<p>noo1776 -- thanks for the additional info. Have another question for ya if you don't mind. I read that you can alternately major in a few other things (including math) and minor in comp sci and business. So in order to do that how is the program structured and how does a person get enough comp sci education. I am just trying to get an overall feel of how this is set up, and how in the world does a person get a major and 2 minors -- sounds mind blowing to me but what do I know! I think my daughter would lean toward majoring in math, but possibly would stick with business. Do you have to go longer if you have one of those alternate majors? When I see you will be a CE major and get the minors from being in the Raikes School, I just wondered how much you have to devote to that, and then are most of your CE classes in another part of the campus? Thanks.</p>
<p>@orangepop: I can tell that there are FOR SURE, others that are majoring in Actuarial Science, Math, International Business, Computer Engineering, Computer Science, (someone is also Pre-Med), etc...</p>
<p>The JDEHP classes meld Computer Science and Business to satisfy the requirements for those minors. It's the major benefit of the program from companies' perspective and it's nice because it allows you to learn two things that really interact day-to-day in jobs (my dad's in IT, he's in love with the whole concept).</p>
<p>I will wind up with a Computer Engineering BS with a minor in Computer Science in about 4.5 years (Engineering basically takes that long anyway), and I'm strongly considering adding like 1 or 2 math classes and a few extra business classes and getting a Math Minor and MBA. .... OR... You can add a few EE classes and get another minor, or still relatively easy... a dual major (reminder, I'm a CE major).</p>
<p>It's a load, for sure... 17 hours is a lot. But I'll be honest (again), I've been through all of my classes, save for the Communications class that I have tomorrow... and outside of screwing around too much in Calc I last year... I don't feel stressed out about anything yet. The teachers have been clear in their expectations, transparent in their assignments and policies and I feel like I can manage it. That having been said, I need to do some reading before I go to sleep tonight, but I've been putting it off for hours now.</p>
<p>My schedule is very tightly laid out for most of my Freshman and Sophomore years. Junior and Senior year are more flexible because the actual JDEHP courses are reduced to the Design Studio projects, leaving the rest of your time for other requirements.</p>
<p>I have Calc II, an English Honors Seminar and some stupid Engr 010 Seminar course (that only lasts 8 weeks and is pass no-pass easy...).</p>
<p>The Kauffman Center is SMACK DAB in the middle of the campus. Seriously, its 60 seconds from the union. It takes 3 minutes to get to my English class... and like 5 minutes to get to my Calc class (and thats only because I have to go straight from English to Calc... Kauffman is actually between those two as well!)</p>
<p>I'm taking 17 hours and the rest of my classes take place on the first floor of Kauffman (the dorms for JDEHP) and it is a Business class (that includes a Leadership mini class and Accounting "mini class"), a CompSci type class... and then Communication.</p>
<p>This post felt really cluttered and jumbled... I keep thinking about impending laundry upstairs. Again, let me know what else I can tell you.</p>
<p>Again, thanks for the info; that helped. So if a person wasn't doing a separate major and was going to just major in computer science or business, within the scope of the program, do they get more classes in each of those areas than a person with a different major, such as yourself? I just have trouble understanding how it is all structured around this when different majors are being mixed in. It sounds very interesting and worth taking into consideration.</p>
<p>noo1776 - please make sure you know your facts when talking about Design Studio. Your comment that "MS Fargo has been developing Microsoft Dynamics largely in cooperation with the design studio of the Raikes School" is quite wrong. The role that Design Studio (DS) has played in the development of the Dynamics product is very small in the grand scheme of things.</p>
<p>There are way too many points in this thread to touch on, but I'll just mention the faculty turnover. Some of the turnover has been the result of changes in curriculum, some has been the result of disagreement with the direction/material to be covered in the course, and whatever else. Just because a professor is some 'Named' professor or generic Chair of some department does not make them a good teacher anymore (or ever). The teachers that have been good (Elbaum/Goddard/etc) are well respected and have taught many courses over time.</p>
<p>I just thought I'd weigh in on this. </p>
<p>First, I agree with johnny on the faculty turn over, most of it was due the fact that the program is new and still solidifying a curriculum. The only truly disgruntled professor was Bruce Avolio, who felt as if the students he taught were being a bit disrespectful and that teaching the class was a waste of his time. The feeling of the students towards leadership classes were pretty much mutual, very few have liked them.</p>
<p>Second, as for majors, I have to second what Bigredmed say and emphasize it some more. The best way to 'succeed' in the program is to major in computer science, computer engineering (or EE), or some business major. It is feasible to major in other things, and math is probably high on the list of compatible majors, but really, if you aren't seriously considering one of those three majors, you are running the risk of joining the program and deciding not to continue later. This obviously isn't the end of the world, and there have been a number of JDE/JSRSCSM dropouts that have done well in their respective fields, but its something to consider.</p>
