Computer Science Enrollment Up 10% Last Fall 173
dcblogs writes "Computer science enrollments increased 10% last fall, according to the Computer Research Association. At the peak of the dot-com era, the average enrollment in computer science departments was 398, but by 2007 it had declined in half. Enrollments now average 253 students per department. Enrollments have now increased in the last three years. The CRA's annual survey tracks students enrolled at Ph.D.-granting institutions. Compared to the dot-com era, the interest today in computer science may be 'a more reasoned response to a field that seems positioned at the hub of just about every national priority.'"
Sure: DataStructures is one, DB/SQL's another (Score:0, Informative)
See subject-line: Those are 2 that are extremely useful in today's "MIS/IS/IT" world (the most prevalent coding going on ever, because EVERYONE's INFORMATION IS DIFFERENT & PROCESSED DIFFERENTLY, often using diff. tools - you will do conversion of data + DB work, like mad...):
"Are there any useful skills being taught in these departments or is it still just an arbitrary requirement to have a CS degree when applying for jobs?" - by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday April 12, @11:46AM (#35794458)
DB work? It's everywhere... SQL is DEFINITELY YOUR BUDDY! DataStructure is more "theoreticals" but... it shows you tricks with data & algorithms that WORK for performance mostly (sorts especially & which ones are BEST on which size of data etc., for example).
See above, for just a couple of what I felt are EXTREMELY VALUABLE COURSES I took for a CSC degree... For me, lately?
Learning stuff like PyThon lately for me has been a godsend too (this is on my own though, to do various tasks like "screen scrapes" off the web of data)...
I come out of the C/C++/Assembly/ObjectPascal-Delphi/VB world of the mid 1990's, & things are changing.
To do string processing work, using those language's native string processing (Delphi & VB's rock, but pale compared to REGEX ability for data conversions imo @ least) minus REGEX's, as I used to in those languages I noted?
Like trying to dig down a mountain with a spoon... REGEX gave me DYNAMITE to do it (faster & efficient, since Python's written iirc, in C++).
Yes, those other languages NOW have REGEX libs/dlls/toolkit addons (for a while now, but not when I used them @ least, or I wasn't aware of it in the 1990's there was).
Much of what you need, you have to pay attention to job want ads for... & what you see being used a LOT? You get into... it's THAT simple.
I never personally REALLY used the math they make you take (discrete & calc being prime examples) in MIS/IS/IT work (databasing, what I primarily do since 1994 professionally) but... they DO help you understand that you take a problem, bust it into manageable parts, & work on each till the WHOLE THING, works.
I suppose were I into say, game programming & AI, plus scientific or engineering related work, I'd need to use them... but, in db work? Heh, never... never over 17++ yrs. now coding as a pro...
APK
P.S.=> STILL: I'll NEVER knock academia - They teach you things there, IN PRINCIPALS ALONE, that will save you years of mistakes & "reinventing the wheel" + possibly, poorly. Programming's NOT about SYNTAX - it's a SYSTEM OF THOUGHT! apk
Re:Computer Science != IT (Score:4, Informative)
And IT isn't programming at all. IT is the domain of setting up computers and networks and sys admins. Programmers are their own category, and lumping them into "IT" just confuses every conversation since their jobs are so different. Its like calling a mech e who designs engines and a mechanic "automotive technologists". At that point the name is meaningless.