Can't look at it as a trade. CS is a good degree but it won't guarantee you riches. It's what you do with the degree that determines how you'll end up.
On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 4:45 PM, Tim Holloway <[email protected]> wrote: > I went 1 term at UF and never did do a CS class there. I left because > while there are a lot of appealing things about a large and complex > school and I enjoyed the academics and cultural facilities, the student > were entirely too grim. I could have found a friendlier crowd in > Manhattan at rush hour. Of course, I was also pushing 30 at the time, > which meant that by the reckoning of most students I was in the advanced > stages of mummification. > > Even back then, their programs struck me as a little odd, being split > mostly between the engineering and business schools. They also hadn't > yet discovered the C Programming Language, even though I'd been teaching > it at FJC a year or so earlier. Still, my jaw dropped when I read the > news about UF dismantling its CS department. > > I first heard of UCF at a meeting of the UF ACM chapter. Every year > there's a programming contest, and UCF was considered a Force to Be > Reckoned With. Later, I moved down to Orlando and transferred to UCF and > found out why. While I'm not a big fan of programming contests as a > measure of ability, the UCF ACM had a well-honed machine, and it > routinely did well against big-league competitors like MIT and > Singapore. > > I have a lot of respect for UCF's CS and engineering programs, even > though circumstances kept me from ever graduating. UCF also established > a proper research park in its vicinity. UNF tried to, but about the best > they could manage was an AOL call center. Speaking of which, I'm sorry > to report that I haven't exactly been inundated with volunteers on my > own little pet geek project. Are we really THAT primitive around here? > > Anyway, regardless of the relative merits of various colleges, the > brutal fact is that CS is not the best of career choices anymore. I > think we've pretty much bottomed out on the offshoring thing, but that > doesn't mean that Happy Days are Here Again, or likely to be so anytime > soon. While it should be relatively easy to enter the field while you're > still at the bottom of your earnings potential and willing to work > insane hours, age discrimination and the Wal-Mart effect on salaries > mean that paying off that student loan may prove difficult. Not that > there are a whole lot of other professions that can offer more hope > right now. > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 > RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml > Unsubscribe [email protected] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive http://marc.info/?l=jaxlug-list&r=1&w=2 RSS Feed http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml Unsubscribe [email protected]