<p>Third, the reason I decided to join the program/school, and one of the best value adds from a student perspective is Design Studio. For a student, the Design Studio experience is a great chance to get real world software development experience and interact with professionals in the field. While you could theoretically achieve the same ends by pursuing internships while attending school, I believe that the ability to work with a team of people you have already spent a good deal of time with, paired with program oversight and concurrent curriculum (shoddy as it can be at times), leads to more success and a better experience. Plus, having all of the people around you on different projects in the same framework allows for a synergy of learning, at least to a degree, in that you end up discussing each others projects and getting some of the benefit without putting in too much extra time.</p>
<p>Fourth, the comradery and atmosphere can't be played down. I have some of the best friends in the world thanks to the closeness afforded by the living and working conditions. </p>
<p>Finally, The program is hard. You're pretty much 'working' for 9 months straight, with work often spilling into weekends and breaks, so you have to keep that in mind. Its fun when you get things done, but it can be grueling at times. While this can, at times, detract from the college experience, I believe that it prepared me very well for the 'real world'. I had a job (with Microsoft) in November of my Senior year, as did many of my class mates, and I know that I wouldn't have had such an opportunity without the experience and networking the program provided.</p>
<p>I work at a company that attempts to benefit from design studio projects and hires students as interns over the summer. We’ve also hired a few of their graduates. While these are nice kids, I fear for their future. These kids are fauned over as if they are Einsteins of business and computer science. Its like the emperor’s new clothes…no one is allowed to point out the kids are educated but INEXPERIENCED! Per my employer, none of us with college degrees, many of them from schools with much higher academic standards and reputations than UNL, were really ever educated because we didn’t attend this illustrious program. My employer gives them anything and everything they ask for. You would think this would be a positive to joining the program but this is the equivalent of giving a 16 year a brand new car of their dreams, a vacation to Cancun, and 500,000 just for turning 16. Will the child learn responsibility, learn to work for things, appreciate the things they work for and actually develop any kind of work ethic. These kids are smart, but they are not required to prove themselves. They are just handed every perk, every opportunity. They have a faster path to promotion and actually come into the organazation one level up from any other new hire. We have experienced technical people being forced to defer to students and new hires…anything to keep them happy. This results in less then optimal solutions for our business area, but that’s not as important as keeping these youngsters happy…they are the future of the company and we must, must keep them at all costs (in fact we keep very few permanently). Its better to have the young kids, whether they do good work or any work at all, then let these kids get out of our grasp. Its like management feels that these kids are some magic fountain of youth and if they worship these kids they themselves we will re-obtain youth and live forever. It’s completely irresponsible. These kids do not understand that over time they are actually going to have to work and will not like everything about their job. Over time they will not get everything they ask for and they are going to be so disappointed. Its very hard to go from being worshipped to just being another employee. This is going to send them on a spiral of dispair where they continue to look for the worship they once had similiar to an 8 year old trying to find meaning in Christmas once they find out about Santa. A person learns and grows through constructive criticism, being mentored, being educated by people more experienced than they are. None of this happens with these kids. In fact its reversed. So they are getting an education (although many seem socially inept…could this be the isolation associated with this program) and they are getting great opportunities, especially at my employer, but college is only the start of anyone’s education. A job is where you really learn and due to the way employers are implementing this program these kids are missing out on this formative, early, on the job training. If any of these kids succeed long term it will be in spite of, not because of this program. In fact, very few will ultimately survive at my employer. You have to have support from the people you work with to succeed. These kids aren’t given that support not only because of the way the program is implemented (the experienced have to defer to the inexperienced) but because the rest of us are now choosing not to support them strictly to avoid joining the cult! The rest of us feel that these kids have enough perks, enough worship, enough special clubs only they can belong to (all supported and paid for by upper management…when was the last time that interns at your company had a monthly lunch with the SrVP of your division. Better yet, when was the last time you ate lunch with your SrVP?) that we aren’t going to go out of our way to attempt to mentor these kids…besides they are regularly informed no one but them knows anything anyway. BTW, it doesn’t surprise me that professors would feel they aren’t getting any respect…its part of the program to continually tell these kids how much better they are than everyone else.</p>
