Slashdot Mirror
Interest in CS as a Major Drops
Dasein writes "The Computer Research Association says that the popularity of CS as a major among freshman has dropped in the last four years. Why is obvious to anybody working in the field. They conclude by saying 'With a fall in degree production looming, it is difficult to see how CS can match expected future demand for IT workers without raising women's participation at the undergraduate level.'"
First, a Master's degree is not regarded as that big of a deal. Second, computer science is more mathematics than it is programming. Being a good computer scientist does not mean you can code well in terms of style and such.
A person's ability to architect depends on the area they studied. If they have a phd in software engineering, they'd likely be good at architecting. Also, if they studied algorithms, they could easily out design seasoned programmers.
Also keep in mind that research is not at all the same as doing mundane implementation. While people here seem to enjoy dumping on grads, they always forget to mention that while a cs phd or master can enter the job market without difficulty, someone from the job market is wholly inadequate to do research at a university level.
People with phds should be looking for research jobs, because that is what they are trained for. Many bigger companies offer positions that generally *require* a phd or masters. If you asked a nuclear engineer to program, they would not necessarily be steller at it. Please stop comparing cs phd's with programmers.