College Education is useless...

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Well,
I'm sick of it... honestly, I find it 100% useless.
This may not pertain to other fields but IMO, if your going to be a programmer, college education doesn't help you a bit. Nothing at all that you learn in college will help you with your job. Crappy Programming classes, Physics, Chemistry etc.... why???? College education doesn't server any purpose w/ regards to the computer software field.
Some people say that you learn how to deal with people at college. Well you learn it better on a job. The best education I have received is from work experience....
What ever I know about Computers, I learned from computer books or the internet. Not one single thing I learned in the 4 walls of my classroom helped me with what I know about Computers..... In the end what it all comes down to is a piece of paper.... your degree, for which you spend 4~5 years and waste a whole load of money.......
If it weren't for my parents I woulda dropped outta college right now, coz honestly it is a waste of time for me....
What do you guys think?

[M_Six]

The problem is, many places won't even consider you for a position without a degree. And many times the path to a better position is a second or advanced degree. So getting one under your belt is a good thing.

Take my job. I'm a network analyst. My degree is in geology. See any relationship there? I have a friend who has vast education and experience in Cisco routing and telephony. Think he could apply for my job? Nope. He has no degree, so he's forced to pick up consulting work wherever he can.

Now I'm not saying this is fair, but it IS reality.

[vass0922]

I enjoyed time in college, while ya its stressful and a pain in hte butt I think overall it was good for me. I'll admit a lot of what I know I learned from on the job or on my own time. I learned the fundamentals of programming in school though, and I wouldn't of been able to take some of the steps forward that I did w/o having that previous knowledge. Not to mention there's no way I'd have the job I do today w/o my piece of paper. Its an expensive piece of paper but WELL WORTH IT especially in the long run where it counts!!

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Exactly, the only thing the degree is good for is employment, says nothing at all about what you know... ur GPA means nothing.... college education is useless w/ regards to a computer job....
Especially with programming, I know quite a few people who have great positions in Intel and Microsoft that don't have degrees... why? Because they know their stuff.
Employers' attitudes should change... they should hire you based on what you know, not some measly degree... college education should go into what you will use at work and not the other BS, and its main focus should be on work experience....

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

What ever I know about computers I picked up from reading books, what I've learnt in a classroom never inspired me to do anything.... the only thing I find good about college right now is socializing, which I could do much better if I didn't have to goto college

[M_Six]

College is not a technical school, where you only get training in one field. College is meant to expose a student to a range of disciplines so that the student is able to adapt to changing circumstances in the future.

I think it's a good thing that someone in the programming field be educated in many fields. Narrow focus is a bad thing in programming. I know programmers who make $130k+/yr who haven't got a clue about installing a video card. How can you write decent software when you don't understand the hardware? Having a decent range of classes will give you a chance to understand problems and then help you solve them.

One reason employers like to see a degree is that a degree shows you have, at least once in your life, had the commitment and discipline to finish something tough.

[vass0922]

another good reason to have college for programming is what do you think you're going to programming for?
You think you're going to program just to write code?
No that code has to have a purpose. Sometimes its MATH, sometimes its ACCOUNTING, it could relate to nearly anything. In your interview after you drop out of college, the interviewer is going to say do you have any accounting experience or at least a few classes you're goign to say no they were boring and not worth my precious time.

"Thanks for your time, don't call us.. we'll call you!"

English sucks!
Why yes, yes it does..
I wish I was better at it and its my native language!
I wish I was better at it, because programmers have to write *shudder* documentation! HELP FILES etc...
Your documentation is worthless if nobody can understand it or if its not clear.
Sometimes you have to put together presentations to show the boss, so its good to have some speaking skills most often taught at colleges. You have to say Ok this is where the project is going this is what we want to do.

Trust me
I hate doing it all, but its kinda required

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

College is not a technical school, where you only get training in one field. College is meant to expose a student to a range of disciplines so that the student is able to adapt to changing circumstances in the future.

But the problem is college doesn't do that ... too much time is spent learning stuff you forget after the semester and never even apply to your work.

I think it's a good thing that someone in the programming field be educated in many fields. Narrow focus is a bad thing in programming. I know programmers who make $130k+/yr who haven't got a clue about installing a video card. How can you write decent software when you don't understand the hardware? Having a decent range of classes will give you a chance to understand problems and then help you solve them.

Again I agree, but the majority of courses don't help you with diversifying you in many fields (I would estimate about 80% of the courses in my Computer Engineering curriculum don't help me with what I want to do). BTW, I think good sftware can be made without extensivley knowing the hardware.
As for teh video card thingy, you don't need someone to teach it to ya... u pick that stuff off the net (like we all did)
The way I see it, if a programmer is serious with what he wants to do, he takes the time to learn what he wants and reads up on the stuff himself. You learn stuff better when you learn it yourself rather than having it forced upon you.

One reason employers like to see a degree is that a degree shows you have, at least once in your life, had the commitment and discipline to finish something tough.

I don't agree with this attitude although it is a reality. People who are passionate about what they do will do the stuff to the very end.

another good reason to have college for programming is what do you think you're going to programming for?
You think you're going to program just to write code?
No that code has to have a purpose. Sometimes its MATH, sometimes its ACCOUNTING, it could relate to nearly anything. In your interview after you drop out of college, the interviewer is going to say do you have any accounting experience or at least a few classes you're goign to say no they were boring and not worth my precious time.

Well, I've done some game programming , and I learn the math much better when I put it into code and see it in action rather than reading it in a book. I really don't mind learning Math though (In fact, I'm done with all my Math courses at college, sort of a math nut)... but again, I could have learnt the stuff I needed for they job myself... like I did for my current job.

[osprey4]

In the pharmaceutical business, at least in the area where I work (analytical chemistry), you can't get in the door without a college degree. But once we hire you, we treat you like you never graduated from high school.

[J-Excel]

Employers hire professionals with college degrees because of the college experience, not necessarily for the knowledge they acquired.

Hey osprey, I'm in the pharmaceutical business too. I'm a Sr. QA Professional, but I started on the bench in the biology lab.