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comment by rjw
rjw  ·  3857 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Soapbox Sundays: Expound on an Idea/Philosophy of Yours

yeah, university really isn't all that, is it? I'm doing computer science, it's kind of scary how many people complain that:

they don't need to learn any maths

they don't need to learn any computer science theory

they don't need to learn how to program (or don't bother), because they'll learn on the job

they don't need to learn how to write

they don't need to learn how to present shit

uhhh





teamramonycajal  ·  3857 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Oh, university is most certainly all that, and if you disagree you haven't put enough into your education, but many of the students aren't.

Do half of the students expect to be the stereotypical unwashed code monkey whose only job is typing code and who never gets brought out as a representative of whichever organization, industrial or academic or governmental, that they only got a job at because they can code?

rjw  ·  3857 days ago  ·  link  ·  

OK fine, "not all that" perhaps wasn't the right expression but yes, I more or less agree with you. I think I had this idea that university would do the job of making people interested in computer science, when in reality, by the time you get to university level that's really up to the student. But then, there aren't any good pre-university computer science courses in the UK. So where are people going to pick up the computing bug? Nerdy parents (in my case it was my father)? There were a few extra-curricular things at my school but then not all places are lucky enough to provide stuff like that. It's a big problem, one that has been in the news in the UK quite a bit as well (the only sensible thing that Michael Gove has talked about, actually).

So quite a few people are only here because of the prospect of a decent job, which is fine I suppose but that seems like a pretty grim attitude to have. But then I've met a lot of people who are way more driven than I am. Which is for the best, really. And yeah, I think I did OK because I'm interested in compsci and alright at the subject. So that's nice.