It took me a while to realize what the real point of an undergraduate degree is. Especially in CS, its easy to spend your time learning languages and knowledge you could easily get from a book.
The value of an undergraduate degree, even to an engineer, is in its liberal education. Learning to write well; to critically analyze another person's ideas; to gain broad exposure to a variety of fields to help make sense of the world; to learn philosophy to understand "life"; to learn how to learn; to prove to yourself you can commit to and finish a rigorous program of study. These are not skills you will necessarily use in the workplace at first, or ever. That does not mean they have no value: the skills are simply for personal development rather than professional development. If you think of college as a place to grow as a person, it puts a lot of things in perspective.
It is easiest to develop these skills when the students around you are also trying to develop these skills instead of just trying to coast through school for a diploma. Therein lies the value in going to a good school. I might be biased, but that's the impression I get from my friends going to CU Boulder.
They say youth is wasted on the young; perhaps college is wasted on those using it as a trade school.
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When my father recently had open-heart surgery, I was glad to know the doctor was a Harvard M.D.
It took me a while to realize what the real point of an undergraduate degree is. Especially in CS, its easy to spend your time learning languages and knowledge you could easily get from a book.
The value of an undergraduate degree, even to an engineer, is in its liberal education. Learning to write well; to critically analyze another person's ideas; to gain broad exposure to a variety of fields to help make sense of the world; to learn philosophy to understand "life"; to learn how to learn; to prove to yourself you can commit to and finish a rigorous program of study. These are not skills you will necessarily use in the workplace at first, or ever. That does not mean they have no value: the skills are simply for personal development rather than professional development. If you think of college as a place to grow as a person, it puts a lot of things in perspective.
It is easiest to develop these skills when the students around you are also trying to develop these skills instead of just trying to coast through school for a diploma. Therein lies the value in going to a good school. I might be biased, but that's the impression I get from my friends going to CU Boulder.
They say youth is wasted on the young; perhaps college is wasted on those using it as a trade school.