public university cartel would be welcome indeed.

  10. It is not a computer science degree by timrichardson · · Score: 5, Insightful

    E. Dijkstra: Computer Science is no more about
    computers than astronomy is about telescopes

    Anything that brags about java and .net certification is not a computer science course. It is probably not even a software engineering course.
    It is probably a programming course.