jk@utastro.UUCP (John Krist) (03/07/86)
All this talk about the value of CS degrees, the worth of certain
programming languages and all has got me more than a little nervous,
for I am a CS student at a big university which thrives on Pascal and
offers only a BA degree. What am I to do?!?!?!?
If some of you can do some analysation of what is to come, I would
appreciate the feedback.
First of all, I do work about 19 hours a week here in the astronomy
at the University of Texas at Austin doing all that grimy programming
in Fortran, so I know that the real world doesn't live on top-down
design or semicolons at the end of program lines.
CS students at UT take (are subjected to take?) the following :
o Two semesters of Pascal with "Computer Science Concepts"
o 1 sem. of assembly language
o 1 sem. of data structures
o 1 sem. analysis of programs
o 1 sem. computer architecture
o 1 sem. of operating systems
o 4 sem. of other upper-division CS courses (graphics, numerical
methods, etc.)
o 2 sem. of calculus plus 1 sem. linear algebra or 1 sem. of
a third calculus course
o 1 sem. symbolic logic
o 1 sem. digital systems
o 1 sem. linguistics
o 4 sem. of a foreign language
o 2 sem. English
o plus your usual government, electives, etc.
Am I doomed even before I get out? Will my experience in the astronomy
department save me or will the stigma of a (gasp!) BA degree in
(gasp!) CS from a (gasp!) gigantic state university write me off?
Also, I'd like to go right up to a Ph.D., if I could make it, and do
something in graphics or image processing. Is this a pipe dream? Is
it worth it?
Help!
Signed,
Confused (also know as John Krist - jk@utastro.UUCP)crm@duke.UUCP (Charlie Martin) (03/10/86)
John -- With that kind of background, and a lot of experience writing real- time code, you should have no trouble getting jobs. In fact, my wife might be interested in your resume. With those classes but without the experience, you will also have no trouble getting a job. And in about 18 months to two years, you might be doing something to earn the salary, as well. Doing a *professional* job, rather than having to be led through by an experienced person. And with those classes, assuming your grades are okay, you should have no trouble getting into a grad school. My advice: take a job for a couple of years. Getting a Ph.D. is fine, but it would be nice to know *why* you're doing what you're doing. [I posted this because it nicely describes the problems with CS programs: a CS degree AND some experience makes one able to do the "professional" jobs everyone seems to think a CS major should do.] -- Charlie Martin (...mcnc!duke!crm)