Starting out, some doubts, and some questions.

College Majors Science Majors
1

<p>I'll be attending a community college (UACCM) starting this January. As this is my first time into such an endeavor, I'm a little bit foggy on the details of everything. But for a while I've been genuinely concerned about certain aspects of where my life stands now in terms of people who are just more fortunate.</p>

<p>Let me explain.</p>

<p>I'll be attending some CC probably next to nobody has heard of. It's inexpensive, gets the job done. If I want to get a Bachelor's, it'll be UCA (University of Central Arkansas), which this site doesn't even list as far as I can tell. All in all, not exactly Cornell or Harvard.</p>

<p>I'm just some poor individual trying to make ends meet, figuring that a degree would just make life a whole lot easier. I dropped out of High School when I was younger, being a stupid kid, but luckily came back with GED results good enough to get a scholarship to this CC. Things are looking up in the world...</p>

<p>That is until I questioned myself as to whether or not anyone would actually hire me when the whole thing is said and done. I've read around, a lot of these people have previous experience in the field of computers (I'll be doing CIS), they already have certificates, they already have a portfolio, they already know their way around things for the most part but are just getting a degree to prove to companies that they may know what they're talking about.</p>

<p>I'm different. I like computers, but I've never actually sat and learned a whole lot about them. I'm very interested, which is why I wish to take this degree in CIS. I'm looking to aim more towards Networking than anything else. However, I feel like I'm beat before I even started. With no experience, and the only thing I will have is a degree, will any employer really be interested me at all? After-all, just because I have a degree doesn't mean I know exactly what I'm doing. </p>

<p>Well, you'd hope I would, but obviously someone who already has some experience would be worlds better.</p>

<p>This field sounds like it's becoming very competitive. By the time I graduate, would there be any room for the guy who got his degree from some unimpressive CC / University and has no extended periods of experience with the degree?</p>

<p>And that is my main concern. I don't want to go through all this trouble, then employers pretty much think I'm the joke of the line-up. I don't want to say I lack self-confidence, but sometimes it all seems pretty intimidated and easy to feel outgunned rather quickly.</p>

<p>I'm wondering what you guys think of the situation?</p>

<p>Sorry for typing out a whole novel. Another question I have is... I'm looking to blend my degree with a job in Law Enforcement. That is my ultimate goal. Do you think CIS would really provide any benefit to this?</p>

<p>Thanks.</p>

2

<p>Can’t really speak to usefulness of a CIS degree in Law Enforcement or what you can do with one but certainly don’t put yourself down for getting a degree at a noname CC!</p>

<p>Both of my brothers have had hard times making it through college. The first is off the deep end smart, he is 9 years older than me and has always been my biggest role model in life. He skipped 7th and 8th grade and graduated from high school at 16. Things look great for him right? wrong. Don’t send a 16 yr old to college 4 hours away! He ended up majoring in something he didn’t want to do, falling in with bad friends, spent to much time drinking/partying and flunked out his second year. Parents were NOT happy about that one, so brother came home and took a year off to get is stuff together, and realize he didn’t want to work in fast food for the rest of his life. Went back to school, lived at home, got a degree and is now very successful. Even though he took a very alternative 7 yr route through college he still got plenty of job offers out of school.
Brother #2 skipped all that funny business and went to a noname CC right out of high school. He got his associates and got a job working for an big league insurance company. In the past 10 years or so (he is 11 year older than me) he has worked his way up the company and now heads one of their regional offices. Where he got his degree certainly didn’t override his charisma and ability, they love him over there!
Final story: my favorite math professor. He actually isn’t a professor, he is a graduate student working towards his pH.d who teaches. He got his degree from a noname CC and is on his way to a pH.d. I can’t tell you how much work it was to get into his class because everyone knows how great of a teacher he is, I certainly prefer him as a person, as a teacher, and as a mathematician over all the brainiacs that went to big name schools, they don’t know how to teach because it was never hard for them to learn. </p>

<p>They’ll teach you all you need to know about CIS in school, that is the whole point. If you don’t enjoy it, there is always time to find something else. I might think that being a little older is better because they’ll expect you to be more responsible and a better hire (but I don’t know anything about that part so thats all I’ll say). </p>

<p>Good Luck!</p>

3

<p>Hey Crysillion. I don’t know a whole lot about the job market in Arkansas and I’ve never really worked in IT, but I do think it may be a little tough to land a good IT job with just a CIS degree from a community college. It can be done, but it probably won’t be easy.</p>

<p>I encourage you to go on to get your bachelor’s degree. I don’t really know any engineers working in law enforcement, but if there are, I would imagine they would be involved with security and data recovery – the type of stuff you would need at least a bachelor’s in computer science to do. And if you want still want to get into IT, a BS in computer science will make it much easier to do so.</p>

<p>There’s nothing wrong with being a community college student. I transfered from a community college myself, and I know a few other guys who did the same. And don’t worry about not having a whole lot of computer background. I didn’t have very much when I first started taking programming courses at my community college. Today, I work with a bunch of guys who talk nostalgically about learning how to program at “nerd camp” and receiving their first 486s (with a floating point unit!) when they were 10, but there are also plenty of us who weren’t freakishly nerdy children when we were kids.</p>