On Saturday, 21 January 2012 at 21:56:35 UTC, Chad J wrote:
I also took a Physics degree instead of a CS degree.
That's what I did for my first go. I actually went to college twice: one year right after high school, doing physics (at SUNY Oswego), then wanted to go home, but a couple years later, figured I'll give college a second go and did a year and a half of CS at the local community college (SUNY Jefferson). What I hated most about year #1 wasn't the classes - they actually didn't bother me at all - but rather the college environment and all the bullshit. First off, they required all the first year students to live on campus. WTF. And, of course, they required these exorbitant fees for all that too. IIRC, when I went, it was $2,500 for the semester, but let's look at today's price. (Another annoying thing: the prices are always hidden on college websites...) http://www.oswego.edu/administration/student_accounts/tuition_and_fees.html I pity the fool who comes from out of state! But, even the in state folks are charged $6,000, per semester! A semester goes from the fail end of August to mid-December, a little more than three months (and they kick you out for at least one week in there..) This works out to about $2k / month! Unbelievable. That's flabbergasting. The room I had was, oh, I didn't measure, but I think about 10 feet by 10 feet is about right; 100 ft^2, divided by two people. Fifty square feet.... two THOUSAND dollars a month. Sure, that includes other stuff too, but wow. Compare that to what I'm paying right now in the real world, if you will. I have my own little house in the city of Watertown, about 950 square feet, and I pay about $1100 per month in total expenses, excluding taxes, but including rent, heat, electricity, internet, food, water and sewer. It's not even in the same /ballpark/ as the college room and board cost! Best of all, I have my own bathroom and kitchen. And it's quiet here, pretty much all day and all night. I live next to a fire station, and it's infinitely more quiet than living next to college drunkards. The classes are OK, but the other crap they *required* just gets a huge HELL NO. And then, there's the tuition on top of that, oh my. And they nail you with interest? Just outrageous. Aaanyway, I did round two at the community college, and switched to computer science figuring an AS in computers is probably more useful than in physics, and is something I should be able to turn around quickly. And that wasn't bad at all. Government grants paid for the whole thing (for three semesters... I had already eaten a huge chunk of them in year 1) and I could live wherever I wanted. I might be ok with finishing that off someday if my business crashed and burned (and nobody took my years of experience as a substitute for college), but since the free money ran out, even the three or four grand they'd want to finish it off just doesn't look worth it. oh my looks like i got started on college ranting anyway. :)
Duplicate code is not reusable or maintainable.
Amen.