<p>I've heard a lot of contradicting things about the status of computer science grads. If you do a simple Google search, most articles claim it is a great major to go for. High salary, plentiful jobs, etc. However, I've also seen people on forums like this one claim that CS is a terrible way to go; that grads often don't get jobs, that the work is too hard, not worth it, etc.</p>
<p>What's going on here? Why is it that I'm hearing completely different things from different people?</p>
<p>Also, as a freshman only about to enter college, I'm curious as to how the CS major will be. All this negative talk is making me have my doubts. Math was never my strong point, but I am fond of computers and I like to think I can think logically. I've always been able to figure things out on my own with a little effort. I'm not looking forward to the supposed hours upon hours of work that I hear about though.</p>
<p>Basically, I'm just looking to see if someone could sort out these answers for me. I think I'm hearing too much speculation and not enough from those who actually might know what they're talking about. Thanks in advance</p>
<p>I’m also very very curious about the answer. Great question! But I would hypothesize that the internet, especially forums, are filled with the highly vocal few who are malcontent with what they are doing. After all, if they were happy, why would they feel the need to rant it out on a forum?</p>
<p>I just finished my CS undergrad and I think that generally CS kids don’t have too much trouble getting jobs. You still need to be a good CS major (gpa wise), but if you have that then you shouldn’t have too much issue. Places like GOOG, MSFT, facebook, Apple, etc, are all obvious options for good CS majors. Investment banks/finance firms are also pretty interested in CS majors…</p>
<p>So ya if you are good then you shouldn’t have much issue. But if you graduate with a 3.0 or lower then it will be tough to get a job, obviously. The college you go to also matters…</p>
<p>"I’m also very very curious about the answer. Great question! But I would hypothesize that the internet, especially forums, are filled with the highly vocal few who are malcontent with what they are doing. After all, if they were happy, why would they feel the need to rant it out on a forum? "
I couldn’t have said it better myself.</p>
<p>All verifiable, quantifiable measures indicate that CS is a good field to be in. Anecdote, hearsay, and urban legends are filled with horror stories about it. At the end of the day, you’ve got to decide which source you’re going to base your decisions on.</p>
<p>Wait so… what about industry? I heard it’s like a battlefield in the CS/engineering world, where you pretty much have to devote your life to constant learning in order to stay competitive in the field. Is this true?</p>
<p>"Wait so… what about industry? I heard it’s like a battlefield in the CS/engineering world, where you pretty much have to devote your life to constant learning in order to stay competitive in the field. Is this true? "
Who have you heard that from? What evidence do they have to show that their claim is true? What evidence do they provide to show that what they see in the CS/SE/Eng. field is not common across the board?</p>
<p>Three toed sloths have a fear of stagnant water. There. See how easy it was for me to say that?</p>
<p>If you enjoy programming enough to think about it outside of class, go for it.</p>
<p>The people who complain are the ones who went into CS for the wrong reasons. If you don’t care about computers enough to stay up to date with what’s happening, then what can you expect?</p>
<p>Getting an interesting CS job can depend on your location, however.</p>
<p>I would add that any good CS program will have you take courses in:
Analysis of Algorithms / Data Structures
Formal Languages / Theoretical CS
Which, while usually offered by the CS department, are really just more math classes in disguise (if it looks like math, and works like math, and makes people mad like math…)</p>
<p>And member, I think the spelling is “discrete”. I always thought it was funny the spelling was different. I believe in other languages no distinction is made.</p>
<p>I think that the job market is decent. That said, the job market
for most areas is awful right now so decent isn’t so bad by way
of comparison.</p>
<p>The work is hard. You may have to get through weeder courses and
CS courses with labs can be brutal in terms of the amount of hours
you need to spend on them. The theoretical math in CS can be a big
turnoff. The CS major covers a lot of areas and many of them are
either a lot of work, very hard if you’re not used to them, or both.</p>
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<p>It’s like that in every profession. Technology and practice change all
the time in any field. You have to keep up. That’s the nature of modern
work.</p>
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<p>Some places may require differential equations (from what I’ve heard).
My son loves math, moreso than CS and his strong math background has
made it much easier to get through his program.</p>
<p>So does this mean that math is a huge deal? My history with math has been very wobbly. </p>
<p>My high school had 3 tiers of math students basically. I was in the middle with the majority of the kids. I could always excel in this “average” class, sometimes at the top of the class, but I was never good enough to stay afloat in the “smart” class. I had tried before and always ended up getting mediocre grades and retaking the class.</p>
<p>Perhaps with more effort I could tackle CS. I guess what I’m asking is if the math of CS is one of those “natural born” talents people have. Could an “average” person still do well here?</p>
<p>You can look at their calc course materials (they teach Calc I and II in one semester).</p>
<p>They also have video lectures for algorithms. You should be able to find a Foundations course at Ars Digita.</p>
<p>The math isn’t easy. A lot of students have trouble with Calc I, II, III. Remember that you just have to pass the course to get to the next level but barely getting by will make it harder as you progress to your degree. In my son’s program, I think that there were about 65 students in the Freshman year. He’s taking a senior-level course now and there are eight students in it. There is also a spring offering so there are a lot of students that don’t complete the CS degree at his school. I think that some of these students change their majors to something less math intensive. If you like programming but not the math, then you might take a look at something like CIS (I have an undergrad degree in CIS).</p>
<p>It appears that a stats course and one other math/stat course is required. However, this is a program that is pretty light on math. My son goes to a third-tier state U but it is a rigorous program. Some of the CS course electives in the 4xx series at UMCP are essentially math courses. I don’t know how you would do justice to a computer graphics course without requiring calculus 3 and/or one or two semesters of linear algebra.</p>
<p>He took a CS course at a local university when he was 15 and was surprised at how easy it was so I went around looking for a program that was a lot harder.</p>