Is a CS degree worth it? Or are there other courses I should

We need more people who know how to actually physically fix and install networks and systems, then people who design software

Get your certs and get into IT, then, get with a company and just go to school for CS if you want on their dime

Do you like mathematics? Do you like solving logical problems? If you're weak at mathematics and logic (and you don't want to improve), don't do CS.

>>43858959

How dare you assume that OP is Indian

Depends on what you want to do with it.

Software development? No, it's pretty useless. That's like getting a degree to learn music.

Software engineering? Can be applicable in the business world but don't expect employers to be groveling at your feet.

Network Security/Information Systems? Probably the best way to go with CS right now.

>>43859104
what is the difference between software development and software engineering

>>43859166
Software development is baking the cake.

Software engineering is debating how we should bake the cake.

It's essentially meta-programming.

>>43858939
It's absolutely not worth it. I recommend choosing a career path in health care like I have done. I'm making an easy 100k a couple years out of school.

>>43859217
I do full-stack software development often starting from a blank slate and a vague description of client requirements.

We engineer now?

>>43859534
>not doing IT in health care
>not making $130k/year in biomedical informatics
kek

>>43859166
Software development is the art of developing software. Software engineering is the application of engineering principles to software development. I don't consider people who have studied software engineering to be an engineer in the natural science sense of engineering.

>>43859217
that's not what metaprogramming means...

as a CS major, you either are AMAZING and do amazing things (like dropping out of college to pursue startups), or you're average (and stay along for the ride and get a degree)

you only NEED a degree if you're average or below average. if you're good and creative you're much better off spending your time making a name for yourself online.

>>43858939

Nah m8, if you want a job just go vocational degree sysadmin/network technician.

Fuck that, just get a law degree, specialize yourself in mergers and trouble situations and make cash.

No wait, going to law school is actually piss expensive in the US, right?

>>43859679

this

>>43859710
that depends. there are a billion law schools, but no one takes them seriously. there are a handful that are actually "meaningful", like harvard, Yale, stanford, etc. and those are insanely expensive.

it's like pharmacy techs. you can go to a bunch of cheap universities and get a pharmacy tech degree, but you wont get hired at a big company unless you go to MSU/UCS/princeton/etc

>>43858939
>Uni is hard.
Then you're not going to keep a job with a CS degree, you'll be some retard that gets fired from every position you manage to get after a week when they find out you don't know what the fuck to do.

>>43858939

I have a degree in CompSci. No coop.
Got a job that pays $53k a year. Plus benefits and a pension plan.

>>43859734
Is there at least a reason for these universities to be considered special or is all about the reputation by now? I mean, what do your ivy league universities do different than the other ones when it comes to something like law?

Thats not really a field were scientific research helps you develop, like it does in other fields. And isnt that what these schools excel at the most?

>>43858939
Go for a life sciences degree or something similar, then apply for med school.

>>43859783
it's half and half i guess. the reputation is obviously meaningful, but they also have a lot of "celebrity" lecturers that are HUGE name in their fields and i'd imagine they're really good at teaching

most of the high end schools don't actually follow the "normal" rules. like theres a ABET certification for schools. this means that they send their exams and grades get sent to an auditor and looked over to make sure that there isnt any grade inflation or something. certification helps small schools because it gets them some form of reputation, the famous schools dont care for that because everyone already knows them

>>43858959
hey, im doing this

thanks for validating what i'll be doing in a few years

>>43859655
Maybe that happens in the States, but in my country many people still think that if you don't have a degree you are worthless...

>>43859908
Now I am interested. What country are you from?

>>43859802
Med school is hyper saturated in the states.

>>43859710
Not only is it super expensive, the law field is saturated with hundreds of thousands of lawyers.

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>Is [X] degree worth it?

Nope.

>>43859942
So is pretty much every field saturated in your eyes>

>>43859880
You should't be finding validation on /g/.

