Advice for a Potential Student (again)

[CycoCyclone]

I actually use my MIS degree as a Business Analyst for one of those big insurance firms in DSM, but there were a lot of compatriots who I would never let touch my computer.

Try going for an Masters of Information Systems, two bachelors look petty.

[GeronimusClone]

I'm 29 and, as I said in the first post, already have a bachelor's. My days of getting wasted and doing things with fat chicks are well behind me.

God, you're selling yourself short.

[CyCrazy]

Originally Posted by fanaticagain

I'm 29 and, as I said in the first post, already have a bachelor's. My days of getting wasted and doing things with fat chicks are well behind me.

God, you're selling yourself short.

those days never end

[greatshu]

Why the **** is your Kansas doll bigger than Cy? Blasphemy.

Because thats all I had in my office when I took that photo.

[MoreCowbell]

I would also look into programs at a community college or see if there's anything via distance-learning.

[cyclonepower]

go to school and experience life god your 18, get wasted have fun and **** fat chicks, dont be so serious about life

+1 for best post of the day...

[cyclonepower]

We called 'em slump busters back in my day. Sometimes you just have to take one for the team.

and a +1 for slump busters

[ISUboi12]

This is going to be bad advice, but I did not learn a single thing in college that I use on a daily basis. Not one thing in the computer science dept has helped my career except that little slip of paper that says BS in CS.

If you already have a bachelors, go get some specialized training instead.

I would think a field like computer science requires a lot of creative latitude. Much like an art degree I don't think a reasonable gradute should expect that the program is going to teach them precisely how to paint every picture.

To an extent every undergraduate college degree is like that, other than professional and trade programs I don't think you are going to find much instruction that is going to directly prepare you for your chosen occupation.

I spent the better half of a year in computer engineering my first semester at ISU. I am willing to bet you had a significantly greater comprehension for any relevant job than I ever will given the circumstances. Maybe I am wrong, but I dislike when people sell their education short..

[marothisu]

Sorry this is my first post on this username although I have another I can't seem to remember my pw for. Anyway:

I have a B.S. in Computer Science from ISU. I'll be working for IBM in downtown Chicago living the life, and working on fun projects starting extremely soon. I also get paid $10k - $15k more than the average starting salary in the US for Comp Sci, but anyway:

As far as the program at ISU goes? Well, I'm not going to lie -- it is good, but it's not the best ever. There's actually a lot of very, very intelligent professors there. The program though for Computer Science itself is fair amount of theory, which some professors are trying to get rid of but can't because there's a big theory group in the department. The other half is programming, but half of it is not real world stuff. It's mostly just teaching you how to go about programming well.

Here's the thing though, do you want to do COMPUTER SCIENCE, MIS, or SOFTWARE ENGINEERING? I ask for a few reasons, but firstly Computer Science out of all three of those is the hardest and has the highest drop out rate. I started out with about 250 people in my intro to programming class (which isn't required anymore, but they're half bringing it back as a 2 credit course). Because of a 7 month co-op, I didn't graduate in the spring of when I was supposed to; it got pushed back a semester. That class had like 20 people out of 250 graduate maybe. I decided to graduate this spring actually. People who graduated between Spring 2008 and Spring 2009, probably about 35 out of around 500-600 who originally started in the major. Most people drop out and go to MIS, which is often thought of as a joke in the Com S department. However, most any company in the world needs an MIS person, so you can easily find a job if you got decent or better grades in that major.

Software Engineering is joint with Computer Science, but without as much math and theory. I think you have to take Com S 311 if you go to Soft E, which is an algorithms class, trying to be extremely efficient, and coming up with interesting ways of going about it. The good news is you wouldn't have to take Com S 331, which is by far the hardest class I've ever taken at any level of schooling. Not only that, but it's a completely useless class and almost no universities in the US require it unless you're at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, Harvard, etc. A few professors are trying to get rid of it, but there's so many theory professors at ISU who are so far removed from the real world they think you have to know this stuff when you don't. They are way too stupid in that sense to even realize it.

Software Engineering focuses MORE on the development cycle of software and the programming than Comp Sci does.

Then there's Computer Engineering which is more hardware stuff, but I only had to take two of those courses, so I couldn't provide you with much insight.

Anyway, so if you want to do hardware, go to Computer Engineering. If you mostly just want to do programming and software development, go to Software Engineering. If you want to do part software development/programming and part math, go to Computer Science. If you want to do a little basic programming, learn basic server stuff, and some business stuff, go to MIS

Whatever the case is, if you get at least a 3.0 in any one of those four degrees from ISU, you should have absolutely no troubles finding a job, even in this economy. There IS a reason why companies outsource these jobs sometimes, and it's not always because of the cost associated with doing it.

Most people hit on a good point too. You learn stuff in college, but you learn way more on a job than you ever do in school in a shorter time. The degree (or your GPA if you're working towards it) itself is a way to get an interview. Of course, if you're in an interview then they already know you can do the work. They just want to know you can communicate and aren't a ******* when it comes to social skills.

So the thing is, it sounds like you want to do more of MIS-type stuff. I would suggest one of two things. You could go to ISU and get a degree, and for MIS it proably wouldn't even take you four years because the coursework is so incredibly easy. You could also go to a community college like DMACC. NOW, some companies do actually pay you less if you get a degree from a community college vs. a four year university *for computer science, software engineering, etc*. If you want to be the "manager of computers" for Wells Fargo bank or something? They'll hire you and pay you at least $45k - $50k/year starting if you went to community college.

You really need to figure out what kind of work you want to do if you're serious about this because depending on what it is, you can save a lot of money and come out of it and get a good job even if you go to DMACC. But I'll tell you this, if you want to do a job like mine, you won't be hired if you went to DMACC. So there's some weighing to do