Quote:
Also, don't ever place the blame of not knowing things on your college. If you don't know something that you need to know then go learn it. e

This can be true to an extent, however with a lot of colleges you don't know what your missing out on.

A suggestion I would give you is buy some books. When I want to learn something I buy three to five books on the subject. Overkill? Na, I don't think so because each book will have something the other missed. Even though I feel I am ready to move on I am still chugging away at all of my beginning C++ books. Learning programming is all about practice. Practice till it clicks (and it will!)

I lost faith in my college too. So i dropped out and got an actual job that pays money. It was a dead end job that i worked for many years, but earning even a few bucks is better than paying through your nose for college. I learned programming on the side and got a programming job later based on merit. I never looked back.

Do I wish I had stayed in school?

Nope.

YMMV

My first two years of required courses looked like this:

First Year:
-Introduction to Object Oriented Programming (using Java)
-Systems Programming (essentially introduction to C)
-Introduction to Object Oriented Programming 2 (Java Programming)
-Linear Algebra 1
-Calculus 1
-Discrete Mathematics
-Some science courses (I took Physics 1 and 2)


Second Year:
-Data Structures
-C++ Programming
-Algorithms 1(sort of a continuation of discrete math)
-Linear Algebra 2
-Calculus 2
-Statistics and Probability




The rest were mainly electives (History, Databases, Web Programming, etc.). I didn't really get into interesting materials until 3rd and 4th years when I got to take Game Programming, Artificial Intelligence 1, and stuff like that (abstract algebra was pretty cool, though it's more theoretical).

Are there any other universities that you could transfer to? usually transferring has much lower requirements than getting in.

Quote:Original post by stonemetal
Are there any other universities that you could transfer to? usually transferring has much lower requirements than getting in.

Yes, actually there is. There is a highly regarded State institution with a high ranked CS program (62 on the GRE website). Don't get me wrong, I had a 4.05 (on a 4.0 scale) and a 27 on the ACT, I would have had no problem getting in here in the first place and, I currently have a 3.5 at my current school. My problem comes up to SHOULD I? This University that I would transfer to s an equal distance from my house, in a much larger city, and is only about 70 miles from the school I go to now. I also wouldn't be paying much more for it, because it is state funded. Once again, my question is, should I? Should I even bother? If my education is where it should be here, why switch? I guess I should show you what classes I've taken so far.

Intro to CS (How computers work and Python)
Calculus I
Intro to C++ programming
C++ Programming II
Calculus II
Data Structures I (lists, stacks, queues, pointers)
Data Structures II (OO Design, linked lists, trees, etc.)

I'm just scared that I'm not learning what I should, or learning the way I should.

Take time to sit down and look at what you are doing. look at the course descriptions at the other school. They more than likely have better electives if they have a decent program. They more than likely have more/better students meaning you will have better/more discussions with your peers. The bigger more established program will more likely get you more opportunity/better internships. The library is likely to be better. These are all things that you will need to investigate for yourself. So yes going to a better school is worth it for a great enough difference in the schools. Personally I would make an appointment to talk to an academic adviser at the other school and spend time on campus check out the library/computer labs/common areas.

I started at Uni that taught the os class in java, the db class covered cobol(no theory or sql anywhere), and I was more motivated than anyone else there. I transfered to another school, just about started over, and loved it. I got to take AI and graphics classes, learned lisp from a prof who had worked at TI on lisp hardware, the library had programming books that were less than 40 years old. I had classmates who were actually interested in programming. It was great.

You may just want to re evaluate if you still enjoy programming?

It's really hard to make a judgement based on those classes you listed without an idea of what the curriculum looks like afterward... BUT, having "Intro to C++ Programming" and "C++ Programming II" does seem a bit "trade school" to me. I would want to see more "Computer Science" I, II, III, etc., where there is less emphasis on the language (which is merely a tool) and more emphasis on the fundamental theories of CS.

I'm not sure how common it is, though, to spend that much time teaching a particular language, so I may be way off base.

It also seems a bit odd that you would have a course to teach "how computers work" without any prerequisite for discreet mathematics.

Quote:Original post by smitty1276
It's really hard to make a judgement based on those classes you listed without an idea of what the curriculum looks like afterward... BUT, having "Intro to C++ Programming" and "C++ Programming II" does seem a bit "trade school" to me. I would want to see more "Computer Science" I, II, III, etc., where there is less emphasis on the language (which is merely a tool) and more emphasis on the fundamental theories of CS.

I'm not sure how common it is, though, to spend that much time teaching a particular language, so I may be way off base.

It also seems a bit odd that you would have a course to teach "how computers work" without any prerequisite for discreet mathematics.

That's what I was thinking, and this is the exact things that I wanted to hear. I just wanted to know if my education was on track or if I need to look into another school. I think I'll set up a meeting with the dept. chair at the other school. Thanks, everyone.