<p>
[quote]
More and more graduates are finding that their conceptually-based college educations leave them ill-equipped to handle “real-world” jobs – so much so that, according to some experts, most companies no longer care what their recruits majored in, since they know they’ll have to extensively train them regardless. This is even more poignant in the tech sector – in fact, 47 percent of the technology jobs in New York City no longer require any college education at all. Across the country, only half of high-tech workers have graduated college.
<p>Didn't someone say college students today could be too "pre-professional"? On the other hand, I feel that college education for STEM majors in particular will be forced to be more and more like "trade schools".</p>
<p>Many majors that are in a college or university setting are, in fact, technical degrees. Some (like nursing) were rarely integrated with the colleges and universities but were stand-alone schools. </p>
<p>
[quote]
Maybe it’s a crazy idea, but if you’re going to spend all that money for a college education, shouldn’t you expect to learn real-world skills from people who know what they’re doing?
[quote]
</p>
<p>Maybe things have changed, but I didn’t go to college to learn real-world skills…I went to college (liberal arts gasp) to sharpen my analytical skills, to deepen my critical thinking skills, to learn how to think and talk on my feet, to write in an educated manner and to frankly, gain deeper understanding of global political dynamics because that, at the time, was where my interests were heading.</p>
<p>^^Agree. I’m sorry to break the bad news…not all CS/engineering degrees are created equal…and not all liberal arts degrees are created equal…so caveat emptor…</p>
<p>…a CS degree from Penn State may be “decent”…but, it may not open as many doors as you think…</p>
<p>@Ynotgo. NO…you don’t say…you mean to tell me that Washington Post (the same august paper that took down the president) did not check out this individual’s educational background (known as simple vetting)…what shame…what sham!</p>
<p>I don’t get this. Okay, so maybe you’d be more attractive to employers if you took a class on how to make iPhone apps (though I’m not sure why it’s so hard to learn this independently). But what are you going to do when iPhone apps aren’t a big deal anymore?</p>
<p>I was going to say, a good CS program should give you a firm grounding in the fundamentals and concepts, not teach you languages, so that any CS grad with a brain should be able to pick up any language after reading a book and maybe 1 week of practice.</p>
<p>As a former Computer Programmer with an MIS degree I would argue with the author when he says that MIS is a STEM degree. IMO MIS is usually a Business degree with some programming classes. </p>
<p>The difference between CS and MIS is similar in some ways to the intro CS courses for majors/minors and the intro course for non-majors looking to fulfill their quant/science requirement at my college. </p>
<p>While the latter course had some programming involved, it was mostly an applications/internet for dummies with some web development and C/Java tossed in. The amount of programming in C/Java covered in the non-major’s course was equivalent to the first 2-3 weeks of material covered in the very first intro CS course for majors. </p>
<p>The column author also is upset that not all STEM professors have job experience in their field. That is an expectation of a business major, science and math are research fields. Different paradigm. One does not need to work in private industry to do what a scientist or mathematician does. Son’s experience was of a math major including some grad level courses then adding enough comp sci to add that major. He was hired as a software developer/engineer (different companies use different job titles- and they are not consistent with college major titles) for his ability to think/problem solve…, NOT his programming skills. btw, as a college of letters and sciences student son also took many diverse humanities/social sciences not required by the business school.</p>
<p>A lot of tech related firms/departments tend to be skeptical about MIS graduates because their tech capabilities and ability/interest to keep learning can vary so widely in comparison to engineering/CS grads or sometimes even non-MIS/engineering/CS grads with demonstrated strong continuing interest in computer technology. </p>
<p>One IT department I worked for had a couple of English lit majors…including a senior project manager with 15+ years of experience after graduating from a Top 10 LAC. Funny part is the English lit majors had such high computer technology chops even the senior engineering/CS folks would consult them whenever there are difficult technical issues they can’t solve. </p>
<p>If he does have a MIS degree I wonder why he keeps saying he was a CS major. I looked at the MIS degree at Penn State out of curiosity, which is in the business school and it is very much a generalists degree–a little econ, business writing, a principles of marketing, a finance, a smattering of this and that and a lot of intro or ‘principles of’ type classes. Nothing like a CS degree. ^very^ misleading.</p>
<p>I know that one thing that my daughter learned was to use any language needed. She did an assignment for a job interview once in a language she hadn’t used before–it wasn’t required–but she decided to do it because she knew they used it. She also programmed a library for use in a project, then in a second phase wrote a new programming language just for the library so it would run faster. That’s the kind of things CS majors do.</p>
<p>Don’t most college students learn programming on their own as they do their assignments? My kid was a physics and EE major ( penn state by the way) and is in a great job which includes learning new languages in addition to the ones he already knows all the time. He and other technical people know they have to stay on top of all new skills and even create their own if they want to be relevant. </p>
<p>You don’t need anybody holding your hand to learn a programming language. Just do it. It’s expected.</p>
<p>This guy is just a whiner. </p>
<p>Oh, and a reminder that Penn State was named in the last couple years the # 1 school for recruiters so maybe…just maybe… He needs to own this.</p>