Comments on: How One College Boosted Female STEM Graduates

By: Aretae

Aretae — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 14:53:52 +0000

Degree names are no longer indicative of anything, as far as I can tell. MIS, CIS, CS, Software Engineering — some of them are good, even the MIS programs, and some of them are bad. This from a lot of hiring, and a lot of teaching of comp-sci-type grads.

I see folks with computer-y degrees leave school having taken 2!!!! programming classes.

Assumption: a CS-type grad cannot be expected to know anything about programming.

By: L. C. Rees

L. C. Rees — Tue, 01 Apr 2014 00:34:36 +0000

Finally. Someone to write the unit tests.

By: Scipio Americanus

Scipio Americanus — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 20:34:52 +0000

CS-101 was C++ only and had a fair bit of actual computer science towards the end, too, though my professor was a nincompoop who had to google basic information about the vector class in lecture.

After that it was DSA for a weeder class, just like at Contemplationist’s school. I think they made CS-101 easier because it was a requirement for all science majors (hence me), but it still sounds like it was harder than the kind of programs you guys are talking about.

That was 2007, at a top 50 engineering/science institute.

By: Contemplationist

Contemplationist — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 19:52:25 +0000

I wouldn’t be so quick to bash ‘Java-based’ programs. Those are usually intro classes, which I also took.
But the subsequent classes were Data Structures and Algorithms which was the biggest weeder class. The median grade was a D, and all the programming was in C/C++.
This was followed by a Programming Languages class where various functional, logical and other esoteric languages are taught.
Then comes Software Engineering, and Operating Systems.
This is a standard CS program at top 20% state schools, nothing special.

By: Isegoria

Isegoria — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:49:24 +0000

I remember working with some folks with “information technology” degrees — “computer science lite!” — and they were baffled by complex programming logic — like a nested if. So, this has moved into actual computer science programs?

By: Slovenian Guest

Slovenian Guest — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 17:22:31 +0000

Coincidentally Vox Day just posted on the dumbing down of tech:

“Programmers are being taught to be glorified power users rather than actual computer engineers.”

“The real reason courses are being dumbed down, of course, is so that women can pass them.”

All-Java computer science degrees, what a joke.

By: Contemplationist

Contemplationist — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:29:39 +0000

Skeptical that standards haven’t dropped, but let’s see.

By: Gwern

Gwern — Mon, 31 Mar 2014 15:28:59 +0000

My previous comment on the Harvey Mudd "success" may be relevant.