Computer scientists/programmers?

[Alenci]

Any professionals around here? I kind of think I might major in comp. sci. in college. Any thoughts? suggestions? Or you can just post and tell me a bit about what you do.

 

[trunks2k]

I'm a 3rd year CS major at Drexel University (a good school for CS or Engineering). I don't know how other schools run their CS majors, so I'll give you a little advice.

1. Be good at math. At Drexel, CS used to be part of the Math department until last year or so. So we do a large amount of math courses, so far I've taken Calc I-IV and Linear Algebra. I still have to take Stat I-III and Discrete Math. One or two more math courses and I would get a minor in Math along with my BS in CS. In fact, there is a CS "track" that ends up giving us a Minor in math, but I'm not taking it.

2. Drink a lot of caffine. While our first few CS classes were pretty easy, the newer ones have assignments that take a long time. Currently we're building an interpreter for a non-trivial computer language.

3. It's helpful to have know at least one language pretty well. More specifically an object oriented language like C++. A lot of work you'll do revolves around object oriented design, so it's helpful to be familiar with it.

4. Don't concern yourself with knowing a large amount of languages. Any CS major can pick up a book on a language and learn the basic syntax it in a few days. What you need to focus on is problem solving, and learning the underlying concepts behind programming. i.e. I know how Perl and many of the things involved in how Perl works, so I can pick up PHP in an hour. Or "I need to minimized memory usage for this task, regardless of programming language, what's the best way to do this?"

5. Don't be scared. A lot of the stuff we do sounds incredibly difficult when we first hear about it. But by the end, it really isn't that hard. Time consuming, yes, but not really difficult. I'm currently taking a class in system architecture and we were learning MIPS assembly, it looked so confusing anf incredibly hard at first glance that I almost freaked out. In actuallity it's not that hard at all, and now I can probably pick up how to code in assembly for x86 or PowerPC processors in a couple days.

 

[Niz]

i'm a sophmore in Computer Science and Web Design. Went to CNCC and now going to ACC. I agree drink lots and lots of caffiene

 

[seebs]

I'm a programmer, but I'm actually making most of my living as a writer these days; less competition.

 

[Grommit]

CS major here too.

Seebs has a good point. Programmers are a commodity nowadays. Gone are the large salarys and even most of our jobs. If you want to make a living in IT, best learn something that isn't programming only. There's more to CS and computers than logic and software design. I'd seriously take a CS class at a local community college during the summer and see if you really want to pursue a degree in that field. It might be helpful to know that the school I went to had 750+ CS majors my freshman year. By the time junior/senior level classes came by, only 42 of the folks in my class were left. Most got weeded out, (thanks to statics and compilers! ), and the rest switched majors after they got a sense of what most CS programs offer. Basically programming, programming, and more programming...

If you like working with computers and don't really care much about becomming a software nut, try looking into CIS, MIS, or IS. (depends what your choice of school calls it but they are basically the same).

 

[Grommit]

Actually, do this... go to a local college/University and browse through their book store and get a good look at their CS text books from 100 all the way up to 400 level courses. That will give you a GREAT idea of what CS covers. Yes, the stuff looks scary but it's actually simple if you take the time to understand it. It's actually fun on many levels.

 

[LuckyCharm]

I've been asked this question many times. The first thing I say is, "Do you love it?" Would you stay up all night troubleshooting a balky network connection? And get up in the morning, with precious little sleep and no shower, to get the hardware you needed?

And be happy to do that, as long as it worked?

If you can't say you'd do that, I don't know if you'd be happy working with computers.

~~Cheryl

 

[trunks2k]

CS major here too.

Seebs has a It might be helpful to know that the school I went to had 750+ CS majors my freshman year. By the time junior/senior level classes came by, only 42 of the folks in my class were left. Most got weeded out, (thanks to statics and compilers! ),

Something like that happend in my first couple semesters of class. In the first semester of class, there were 4 sections for the first CS class, each with about 100-150 people in it. By the second smester, we were down to 4 sections with 50 people in it each. By the third semester we were down to 3 sections with 50 people in it each. And that was all due to the EASY stuff.

 

[trunks2k]

I've been asked this question many times. The first thing I say is, "Do you love it?" Would you stay up all night troubleshooting a balky network connection? And get up in the morning, with precious little sleep and no shower, to get the hardware you needed?

I hate it when things like this happen. I sit down at my computer to work on a project and think "OK, I'll program for an hour, eat lunch, take a shower, etc." I end up running into annoying little bugs and decided "OK, I'll fix THIS bug then stop" eventually I'll say "OK, this'll be the LAST bug I fix". Except I end up saying it abuout a dozen times. By the time I finally pull myself away from the computer, it's now 6 PM, and I haven't showered or eaten since I got up.

The geekiest thing I have ever said:

I had been spending the entire day working on huge programming project. It was no around 6 or 7 PM. My roomate, who was sick, wakes up after sleeping all day. HE decides he needs to go to 7-11 to get medicine and asks me what the whether is like. To which I respond:
"I don't know. I haven't had a chance to look out the window today."

 

[Alenci]

I agree drink lots and lots of caffiene

Guess I'll have to start drinking coffee and soda instead of tea and juice...

Actually, do this... go to a local college/University and browse through their book store and get a good look at their CS text books from 100 all the way up to 400 level courses. That will give you a GREAT idea of what CS covers.

Hey, I think that's a pretty cool idea. I might try that. Thanks!

Something like that happend in my first couple semesters of class. In the first semester of class, there were 4 sections for the first CS class, each with about 100-150 people in it. By the second smester, we were down to 4 sections with 50 people in it each. By the third semester we were down to 3 sections with 50 people in it each. And that was all due to the EASY stuff.

I've noticed that kind of trend (to a lesser extent) at my high school. In each class, there are a third to half the number of year Twos that there are Ones, and there are not more than one or two year Threes in each class. I'm a Two, planning to continue next year... but college stories make me nervous, especially since my dad and brother both got their degrees in electrical engineering. They have got the real horror stories, I tell you.

To which I respond:
"I don't know. I haven't had a chance to look out the window today."

Hahaha.

 

[QuePasa]

Nothing gets me more excited than a 24 port switch or a router with stateful packet inspection. I'm going into networking, as well as network programing (clusters, TCP/IP etc). I can honestly say I genuinely love learning about these things.

However I don't think my minor exactly compliments my major, I'm a music minor. I think I may end up double-minoring with a math minor (can you do that?)

 

[datan]

I'm a 3rd year CS major at Drexel University

I go to a university literally up the road from yours.

 

[trunks2k]

I go to a university literally up the road from yours.

UPENN? You ******* . I tried to go there, but it's probably a good thing I didn't. Apparently UPENN doesn't have as good as a CS department as Drexel does. Kinda strange for the school that made ENIAC.

 

[caitlincares]

I graduated from DeVry Institute of Technology in Columbus, Ohio back in 1986.
When I started I had never touched a computer.
But thye recruiters gave potential students a couple of tests.
One was to determine their math skills and the other was to detemine their logic.
So I have been a mainframe COBOL programmer for awhile now.
Just last year they sent me to HTML and Dreamweaver classes.
I have doing personal web design ever since and LOVE it.

So much new stuff that you younger folks learn many times before college.

Consider whether you can see yourself doing the job for 20 years.