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* \1 B( |1 N7 Y9 ?You're better off going to the arts college. you'll have more fun, also the course (from your admittedly short description) sounds good. No harm in getting the theory under your belt. Programming is kinda like music, once you understand the theory of how music works, its easier to pick up a musical instrument... Ultimately if you get a good degree it really doesn't matter, especially when you have a few years experience under your belt. Finally the small size of the faculty sounds good as you'll get more personal attention... Good Luck
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Math is kinda like music. Programming is a lot like designing and building musical instruments. Theory is necessary to do it well, but theory alone will give you a violin which implodes when you tighten the strings.
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$ l$ Q2 H* L' Q" c/ D: wI don't think that you've emphasized the *fun* part enough.9 X$ K' v% e+ c6 @3 X
+ l2 v3 V* d! n, U! n* h0 p2 XDon't get me wrong - half of college is about working your ass off, sleeping in the lab and submitting term papers 38 seconds before the deadline after having worked on them for three days straight (what smells like coffee and bacon?).2 V8 Y; G+ g$ d. y" R- B8 h
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But the other half of it is meeting people and becoming an adult (if one is so fortunate as to be attending college immediately after high school in the conventional manner). If you have time, join any and every student organization that interests you - even if it doesn't fit your major. Talk to people. Make weekly attempts to eat the entire two pound burrito (goals are important). Wear sunscreen. Et cetera.
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When you look back on college and don't chuckle out loud, then you didn't do it properly. You only get one chance.9 n4 n0 h7 g3 h9 |8 k1 F
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The women will be hotter at a liberal arts college.* S7 ?. q2 x0 L5 b( m7 [7 F' M
4 Q7 Q: d8 O4 v/ J% t, bI'd choose the college with the most beautiful women.
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However, in my country, right now, there's no chance of not finding a nice job with any kind of CS higher education.
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Also, take into account the importance of your choice of college will fade after some years. At 45, your rank (?) won't really depend on your college but on your skill and abilities.% j) O6 W$ i3 s& K9 U2 y5 `
1 I5 d6 M0 L, D$ BA highly regarded school is a highly regarded school. On top of that, I interview people to work for my tech company and I don't care if you're from MIT or middle of nowhere college, it all depends on what comes out of your mouth during the interview. And I haven't met a company that's any different.( E+ K+ B" `1 ~1 K0 k
# y! Y' y, z, w* x- II think you need to ask yourself if you want to go to a school where they force you into requirements like taking one anthropology course or two upper division reading courses. You're other choice (the tech school) is having all your courses picked for you but never accidentally stumbling onto something you love or have never experienced.
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Me, I opted for the liberal arts college and will never regret it. Sure, my coworkers who went to a tech school get to brag about how intensive their CS coursework was but I've learned what they know (if not more) a couple years into my job.: r* }1 X* K6 h
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Do what you want to do, what you think will be fun and exciting. The place ain't gonna matter, what you put into it will and will be evident to anybody that talks to you.2 K% W m7 | Y" S' H
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- W. i( T/ l7 e, |" v, j. Q" e# [As the GP mentioned, you only get to make a good impression once you have the interview. Getting to the interview is based first (and foremost) on networking (who you know). If you don't have connections, then you need to rely on your resume; fresh out of college, the school's reputation is one of the few hooks you have to land that interview. Companies tend to get many more applicants than they can reasonably interview, so some amount of cheap (however unfair) filtering is necessary.
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Once you're in the interview, your resume serves largely to help the interviewer frame his questions.
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Yes, at first, where you went may matter to some people. And some programs are going to be able to offer opportunities you might not get anywhere else.
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9 V1 b9 Z: }; u% R. T* c( wBut a healthy presence in open source projects to gain experience, as well as being active in your local tech community can go a long way. Having the degree is fine - having it with experience is even better.
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Y0 Q/ c2 W0 x E6 fFirst, HR departments don't care where your degree is from.( g5 |! n. ^) P$ F7 Y2 E
" m& N, }+ C& |/ h& g. ?7 o' v- JOnce you understand that, you need to understand yourself and your goals. What do you want to do with your degree? Do you want to be a sysadmin (face it, you can go to Devry and do that job competently), programmer, manager, researcher? These are things that should influence your decision. If you want to work in a research department (say PARC or MSR), you will need postgraduate degrees, and the best thing in that case is to choose the tech school. Other than that, you would probably have more fun at the liberal arts college.
