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What's your take on a CS degree?

first off thank you all for taking the time to share your experiences and knowledge, all very much appreciated and I hope it helps others searching for information too.

a good spread of opinions here, but as one of you mentioned it's a decision that others can't make for me.

I guess the next step is to study for the exams and keep my options open.

Thank you very much.

Charlie.
 
I'm shortlisting for a job tomorrow. There are 45 applicants for 1 job. The job specification says degree needed. Anyone who does not have a degree will not be shortlisted.

However, the job is one which needs a degree. You haven't really said what sort of a job you want, other than something in computing. Some will need a degree, others won't. I do know that the more qualifications someone has the higher salary they tend to have (links below). Maybe you could have a chat to your careers people or ask about career options at the uni open days to get a better idea of what you specifically want - then you'll have a better idea of whether you need a degree or not (have a look at the job specs and if they say you need a degree you probably need one...)

http://www.thecompleteuniversityguide.co.uk/careers/what-do-graduates-earn/
http://ww2.prospects.ac.uk/cms/Show..._and_non_graduate_salaries_compare_/p!elkFpLg

simples <squeak>
 
The only real difference in my mind is the practicality of what you learn. You'll probably have a lot of CS knowledge you never use depending on where you end up. And the real question you should be asking first is which area of programming you want to work.

If you want to work in business you might be better off with MIS as it will require business courses that are pretty necessary to better understand how businesses run/what they would need from you. If you want to work in graphics or game programming I would suggest a CS degree for the extra math courses.

If you are unsure which area you want it is much easier to learn about business practices by yourself than to pick up something like vector maths without any help.
 
And said:
I'm shortlisting for a job… <squeak>
Click to expand...

great! thanks for the links, it's interesting that only 39% go straight into work, on the other hand though the average salary gain is substantial.

----------
Zombie Acorn said:
...And the real question you should be asking first is which area of programming you want to work...
Click to expand...

that's something I think doing the degree would help with. I think I'm stuck with CS for now seeing as that is all I have applied for, (could always change I suppose). Thanks for the help.

Charlie
 
Not saying that you shouldn't get a degree but I know an enormous amount of people working either at Apple or for popular startups and game companies in San Francisco, all without a degree.

A lot of them did attend college though, but while doing it they realized they could be doing more on their own instead of taking classes for things they already knew.
 
anjinha said:
Not saying that you shouldn't get a degree but I know an enormous amount of people working either at Apple or for popular startups and game companies in San Francisco, all without a degree.

A lot of them did attend college though, but while doing it they realized they could be doing more on their own instead of taking classes for things they already knew.
Click to expand...

it's this kind of thing that makes you wonder...

The degree though does seem to be the "safer" route.

I think it's safe to say that there will be many classes to take that I will not know anything about!

Thanks,

Charlie
 
Well first off I am currently earning my Computer Science degree but really in Computer science you do not program all the time. There is a lot more to the degree than just learning how to program.

Anything I learned from the different programming languages I could of more than likely taught myself but the big things you learn is more about theory, proper format/ best practices.

How to do program design of a program. I have looked at code from self taught vs people who went to school. Both programs worked great on what they were supposed to do but the school educated person code was easier to follow, read and modify/debug than the self taught person even if the self taught code was comment and the school guys was not. More because the guy with the degree would follow proper format in naming and formatting of vars and methods along with just proper design.

heck one year in my degree was not in a single programming class at all unless you count everything in theory format. I wrote some proof of concept projects in both C# and java that semseter. I have taken software modeling classes where there is not a single line of code written in there. That is more about breaking down a project into parts and task on what needs to be done.
 

see that's the thing, I need to learn more "around" programming too.

Where is it you study? @ rodimus
 
charlieegan3 said:
it's this kind of thing that makes you wonder...

The degree though does seem to be the "safer" route.

I think it's safe to say that there will be many classes to take that I will not know anything about!

Thanks,

Charlie
Click to expand...

I think in your case a degree is probably the best course but you should try, as much as you can, to do your own projects and try new things in addition to what you learn in class.
 
Wow, a lot of information in this thread for me.
Firstly, I'm just going to Univ right now for a CS degree (Not started yet, will start this fall).

But, I was hesitant to go with a CS degree for the past few months. The info in this thread (Especially about the Management Info. Systems) basically convinced me to do a lot more research on Information Systems degrees.

I'm not thinking of doing an Accounting Information Systems major with a minor in CS.
 
Professional experience with a list of accomplishments trumps a degree in my experience. I'm a software architect but have a degree in English, not computer science. I started college as a CS major but got a job programming my sophomore year. I started learning way more on the job than I was learning in school, so I decided I was either going to drop out of school or change my major. I had previously had some great English teachers who got me interested in literature, so I decided to stay in school and major in English (I did end up with collaterals in math and CS, though, due to starting out as a CS major). I moved on from that first programming job after 4 1/2 years and was hired by my current company where I've been for almost 8 years now, all without a CS degree.

Keep in mind that professional experience is what counts. Programming as a hobby might augment a resume, but without a degree or experience it likely won't get you very far.
 
charlieegan3 said:
One thing I have noticed about the degrees I've applied for is that they all seem to do a huge amount of math, in the early years almost as much as the computing side of things. I don't understand why this is necessary, surely the best way to learn how to solve programming problems is by programming the solutions?
Click to expand...

Yes, there is a significant amount of maths... and physics and many other subjects. Computer Science is much broader than just learning how to program.

Usually, the lectures will cover quite complex scientific and mathematical ideas and you cement these in labs by programming them. Very few of my courses were about actually learning to program. I did two on object oriented and one on procedural programming - that's out of around twenty-five courses in total.

Usually the solution to a problem is based in maths, so you need to understand those concepts more than you need to learn the programming language. For a simple example, if you want to program something using OpenGL, you need to understand how vector transformations work.

I graduated from Manchester with a Computer Science degree in 2006. I am now a Product Manager for a software company near Manchester. My second choice was Edinburgh and I know a guy who is doing a masters there now and it sounds like a great place.

Drop me a PM if you have any specific questions.
 
I have a CS degree from a decent university. My school actually had a COOP program where students would work in real jobs about half of the school year and attend school the other half. That way people who managed to get jobs would come out with a couple of years of actual job-related experience. Of course that meant no summers off and regular BS/BA took 5 years instead of 4 but at the end it was worth it for most people.

Anyway, long story short, my first COOP was in software QA. Guess what I do now? You got it - SQA. I like it better than coding to some extent although I do some coding on occasion, mostly scripting.

As somebody who's been in the industry for several years, my advice is: get a degree. Unless you're absolutely amazing at coding it's going to be extremely tough to find a job without it at the beginning. Yes, down the road jobs are going to come easier but first few are going to notice your lack of degree and that might make think twice before hiring you instead of somebody with one + similar experience.

Salary also sometimes reflects this. As an example I have a buddy who does IT and is quite good at it. But he dropped out of college a long time ago. Sure he got his Associates not long ago and is doing an online Bachelor's but his salary level remained lower despite all of his experience.
 
thanks for the continued support and advice everyone.

Just got to pass those exams now!
 
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