> So college wasn't all that bad to me. They still need to change the funding model here in the states though.  That shit is broken as fuck. For some people, namely those that are talented and have good self-motivation, it may very well be worth their while to skip that mess.  Probably doesn't work for physics though; it can be hard to do experimental physics on your own ;)
> 
> Also, the D newsgroup is probably better at teaching programming than college.  Hmmmmm.  ;)

 I have refused to go to college if I can't pay for it upfront and easily, which was impossible. Right now I have an option to go leaving me without a debt. There's courses I want to take to get me further into programming, yet the options are either difficult to impossible based on location, or what I really want isn't a specific offered course, without a lot of extra bloat to it likely.

 Now I'm wondering what I should take. Should I even bother getting a CS degree? Or does someone think another option would be better?

On 01/21/2012 06:35 PM, Era Scarecrow wrote:
>> So college wasn't all that bad to me. They still need to change the
>> funding model here in the states though.  That shit is broken as fuck.
>> For some people, namely those that are talented and have good
>> self-motivation, it may very well be worth their while to skip that
>> mess.  Probably doesn't work for physics though; it can be hard to do
>> experimental physics on your own ;)
>>
>> Also, the D newsgroup is probably better at teaching
>> programming than college.  Hmmmmm.  ;)
>
>   I have refused to go to college if I can't pay for it upfront and easily, which was impossible. Right now I have an option to go leaving me without a debt. There's courses I want to take to get me further into programming, yet the options are either difficult to impossible based on location, or what I really want isn't a specific offered course, without a lot of extra bloat to it likely.
>
>   Now I'm wondering what I should take. Should I even bother getting a CS degree? Or does someone think another option would be better?

Well, it seems you've read my story.  In my opinion, CS degrees don't teach you anything you can't learn on your own if you enjoy programming.  I think that contributing to open source projects and learning from the pleasures of other people's well-written code and the pains of other people's poorly written code will teach most of the important lessons. Maybe make a few throw-away games, just to play around, if you're into that kind of thing.

I liked my Physics degree.  A good physics degree is hard.  You won't have much spare time.  Some of the homework load can be downright futile: triage what you can.  But I think it can yield dividends: a good physics program can turn you into a badass.  Make sure you enjoy physics to some extent before you even consider this, though.  I imagine a lot of the other hard sciences may have similar implications.  These also have the advantage (?) that you can't learn them easily on your own, so you get some leverage by doing them in college.

"Era Scarecrow" <rtcvb32@yahoo.com> wrote in message news:mailman.667.1327188939.16222.digitalmars-d@puremagic.com...
>
> I have refused to go to college if I can't pay for it upfront
>and easily, which was impossible. Right now I have an
>option to go leaving me without a debt. There's courses I
>want to take to get me further into programming, yet the
>options are either difficult to impossible based on location,
>or what I really want isn't a specific offered course, without
>a lot of extra bloat to it likely.
>
> Now I'm wondering what I should take. Should I even
>bother getting a CS degree? Or does someone think
>another option would be better?

As much as I bitch about school, it really is all up to you.

FWIW, My own personal recommendation would be to find out what books the courses use, get ahold of them or something similar, and just go through the books yourself. Because believe it or not, that's *all* that most classes amount to anyway. They're usually just taught right out of the book, so ultimately you're paying thousands of dollars just for a mere book recommendation and some exams (which are *really* more for the school's sake than for the student. The student *already* knows whether or not they learned anything, and what they are/aren't clear on, so exams are just a matter of accounting.)

On 01/21/2012 07:01 PM, Chad J wrote:
> On 01/21/2012 06:35 PM, Era Scarecrow wrote:
>>> So college wasn't all that bad to me. They still need to change the
>>> funding model here in the states though. That shit is broken as fuck.
>>> For some people, namely those that are talented and have good
>>> self-motivation, it may very well be worth their while to skip that
>>> mess. Probably doesn't work for physics though; it can be hard to do
>>> experimental physics on your own ;)
>>>
>>> Also, the D newsgroup is probably better at teaching
>>> programming than college. Hmmmmm. ;)
>>
>> I have refused to go to college if I can't pay for it upfront and
>> easily, which was impossible. Right now I have an option to go leaving
>> me without a debt. There's courses I want to take to get me further
>> into programming, yet the options are either difficult to impossible
>> based on location, or what I really want isn't a specific offered
>> course, without a lot of extra bloat to it likely.
>>
>> Now I'm wondering what I should take. Should I even bother getting a
>> CS degree? Or does someone think another option would be better?
>
> Well, it seems you've read my story. In my opinion, CS degrees don't
> teach you anything you can't learn on your own if you enjoy programming.
> I think that contributing to open source projects and learning from the
> pleasures of other people's well-written code and the pains of other
> people's poorly written code will teach most of the important lessons.
> Maybe make a few throw-away games, just to play around, if you're into
> that kind of thing.
>
> I liked my Physics degree. A good physics degree is hard. You won't have
> much spare time. Some of the homework load can be downright futile:
> triage what you can. But I think it can yield dividends: a good physics
> program can turn you into a badass. Make sure you enjoy physics to some
> extent before you even consider this, though. I imagine a lot of the
> other hard sciences may have similar implications. These also have the
> advantage (?) that you can't learn them easily on your own, so you get
> some leverage by doing them in college.

One more thing, before I forget:

Go to community college first.  Especially if there is a decent one in your area.  This can cut costs enormously.

I made one planning mistake with this though: I should have picked my 4 year college at the same time and then talked to them about which classes would transfer from the community college.  Make sure you know what classes in the community college map to all of the "general education" credits in the 4-year college.  If you don't do this, then you could end up doing like me and finishing community college almost-early, ending up in limbo for a quarter, and then still taking general ed stuff in my 3rd year of college.