Slashdot Mirror
For CS Majors, How Important Is the "Where?"
An anonymous reader writes "I'm a high school senior who is trying to pick a college to attend. I've been accepted by two comparably selective schools. One is a highly regarded tech school, and the other is a highly regarded liberal arts institution. I prefer the liberal arts college, but the computer science program is small, graduating about a dozen students a year. The course load is heavily theory based; programming languages are taught in later years.
How much would the tech school vs. non tech school matter? Are CS majors from non-tech school considered inferior? What would an HR department think? What would you think if you were hiring?"
I wouild suggest a liberal arts college and hope that you come out the other end as a Renaissance humanist polymath something like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leon_Battista_Alberti
As a professor, I doubt you'll regret going the liberal arts route. For one thing, the probability that you will change your major is about 60-70%. A liberal arts education not only exposes you to many different interests and opportunities, but it gives you skills that even many good research universities fail to impart: strong writing, strong argumentation and speaking, strong critical thinking skills. The ability to approach a problem from many different perspectives is handy. You'll need job experience to make the big bucks anyway, so you might as well maximize the value of your education while getting your degree.
Make cheese not war 8:)
There's actually a serious point here.
I graduated with a CS degree from a Liberal Arts college. Perhaps at a tech school you are surrounded by people who know about the subjects you wish to learn about. The key to a Liberal Arts college is surrounding yourself with a variety of people. You're going to learn a lot more partying with a history or philosophy major than you are partying with another programmer.
Also, you are forced to take classes you wouldn't have wanted to, and *gasp* you'll actually learn about new things! Perhaps when you're 40, you'll decide that you don't want to be a programmer anymore. Instead, you want to become a writer, or open your own restaurant. You're going to have a wider variety of knowledge and contacts in a wider variety of fields if you went to a Liberal Arts college.
Admittedly, I've not tried for a job at Google or Sun. However, I've had no trouble finding good work, and interviewers are usually impressed by the college I graduated from.
where people have labeled you funny, you make a good point. But the point you make is why I'd encourage him to go. Look, unless you're going to MIT, I'd say stay away from tech schools all together and find a well balanced school that offers a decent program in computer science, CIS, telecom, whatever. I made the mistake of going to a tech school where they give you chump work for academics, arts, etc just to pass you by and intentionally do not challenge you in these realms.
We're talking about guys who are lucky they've ever had a girlfriend that wasn't online. Guys that couldn't talk to you about anything in the world other than technology, and were extremely masturbatory in their approaches to coming up with solutions for various assignments, projects, etc. In short, the kids only saw one thing, technology/code. That's it. I've found that you show me a person who knows his shit in technology, but also has a bit of a well rounded education on top of that focus, and he/she will generally be more innovative and more productive individual.
The work force isn't all about how much crap you know either. It's bureaucracy, it's politics, it's social skills. And hanging around a majority of people, and taking courses with people who's closest thing to a girlfriend is their hairy palms, or some avatar in Second Life or WoW, who can't for the life of them understand the simplest of pieces of art, who know jack shit about history, politics, psychology, relationships, parents, friendship, you name it, simply isn't healthy IMO.
Keep your focus, but learn to branch out and be in an environment that allows you to branch out.
The point of university is to totally immerse yourself in your chosen subject. See European universities for examples of how this really works. You spend three or four years doing nothing but what you signed up for. Far better use of time
There are significant differences between the US and Europe, if you haven't noticed...Until recently, the United States appreciated well rounded individuals with wide expertise and the ability to do multiple kinds of jobs over the European preference for specialists. While this preference has changed in recent years, American universities still teach to those old preferences. So, most American universities would say the point of attending is getting a "well rounded" education. Besides, seeking to limit yourself so narrowly means you are more heavily affected when a downturn occurs in your field of specialization.
Whilst being articulate helps, you've clearly never hired a software engineer. Some narrow technical skill is EXACTLY what will get you the big money in software, and what will get you hired over and over.
Not everyone who goes into computer science wants to be a programmer.
Indeed. As an employer I've found that it's easier to train an arts student to program than it is to teach an engineer social skills.
I got my undergraduate degree from a liberal arts college (CS major, math minor), but then, after a small hiatus, received an MS from a well-known technical school.
A few random observations from a veteran of industry:
Good luck!
--- The American Way of Life is not a birthright. Hell, it's not even sustainable.