Re: Importance of Computer Science degree?
From: Michael Wojcik (mwojcik_at_newsguy.com)
Date: 09/22/04
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Date: 22 Sep 2004 21:22:51 GMT
In article <6KZ3d.1913$Pz3.715@trndny01>, "Thomas G. Marshall" <tgm2tothe10thpower@replacetextwithnumber.hotmail.com> writes:
> Michael Wojcik coughed up:
>
> > In any event, is there any reason to *not* try to earn good grades?
>
> Easy answer, for me at least, but IMO for anyone.
>
> You have a finite amount of time. You have a finite amount of energy.
> Let's take the 99% of the energy spent on girls off the table, since for XY
> chromes, that's a given :)
*I* didn't spend 99% of my energy on girls, but maybe I'm just more
efficient at that than most. (I was in one or another long-term
exclusive relationship for nearly all of my college career, which
no doubt helps - with a dedicated resource you don't lose efficiency
to contention.)
> IMHO, the energy spent in getting the good grades is far better placed into
> forcing yourself into the real world as much as you can.
I did my undergrad at Northeastern, which has one of the oldest (they
claim the oldest, but I imagine that could be disputed) and largest
cooperative education programs in the world. After my first year,
that meant half of every year (every full year - Northeastern's a
year-round school with none of this "summer break" nonsense) spent
working full- time at a career-related job. Like many co-op
students, I kept my job part-time during the quarters when I was in
class, too. That was when I worked for IBM.
For the last couple of years of my undergrad degrees, and throughout
grad school, I also worked part-time for the software start-up my
father founded. All told, I was generally putting in about 60 hours
a week when on co-op, and about 40 when in classes, doing
professional software development.
That seems like plenty of real-world exposure to me. Nonetheless, I
didn't find it hard to graduate summa cum laude, and I wasn't even in
the running for top of my graduating class. (I was in the top 10 in
my junior year, but during senior year I only pulled a B in one class
and dropped to something below 10th.) So plenty of us, apparently,
found it not only possible but reasonable to both work as programmers
and study.
Obviously different people have different aptitudes and opportu-
nities. For some, earning good grades may indeed require an
unreasonable commitment of resources. However, as a general rule, I
think most college students can study their subjects and do well in
all or nearly all of them without making any great saccrifice. I
don't believe I was all *that* much better than the average student.
For one thing, I know too many other people who did as well as I did,
or better.
-- Michael Wojcik michael.wojcik@microfocus.com Pseudoscientific Nonsense Quote o' the Day: From the scientific standpoint, until these energies are directly sensed by the evolving perceptions of the individual, via the right brain, inner-conscious, intuitive faculties, scientists will never grasp the true workings of the universe's ubiquitous computer system. -- Noel Huntley
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