<p>I'm 31, married with 2 kids and I've decided to go to college.</p>
<p>My plans are to start at my local community college and hopefully transfer within the 1st year either to Rutgers or NJIT.</p>
<p>I'm actually thinking about ME as a 'somewhat' secure job, only because of all the internet and media horror stories about IT outsourcing and age discrimination I've read, but I would really like to do CS, but the reason mentioned above always worry me.</p>
<p>What say you?</p>
<p>No, you are not “too old” for CS but you are too old to be asking this kind of question. </p>
<p>Contact your the Math/CS Dept. at the local comm. college you plan to attend and tell them what you wish to accomplish. They will help you get there.</p>
<p>Start at the community college as soon as possible and make sure you ask lots of questions about your options. </p>
<p>I started back at the age of 27 and didn’t think about it too much. When I took the placement test, it was like the last day of registration, I was exhausted from work, felt rushed because they acted like I came late when I didn’t, and the room was like 100 degrees. So I bombed the math part and ended up wasting two semesters taking classes I pretty much still remembered from before. </p>
<p>Then I found out I could have taken those 2 classes in little half semester terms but of course they didn’t tell me that when I registered. Which is why I say start early and ask lots of questions. But yes go. There is a man in his 50s in my Calculus class.</p>
<p>I would major in what you are interested in more. Why spend all the time and effort of going back to school if you aren’t going to be happy with what you are learning? I think CS is pretty practical in terms of jobs.</p>
<p>Why did you choose engineering considering your circumstances? I wasn’t aware that CS had age discrimination issues especially when compared to the age discrimination that exists with the traditional engineering disciplines. Good luck. My advice would be to go with what you have interest in the most. An engineering degree with a solid GPA is bond to set you apart from others in the job market regardless of outsourcing and other issues.</p>
<p>From what I’ve read, outsourcing is occurring on the minor league, code monkey programming, but not making much of an impact on actual software engineering.</p>
<p>My only concern with a CS degree is knowing that what I learn might become obsolete in a matter of years, and I’ll be replaced by some hot shot new graduate.</p>
<p>
Everyone is in that boat.
If your interest is in software, you have to keep yourself updated all the time. Gloabltravler wrote a very lengthy post a while ago… about this</p>
<p>actually, i think this is true for any field. An accountant has to update herself with the latest taxation laws and polices… so indeed everyone is in the same boat</p>
<p>To secure your position, you have to make positive contribution. If I am an employer, I would want someone with experiences and latest skills… fresh graduates usually lack of the adequate experiences to replace an experienced one.</p>
<p>I’m not going to say “there’s a ton of adults!” but I sit next to three guys that are over 40 in my EE/CS class.</p>
<p>So out of 7 people on that side of the room, one is 19, one is 21, one is 24, one is 18, and three are over 40. </p>
<p>No one thinks twice that there are 40 or 50 year old guys in my other classes.</p>