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You should also think about what kind of college experience you want. Do you want to go to a large school with many opportunities to meet a very diverse set of people? Do you want to go to a small school and be more than just another face in the crowd? Do you want to be involved in fraternities? Which school will give you the school experience you want?0 c! F: F. C; A- Q/ V
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Where are the schools located? Do you want to live in a small college town? How about a big city? Do you want the college to be your primary connection to the world, or do you want to explore outside the gates? How much cold weather can you stand? How much crime can you stand? Which school has the best location for you?. f9 C# l/ `% l, ]. [! z
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There are a great many factors in choosing a school. Do not limit your choices because you heard that one program is better than another. If you really don't know what you want to do yet, don't make the choice on program reputation alone. If you know you want the best program, then maybe that is the best choice, but in the end the "better" program is not going to prepare you much better than the "worser" program.
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?3 j9 o' g" x, D/ \" XI'm a second year ME major at Virginia Tech, and about half of my friends are CS majors. From what I've seen here it does not really matter where you go, but what projects you've worked on and completed. Also whether or not you have a 3.0 or higher GPA. You really have to be careful when you're going for a CS degree straight out of high school, because most people who are 'good' with computers and like video games and web design don't really want to do CS. Of course if you're all into algorithms, complex math and finding the most efficient sorting method, then by all means go for it. When trying to get jobs typically there will be a short technical part of the interview and then a general interview, and as long as you nail the general stuff in your classes you should be Ok for the technical part, and the rest rides on your personality. This of course is based on what I've gleaned from working on our annual engineering expo (job fair). You might want to go with the liberal arts school just so you can get a more rounded education, as smaller departments generally mean alot more individual attention, check into the school's hire rate out of college from their CS department, as that is normally the best indicator of whether or not its a school you want to go to if you're focused on getting a job. Don't forget to enjoy life along the way, if either of the school's campuses are miserable, you'll be living there for the next 4 years :D Good luck with your decision
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+ U2 K2 Z) H' n' o- z& k0 Z5 H! ~The difference between a tech school and a liberal arts school is vast. Tech school will teach you a lot of hands on skills that will be useful immediately in the job market. However, those skills will be flavor-of-the-month, possibly even tied to specific brands, and your possible career paths will be very narrow.: w/ q2 v' G9 k
The liberal arts school will teach you a bunch of apparently useless abstractions and hands on programming will be considered an annoying little detail. You'll also learn a lot about long dead societies, peoples and languages. And other, less tangible things.2 Q8 X! K g# z7 n2 Q
20 years out, the tech graduate will be working in a cubicle at a dead end job. The liberal arts student will be doing whatever he wants.& a( a e; I4 G6 Y8 \/ s
) M8 q$ h! ]! Q% BI'd probably go for the liberal arts college. You'll meet some interesting people, have a good life for a while and probably get a better education if the groups are small anyway. You can always go to MIT for your masters. I'd also not discount the value of theory. I've always prefered hiring the math student with some programming knowledge over the CS student who took all the Java classes.0 x2 Z0 y& U' R4 ^. \
5 Z% J9 w+ t& v) w9 M6 S1 kFirst of all, I suspect you'll get a fair number of comments arguing against attending a liberal arts college. You're asking a Slashdot audience, so approach such comments with caution.
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7 z, c1 Q/ F- \& gI've interviewed and hired some employees, and I have also interviewed dozens of students applying to one of America's most elite universities for admission (or much more often rejection). (I also had a similar decision to make at age 17.) Above all else I look for candidates who can learn quickly and who can communicate well. That second attribute is arguably less common among graduates from technical institutions, but communication starts with your resume (or a campus recruiting event, or whatever), not with the mere identity of your college, so I keep an open mind and would invite you to an interview if the signs are otherwise positive. I also look for inquisitiveness: are you a person who is inherently curious about the world? I look for other attributes, too, but those three are priorities." U/ i1 t: z. v( T1 @& s* W
8 z6 h5 t% g+ f4 R" MBut even before you get to an interview or apply for a job, do you know what you want to do when you grow up? A lot of prospective college students are not sure, and many or most change their minds. Some colleges provide more options than others if you do change your mind. I would recommend using college as a vehicle to explore your curiosities. That journey of exploration builds confidence, and confident, thoughtful people often interview better. If you are already sure about your path, great, go chase your dream. If you are not, then go explore what fascinates you to build your dream.
