Oh by the way, the thing that made it so shocking was that it wasn't an isolated event. The program was full of guys like that, and for the most part, they all went on to graduate. Cheating was rampant there, and it wasn't at all difficult to pass (or even get an A) in a class just by riding someone else's coattails.
I went into programming for the same reasons you mentioned. Although I started off at UC Berkeley, by the time I got my head straight and got serious about education, I found myself working full time as a programmer _and_ going to school full time at Cal State Long Beach. I'm really not trying to knock CSULB, but the contrast was unbelievable!! And I don't just mean the curriculum - the difference between UCB CS students and CSULB CS students is astonishing.
Here's a rather shocking (and 100% TRUE) example:
I was in the computer lab one day at CSULB, trying to finish a project, and the guy next to me asks for help setting up his dev tools. After taking a few seconds to look at what he was trying to do, and looking at the written instructions he'd been given by the professor, I realized he'd been sitting there struggling with simple DOS commands. All he had to do was create a directory, copy some files into it, and then run pkunzip on a couple files.
Naturally, I was taken aback by his lack of basic computer skills. He went on to explain that he had never used DOS before and said "I'm kind of intimidated by computers." I asked him his major. He said CS. I asked him his level, he said Junior.
I nearly fell out of my chair!!
Especially when I remembered what UC Berkeley was like. Those of you who've been EECS majors at UCB know what I'm talking about. Berkeley is all about sink-or-swim. The first few semesters they are actually aggressively trying to weed you out, because there's far more students that want to get into (and stay in) the program than there are spots available. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.
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Oh by the way, the thing that made it so shocking was that it wasn't an isolated event. The program was full of guys like that, and for the most part, they all went on to graduate. Cheating was rampant there, and it wasn't at all difficult to pass (or even get an A) in a class just by riding someone else's coattails.
I went into programming for the same reasons you mentioned. Although I started off at UC Berkeley, by the time I got my head straight and got serious about education, I found myself working full time as a programmer _and_ going to school full time at Cal State Long Beach. I'm really not trying to knock CSULB, but the contrast was unbelievable!! And I don't just mean the curriculum - the difference between UCB CS students and CSULB CS students is astonishing. Here's a rather shocking (and 100% TRUE) example: I was in the computer lab one day at CSULB, trying to finish a project, and the guy next to me asks for help setting up his dev tools. After taking a few seconds to look at what he was trying to do, and looking at the written instructions he'd been given by the professor, I realized he'd been sitting there struggling with simple DOS commands. All he had to do was create a directory, copy some files into it, and then run pkunzip on a couple files. Naturally, I was taken aback by his lack of basic computer skills. He went on to explain that he had never used DOS before and said "I'm kind of intimidated by computers." I asked him his major. He said CS. I asked him his level, he said Junior. I nearly fell out of my chair!! Especially when I remembered what UC Berkeley was like. Those of you who've been EECS majors at UCB know what I'm talking about. Berkeley is all about sink-or-swim. The first few semesters they are actually aggressively trying to weed you out, because there's far more students that want to get into (and stay in) the program than there are spots available. I could go on and on, but I think you get the idea.