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<p>LOL! This reminds me of something my brother told me. He’s a petroleum engineer with a large company and the first thing that he tells the new petroleum engineers, who invariably think they are hot stuff, is “Shut up and learn something.” Book l’arning is one thing, but there is a wealth of information out there that isn’t written in the books.</p>
<p>@tired</p>
<p>Sounds more like a problem with your company and its culture than the program. You don’t sound the least bit bitter about it either.</p>
<p>I’m an engineer, and I believe that most recent engineering graduates don’t know a thing with any practical value. That goes for me, too. I’ve been an engineer for [censored] years, applying my technical skills daily, and I can’t think of a single one of them that I learned in college. I learned many valuable things, but specific, job-relevant skills were not among them.</p>
<p>Edit: There must be people who go from college directly into jobs in which they do use their skills immediately without remedial training, but I don’t know them.</p>
<p>“Also, “elite” and “competitive” is exaggerated. It’s a little difficult for Lincoln and Omaha kids since there are unofficial geographic quotas. Outside of there, if your student has a 31 on the ACT and is interested, it’s likely he or she will get in.”</p>
<p>You obviously don’t know that much about the program. It is EXTREMELY difficult to be admitted with anything less than a 32.</p>
<p>the median ACT for the class of 2009 was 33.4</p>
<p>DS didn’t make the first cut and he was a 34ACT OOS.</p>
<p>My son was accepted to this program for 2010. So far he really likes the teachers, classes, and his classmates and is off to a great start. The UNL Computer Science program placed 100% of it’s graduates last year. We have encouraged him to get out and be involved with the rest of the campus.</p>
<p>IT is changing rapidly, and the college seems to be making a stong effort to keep up with new Agile technologies and an empasis on business.</p>
<p>We have also been very impressed with the colleges effort to expose the students to business leaders. He has had a chance to hear from Jeff Raikes himself (CEO of Gates Foundation) and Joe Moglia, Chairman of TD/Ameritrade.</p>
<p>The 2010 class is listed below.</p>
<p>[UNL</a> | News Release | UNL’s Jeffrey S. Raikes School announces 2010 entering class](<a href="http://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2010/06/03/UNL’s+Jeffrey+S.+Raikes+School+announces+2010+entering+class]UNL">http://newsroom.unl.edu/releases/2010/06/03/UNL’s+Jeffrey+S.+Raikes+School+announces+2010+entering+class)</p>
<p>So far we are very impressed and excited that he has an opportunity to be part of this program.</p>
<p>AL34: Any idea why DS did not make first cut? Invited for interview? Seems rather disappointing!</p>
<p>My daughter applied for 2011, also with ACT of 34, including 36 on Math. We both like program because of the linkage with business and ease with which students land internships and post grad positions. In my opinion, having a group of motivated, bright students working together leads to more achievement than when you mix these students in classes with a wide variety of aptitudes. If that is elitist, so be it…</p>
<p>Hello all,</p>
<p>@dewitt11 - Will your daughter be attending Raikes? My son will be there this fall (2011 - Class of 2015). If so, she can look for my son on ClubRed. PM me if you like.</p>
<p>Since we are from out of state, we knew very little about whether there would be opportunities for entrepreneurship and related mentoring in Lincoln, outside of the Raikes School. We are lucky to have many startups and VC-funding opportunities in our area and I hesitated to recommend Raikes to my son without knowing that he would have similar opportunities there. I’ve done some research and I was pleasantly surprised at the amount of innovation and support that I’ve found in Lincoln and Nebraska! Nebraska Global, Don’t Panic Labs, Silicon Prairie, NUtech Ventures, and more. Wow! </p>
<p>Mostly I was worried about sending him to a less-well-regarded college with fewer highly-credentialed professors. But I get the impression that the Raikes staff “vets” the professors as best they can, and only a subset of them teach classes at the Raikes School. In one particular case I see a prof who taught there in the past, and now does not. Then I looked at the ratings on ratemyprofessors.com and I breathed a huge sigh of relief! Yes, Raikes students spend about half their time in the traditional classes and they still need to be careful to avoid certain profs (if they can be avoided at all) but this is true at any university. </p>
<p>Gosh, I re-read this post and I think I’m coming across as elitist. That’s really not my intent, but since many students considering the Raikes School also have the opportunity to attend smaller and/or more prestigious schools, I suppose I feel the need to justify the decision to go with Raikes/UNL. Well, we did just that. The curriculum, opportunities, the warmth and friendliness of the UNL campus and the people in Lincoln (do they take happy pills?), and - I admit it, the super-generous scholarship - make it worthwhile.</p>
<p>Any updates on the program?</p>
<p>Hi, riprorin. My older son is a sophomore at Raikes. He likes it, and is learning a lot. He had a good internship this past summer but didn’t get it thru Raikes because he wanted something near home. The company was very impressed with his abilities. (I’m not sure he’d want me describing his activities in a lot of detail so I’ll leave out the company name.) My younger son is applying for 2012. If you have any particular questions, just ask! :-)</p>