[ale] Sort of OT: College Majors

[Alexander Barton]

Parker McGee wrote:
[...]
> Also, it seems like I'm going to be bored out of my mind for the AT
> LEAST the first two years in the Comp Sci curriculum.

In high school I was easily within the 95th or even 98th percentile as 
far as standardized tests went.  I was certainly the most 1337 computer 
geek in a school of 1500.  Then I entered the CS (then called ICS) 
program at Tech starting in '87.  After my first quarter it dawned on me 
that I was no longer the smartest person in my class.  In fact, I 
definitely wasn't even in the top _half_.  :-O

I escaped Tech with a BS in ICS.  My degree says computer science, but 
computer science is not what I do.  I'm a very good programmer and 
developer, maybe a decent engineer (depending on what one means by 
"software engineer").  I'm not an idea person.  I have worked with idea 
people on occasion, and the things they talk about and the levels of 
abstraction they use make my head hurt.  In my daily routine, I don't 
learn new concepts very often.  I'm usually down in the details of a 
particular technology.  Being a technician, really.  Occasionally a new 
idea comes along (like OOA&D, component based architectures, a really 
clever and different piece of code) that I get to learn, but not very often.

If you truly find the first two years at Tech boring, then by all means 
get an advanced degree.  If you really enjoy learning new ideas, then I 
suspect you'd eventually get bored at a software assembly line like EA 
Games is reputed to be.

Electives and core engineering curricula at Tech are your friends.  Get 
through the boring first two years and you can still change majors 
fairly easily.  (Okay, my information may be a bit dated here. :-) )

Don't know what to take?  Take them all.  Like: BS in CS, MS in EE, and 
PhD in physics.  Follow your heart.

Often it's not what the degree's in, but the fact the you got a degree 
at all that's important.  (Means you can think as well as jump through 
all the silly hoops that the academic system requires of you.)  And, I 
remember hearing somewhere that half of all degree holders wind up doing 
something other than in their field of study.

Oh, and when you get to Tech, go ask one of my CS classmates, this guy 
named V.  He can give much better advice than I can.  ;-)

-Alexander