<p>Point taken, motherbear. “Overthinking” is something i am accused of on pretty much a daily basis. </p>
<p>I was merely making a comment based on my immediate reaction to the videos. I don’t know anything about Georgia Tech yet (other than its high ranking in CS). I plan to look at college ******* etc to get a general feel for the school. As long as a school is large enough for a student to find his/her niche, it is usually fine- even if the majority of students are of a different social style. I do know, however, that if a student finds it hard to fit in socially, it can really undermine the college experience. </p>
<p>And I do appreciate your information about how CS majors can use projects they have done to help secure employment</p>
<p>@mommeleh: Even inside the department, we’re pretty unhappy (as students talking about this issue) about the number of people admitted as well. We’re actually seeing an overflow in 300 level courses right now, but besides that, we would absolutely love to see more of our classmates and friends who thrive in personal projects admitted. Granted, we haven’t seen all the applications so we can just speculate… another thing about admissions is that we can’t admit <em>everyone</em> at the same time. I think we admit the top 25 or so students every admissions cycle… and I have yet to meet someone who is not qualified to be in the department. That’s just how many amazing people are here.</p>
<p>If students don’t get into the department:
A good number of people I know end up being math or informatics majors while taking the non-major CSE courses such as CSE 373: Data structures for non-majors, and end up working in places like Microsoft or Boeing in a tech job (not IT but programming or PM related) after they graduate. It’s obviously not the end of the world, but being in the CSE department opens so many doors to internships for companies that only accept people in the majors, such as Amazon or Google. Other places, such as Qualcomm or Microsoft have programs for non-majors which is a great way to get your foot in the door (return offers ftw).</p>
<p>My younger brother is very interested in CSE as well, which is why this thread caught my attention in the first place … and we’re kind of worried about how competitive the admissions into the CSE department at UW will be in 3 or 4 years. He’s an underclassman at one of the local high schools here in Western Washington, so he has another few years before applying to colleges. Anyway, he’s most likely going to apply to many places with UW as a big competitor in colleges if he gets direct admit (doesn’t do ‘legacy’ as far as we’re concerned).</p>
<p>… as long as the accomplishments are not inflated on a resume. I had a guy that claimed to have written 100,000 lines of code in a year. One can’t possibly type 100k lines of anything a year… Another claimed to have written the Linux kernel. Both were from good schools, and I suspect their lack of English language was to blame…</p>
<p>I would remind aspiring computer dudes that (a) getting a job with a ‘top’ company like Apple or Google is hit or miss at best, in par with Ivy admission (b) that once in, one may not be doing the glamorous things one thought of (a friend got into a well respected game development company only to do testing of a voice singing part, as in, spent 8 hours a day singing (guitar hero type game)… and (c), the longevity of ‘cool’ jobs means that in all likelihood they’ll either burn out or be gone by 30-35. </p>
<p>My experience writing software for 27 years straight at the same company is not typical either, but by the time one is 30-35, and family and other things come into play, the coolness of the workplace is the least of their troubles. Right now I’m working thru the holidays as we’re in Defcon 3 mode, easy to do with teenagers at home, not so easy with 2 year olds.</p>
<p>It is, for example, very difficult to convince a boss with 6 kids that one REALLY needs to accompany their 8 month pregnant wife to an OB appointment because said wife can’t drive very well (avoid Miatas if you’re pregnant :-)). Said boss probably thought the babies just showed up on the project plan one day… Again, I would suggest that one expands their focus to more than ‘cool’ companies but also companies that treat their people well. That statistical software place in North Carolina, for example, rings a bell…</p>
<p>“I had a guy that claimed to have written 100,000 lines of code in a year.”</p>
<p>Not to mention, the <em>length</em> of your code is not something to boast about. My understanding of the subject from my sons/husband is that brevity is most praiseworthy. :)</p>
<p>Being in a location where there are many companies (e.g. Silicon Valley, Research Triangle Park, Austin, Seattle) does give you more of a choice to change jobs if the current employer is not very good. It also means that employers have to compete more with each other to retain employees.</p>
<p>My brother spent many hours getting the right shade of pink for the Barbie people. The guy with the Linux kernel claim probably did add something to it. IIRC I think my son did that in high school. Being a Linux nerd certainly has been a valuable asset BTW.</p>
<p>Regarding UIUC, they will either admit you to CS (specific major) or to general studies, which could be considered a CS rejection as it is not guaranteed that you will be able to transfer in. It is a big school, but the engineering campus portion helps to localize those classes.</p>
<p>Speed, I hope you can keep us informed about the other schools he might consider, or what kids in his shoes are considering now. It seems to me that these uber-restrictive admissions must mean that other less competitive schools are getting very strong students. Time will tell in our case, as D is xfering into a directional U program (since flagship is so competitive) and she will form an opinion on the rigor of their program. As for job prospects, if the advisor is correct they are good. Best buy wasn’t mentioned at all…</p>
IMHO, the aim of the game should be performance. Brevity of the code does not always mean better. Take for example the Project Euler problems: a lot of them have a straight forward, brute force method of solving the problem, but those usually perform miserably. One of those brute force algorithms took more than 2 hours to solve, but hey, that code was a fourth of what the proper answer should be. Also, recursive algorithms, especially those that initiates new variables, tend to have a bigger memory footprint than non recursive ones. Now, you can afford to have a faster execution time in return of a slightly bigger code. There comes to a point where a bigger code size will hinder performance because the CPU needs to reach into ram more often. Keep in mind, code rarely exceeds 10 megabytes, and those tend to be professional games and software.</p>
<p>Actually, the aim of the game is robustness and reliability. The typical coder does not even begin to understand the reliability requirements of, say, pharmaceutical manufacturing (that’s CMM level 5 where Mrs. Turbo spent a decade plus) or the make-or-break-the-company reliability requirements of consumer electronics devices where I’ve spent a decade and a half on.</p>
<p>Aspiring coders-to-be may want to take a long look at their abilities and/or interests in such application areas, since they often involve doing a little part of a bigger project where one’s freedom to code is limited by lots of factors. For the last year I have been working on adding Internet Radio functionality to our product, and most of the creative work has been trying to find ways to break it, rather than code it :-)</p>
<p>Just a comment, “local Best Buy” will not have a job for CS. if you want to be in IT at Best Buy, you will have to seek position in Best Buy headquarters. The same goes for each retailer. And if you think that systems are easy “nothings”, you have major misperception. None of the systems ae easy 'nothings" anymore with the most complicated being Medical Insurance with not the best pay at all. Pay is probably the best in manufacturing, auto or auto-suppliers. I have worked in several industries. Most CS people do not work for Google and such, another misperception. Most people are happy to have any job in any industry for any pay, gain experience and if they lucky enough move on to something better (if they want). Every job is awesome, exciting, require lots of self-training.</p>
<p>…and it is absolutely correct that no degree is needed at all for IT jobs. However, many companies, including my current employer (big international auto and building products supplier) will not hire into IT department without BS and I was told they they really liked my MBA (very few in IT have any Masters). Your performance will NOT depend on how comfy you feel in front ofPC either, sorry all geeks. Most companies have tech support for that. Ability to write software depends on logical/critical thinking, positive unasuming atitude and great communication skills.</p>
The guy with the Linux kernel claim probably did add something to it. IIRC I think my son did that in high school. Being a Linux nerd certainly has been a valuable asset BTW.</p>