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+ m3 s, a8 L4 w) Q1 ]3 U& S$ LI went to the best tech school that accepted me (Rensselaer). I have this piece of wisdom to pass on: choose a school that's near a beach--Miami, California, whatever. The climate should be temperate all year round.$ j/ M+ x7 a# [) T$ x7 c
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I went into the Air Force after I graduated, and since then, only one employer was impressed by the fact that I graduated from Rensselaer.2 ], ] j, S8 {
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I would, however, suggest that you try to get a technical/engineering school that meets the above requirement of beach-i-ness.2 S I. ]; b6 s: D
6 e! a0 @: c- [6 v. b' s8 QTo some it may seem like this post is meant to be funny. It's not. If I could do it all over again, I would choose the best technicial university that's near a beach in a temperate zone.% ^: T9 ^7 f4 y% F
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3 Q* Y$ P2 s8 U& S" M _, GIt's getting so that any bachelor's degree is about worthless except as a stepping stone to a master's degree, mainly thanks to absurd grade inflation. If you show up to class 90% of the time and are sober, you'll get straight A's in most bachelor's programs these days (if you don't show up or aren't sober, you'll only get a B+). So I advise going to whatever school has the most interesting non-CS bachelor's program that you're interested in just for fun and then spend another year and a half or two getting an MS in CS from a serious CS school. The difference in starting salaries and opportunities between an MS and a BS make this more than worthwhile. I advise this as someone who has a BA in non-CS from a state school and an MS in IT from a prestigious private school - salaries and opportunities are a LOT better with an MS., E3 ~+ m# q0 K* Y R$ a4 m
* t7 v: D% B5 HSince you will be coming right out of school, you may not have much practical experience when it comes time to see a full-time job. This is to be expected, but there are a couple of things you can do to make yourself stand out:
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1) Seek a good internship/coop that allows you to develop practical experience. Many of these are one or two-semester gigs (or one or two summers). When I was in school, I had a 3.5 yr coop which was basically a long-term relationship with a local employer. That was hugely valuable, as by the time I graduated I had a ton of experience (even leading small projects). I would have gotten a full-time offer had that department not been closed down shortly after I left./ R6 @1 P# U/ }& v2 q" q1 i
& V5 b, l2 \* k; G2) Work on some interesting hobby projects. School projects are often an interesting spring board, but consider ways to apply what you are learning to scratching some itch., `+ B& B( A. V6 K; w* h
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Personally, I don't give the candidate's school a whole lot of weight. Maybe it gets my attention when looking at a sea of applicants, but I consider each applicant on his/her own merit as demonstrated by the resume, cover letter, and other submitted materials. The most crucial aspect of the whole process is actually the on-site interview. Everything else is just a screening mechanism.% ^) S3 Z( Q6 V! X$ }
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What I look for most is what Joel Spolsky from Joel on Software refers to as "Smart and Gets Things Done." For me, that means someone who is interested in programming because they think it's cool and provides an outlet for creative problem solving, and someone who has demonstrated an ability to tackle problems in the past.
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Therefore, I would recommend that you choose a college based on the total experience you will get. Consider everything college offers: learning about a lot of topics, meeting new people, exposure to new ideas, a new level of freedom and independence, moving to a new place to be exposed to new culture, etc... Many of the classes that had the most impact on me and were most memorable were far outside the CS curriculum. Consider what opportunities are available there with each school. Think about what it will be like to live in each of the cities the colleges are located in. Think about what there could be to explore and discover there. Choose the school that is best for you on all of those fronts - don't limit yourself to just choosing a CS program.
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In a few years where you got your CS degree won't matter so much, but the memories and experiences you got while in school will last your entire lifetime. Many of those experience will be unrelated to what happened in the classroom.
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Unless you have a minor that the arts college really attracts you to, I'd suggest the Tech college. Several reasons:+ u! r* o. ^' J- P& c
5 [. a J# T; S; O' U6 i1) Some companies look for someone from a good tech college. If they are doing resume mining you can be sure they aren't looking for U of Nowhere. Also for example my current employer has half its staff from the same school. They see the school name and have an idea of what someone graduating from there should know.' G: T( t. ~% G" B" [3 l8 P- [
/ T* t+ p3 R& {9 y1 `0 q2) If you get a more specialized interest as you go through school you'll be more likely to find courses/research supervisors for your interest. If you are in a small faculty you might get lucky. But if you are in a large one you'll almost certainly have someone in any niche you are thinking about. K H: T; o _8 I" l% ]
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3) You'll get a wider peer group from which to use for future job info, business partners etc. Plus in a small school you might date the one girl in your program and have it not work out. At a big school you can choose between several geek girls, or go to another department.$ x. r- z6 c$ K$ b! M- s. \* Y
2 d: ^0 {& K! y5 @1 {6 x6 m4) You also can be more selective with your friends/project team mates, you don't have much choice with a small program because either you will clump up with a couple people and do projects together, or some other group with form and force you into a group by default. You don't want to be forced to work with people you can't stand. It happens enough in the real world why experience more of it than you have too? ;)5 g. G, i3 a2 n. S! J# |* n
; g1 w A/ [! r1 I' e8 E* Tt seems as if your decided on CS for a degree. While many people have posted on the additional experiences and opportunities that you could have by going to a school that will likely focus more heavily on required classes from outside your chosen degree path, I have yet to see any posts on another important factor: How broad is their CS program?