>>43859655
You can easily get $100k jobs with a BS in CS from a good uni. And not just Silicon Valley, but lower cost locations like Seattle, etc.

You don't need to be startup-exceptional, just get good grades and do some good projects, and have some work on github.

>>43859929
Not the anon you're talking to but I'm from Mexico, maybe it's the place I live (I don't live in big places like Mexico City) but everyone asks for a Degree, if you don't have it then fuck off.

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>cousin is a big programmer, getting steady work in the bay area
>tells me he passed all his math classes, but he never uses any of it when programming
>tfw taking calc 1 over again

>>43859595

Stats MS over here. Plebs dont know bout starting off at 65-70k and salary doubling in 5 years

>>43860056
yeah i was going into computer engineering and couldn't pass calc 1/ kept getting shitty programming teachers

just said fuck it and now going into IT

>>43860056

Feels good being Asian.

whats the best route if I just want to be a code monkey? I figure IT/system admin to be on the safeside but Im bad at the math involved

Are you getting in debt?
That should answer your question.

>>43860108

is it even possible to go to college and not be in debt?

inb4
>I went to a community college

>>43860125
Daddybux

>>43860125
You start one or more businesses and earn your money before going to college. I could pay 60% of my fees up front because I was mentored in art of small business.

>>43860096
what you just described literally never touches 'code'

source: tech director at a university

>>43860056
I work in the bay area too, same story. Although when I was at double robotics I did a lot more embedded systems, and it was a lot more traditional engineering mathematics. CS in its own right is a different category of math(s) if you really want to get into it.

>>43860151

s-so what should I do

>>43860212
You can study a course in programming or software design. There should be something like that in the colleges of your land.

>>43860096
software engineer

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Since this seems to be the thread for it:
I'm a Computer Science and Engineering major.
To my knowledge, not a lot of universities offer this particular major so I'll briefly explain: It's like a combination of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, more focused on Computer Science. The good thing is it will look like I double-majored on my degree when in actuality it's about half the work a double major would be, the bad thing is I imagine I probably wont be particularly as strong with programming as I would be in a strict CS major, but I'm fine with that, I can self-teach.

My question is:
What's a good minor to go with this?
I honestly don't know what direction I should go with a minor, and if it should have any relevance to my major. I was debating some kind of business minor, or biomedical engineering, or chemical engineering. The latter of the two would require me to take hard classes in those respective sciences though, whereas business would be easier. Then again, I'm not a significantly lazy guy.

What would you guys recommend I do?

>>43860125
Be 1/8 or more Native American, get scholarshipbux

>>43860293
Do you like hardware or software?

I think you should be able to focus on one or the other. The last two years of your undergrad will be for more specialized classes that don't involve the other specialty, so you should be able to get the same kind of depth as a pure CS or EE major.

If you just want to do CS, I bet you only have to take some CE course in sophomore year, write some Verilog. And probably an EE lab course, and then never have to go that low level again.

>>43860342
I prefer software
I'd like to stick with the major though, at least for now. It gives me the option of switching to either CS or EE and still have basically all the required courses done. But I think I'll probably end up sticking with this major to the end.

As of right now I don't actually know what my courses are going to be like in the next 2 years, but if I could narrow them into the CS category, I'll probably roll with that.

Still, I'd like to get a minor since I don't mind taking an extra course each semester or whatever I need to do to get it on my degree.

>>43860411
Personally, I came into university intending to do CS. I had never really messed with hardware before and knew nothing about engineering. After taking an EE class where we built a microcontroller-based gadget, I decided I enjoyed it much more than just coding, and switched majors. Could be something to keep in mind.

>>43860443
Well, that's part of the reason I'm sticking with this
I actually have no clue what EE really is.
CS I'm incredibly familiar with, but EE I just know is more hands-on.

Care to explain a bit? Help a guy out?

>>43859104
I've seen and heard of lots of job offerings for software engineering

>>43859758
>No coop.
what?