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, ~3 I- U) X' d; E1 J# BI went to a college that had a smaller CS program, but it was decently broad in nature. By the time I got to the 400-level classes there were 15 or less people in each class, but the classes also represented a great number of sub-fields in CS; from advanced classes in AI, Distributed Computing, and Signal Processing to a number of more esoteric courses they were trying out in web and 3D modeling. Not to mention the ability to pick up business classes or additional math or science classes (or even Liberal Arts courses) that could allow you to pick up a minor or further explore another interest.0 ~2 E* ?& c7 @* A
8 g2 P" y' A w; MIf your primary goal is a CS degree, I agree that it rarely matters to an interviewer where you received that degree (though it does matter on occasion). However, the breadth of courses available from the institution and the number of classes they will _allow_ you to take from your major (as opposed to required credits from other branches and required elective credits from other branches) are going to have an impact on the level of knowledge you attain and the number of sub-fields you will get to explore. Additionally, you should look into how much the school supports internships. One of the things that helped me best during my college education was the fact that I was working for pay on real projects, which then gave me a different perspective on the course material.
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' \( `3 @$ V" _; O* X2 aAlso, if you are considering a highly recommended liberal arts school and a highly recommended tech school, why not look at one or two state colleges that have good CS departments? The price range (even out of state) may be in the same range you are looking at for that liberal arts college, the fact that it is a state school will likely have brought in students for a wide variety of degrees, but (if you use CS program quality as criteria) there will also be a greater breadth of CS classes available, allowing you to learn about multiple sub-fields to better determine where you would like to go in CS.
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There's a lot of really good self-taught programmers out there, and they can write some pretty cool software. However, the truly elite programmers are the educated ones that can understand the principles that make it all work.
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G& y% q, i7 E9 W2 f4 k& N The really good employers know this. You're not going to get the plum job at Google unless you know what a fixed-point function is and what it's good for. Fog Creek Software doesn't want to hire you unless you really understand pointers and recursion. There's really neat jobs at Sun Microsystems that need you to DEEPLY understand object-orientation and algorithm analysis.
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' e; i& A: h, E) }, R- ]; iThe number of people that can learn that stuff on their own is vanishingly small. Even if you can learn it by yourself, there's nothing like going through a rigorous 4-year program where you have these topics stuffed down your throat and drilled into you until you know it backwards and forwards. A good CS degree practically guarantees that you'll have a suite of kick-ass high-level skills by the time you graduate.
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# p f6 @8 n! @- b- EYes, a good programmer will teach his (or herself) on a lot of topics. However, for many things there's just no substitute for a good old education.* j$ J. j: W* ^
. O+ [/ K, ^! K- ^) Y$ R4 yPeople who are excellent at programming are like people who are excellent at a lot of other things - they started doing it well before college.5 W9 N5 j) D$ S: E2 D( L( v
+ t$ Y+ U8 N% D' }1 B; G2 d5 YHow many athletes do you know who started playing a sport in college? How many musicians? Even things like Chemistry, Math, Medicine, Law - you started learning the basics of those careers in junior high and high school.
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3 S$ q2 Z1 r5 W4 c* ^6 NProgramming isn't any different. People who are going to be great at programming started doing it in high school (or earlier) and are going to get a more structured education out of college. I already knew how to program before I got to college, but I learned a lot of stuff I would not have learned on my own by going - and I wasn't even in a straight CS program.4 q5 ^. ~( r+ G4 ?
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Someone who shows up at college with no programming experience is likely not going to be a GREAT programmer. It's too late. They're competing against people who have been programming for 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 years. It's too much of a head start.+ b' A0 ^3 Y% d) Z, }
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But, there are also plenty of people who do not go to college who are SHITTY programmers. Oh, sure, they learned how to do some things on their own, but there's also a big pile of stuff they never learned. And worse, they don't even realize how much they don't know.
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Education is a good thing. You learn a lot faster when information is given to you than by discovery.
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$ b8 Q/ }8 d A2 [5 I: XSo, to the topic at hand...
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, S: ]9 d$ o, b: LGo to the liberal arts school. Learn the theory. Anybody who isn't an idiot can learn software syntax. As far as employment goes, most people who get great CS jobs out of college get them based on the projects/open source work/internships they did in college. Education teaches you how to work better, but you prove you can work well by working.
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And, as mentioned elsewhere, bonus: Girls. |
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