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>>43859741
hmm, something tells me you're still in high school by that attitude

>>43858939

If your school is well connected and you're able to find internships while working on your degree, then yeah, it's worth it.

>>43860056
>calc
>for cs

just get gud at discrete maths, graph theory, and linear algebra

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>>43860550
EE is as big a field as CS is so it'd be difficult to explain all of it. But mainly it's about working with hardware. In EE the hardware you build works in parallel which requires a different thinking paradigm than typical software programming which executes serially (even multi-threading or stuff like MPI, the program flow is still serial).

At the lowest level is device physics but you're probably not interested in that so skipping it. There's circuit design which is using components to do stuff, typically this requires math and control theory stuff to understand. You take a bunch of components and put it on a circuit board and hook them up, and do something useful.

There's designing chips using higher level languages, which is digital and based mainly upon meeting timing specifications (designing logic circuits that compute stuff efficiently and don't take up too much space).

Moving up from there is computer architecture which might be overall system design, or for an example of a CPU, designing the cache architecture, instruction set, and the pipeline for executing instructions, etc. Overlaps a bit with CS.

>>43858939
>Uni is hard.
HAHA DROP OUT NOW FAGGOT BROGRAMMER

>>43858959
>Every IT entry level position wants 3+ years of experience + cert
>For cloning hard drive and answering tickets

>>43860931
Because it's an easy job. If you have an easy job, you have tons of applicants. If a monkey can do the job, they're going to hire a monkey with 3 years of experience and a sticker saying he can do the job.

Ads for real jobs don't have this problem.

>>43858939
If you love the content, it obviously is.

If you're just looking for a job, study IT and either choose programming subjects, business requirements subjects, networking subjects, or general setup and problem solving subjects.

Though they have some overlap.

>>43860056
>tfw calculus has helped me reduce complexity in multiple algorithms

>>43860942
Easy perhaps, but stressful as shit.

It also makes me wonder just how many applicants there are, when there are dozens of IT jobs in the city. I mean, if there are tons of applicants, than there is no way that they all have 3+ years of experience, right?

>>43858939
>Is a CS degree worth it?
Maybe.

>Uni is hard.
No it isn't.

>>43859741
uni IS hard

i stressed more over my first set of finals than i do my end of year 12 exams

Management Information System is the future.

If you have to ask then don't take it. Take something your passionate about inb4 liberal arts majors r gey.

>>43861085
uni isn't hard

>>43862636
indeed

>>43862636
As an HR fag, I agree with this.

If I wanted to get into robotics, what type of degree would I go for? Mechanical engineering?

Which to major in and which will get me hired without me having to make my own company?
Software Engineering
Embedded Electronics
Communication Systems

>>43862636
>>43866012
Why?

>>43859655
my man a degree ALMOST guarantees a job, even if you don't get 500k first job you still have something, if you test your luck and try to be a lazy ass "genius" and fail miserably and aren't the next bill gates then that's a shitty idea, it's a bad choice, don't think a degree is only for retards, tons of peple drop out and don't achieve anythin in life, survivor bias shouldnt affect your choice

>>43858939
Start to migrate to biology where you can program DNA, one of the few places you still can earn big easy buckets.

>>43860628
>No coop
Something like a internship.
Fuck I will end up like that guy.

>>43859975

Different anon, but law is particularly saturated right now. It's in a state where the top 10% of lawyers make 90% of the money. The majority of lawyers do public servant jobs and make <50k/year.

>>43867490
That's not bad for no internship. I would be fine with that but ill be looking for one for next summer and my senior design class is basically an internship (lots of people get hired by the company they "work" for)

>>43860013
>You can easily get $100k jobs with a BS in CS from a good uni.

I'm pulling $100k jobs without a BS in CS, from any Uni.

I even get to work for the American companies without living in America. Life is good.

>>43867421
how so? my little brother is doing a degree in genetics. I'm glad he picked the right thing.