John Anderson wrote: > > Yeah, I was hoping people would give their reasons for why they think its > the best, > everyone has their opinion on whats more important. > > So, to clear things up, I want to add "And why?" =)
I only went to one school, so I can't give you a reason why my school would be better or worse than any other school, but I can provide a few observations about BYU's CS program, as of say 5 years ago. The focus was heavily on theory, with labs that were more theoretical than practical. Computer Science is really discrete mathematics and data structures, and the BYU program reflected that way early in the program. Early classes were so difficult that many would-be CS majors flunk out by their second year, which causes heartburn for the advisement people. It would be better to help would-be majors get a better idea of what CS is all about before they reach this burn-out point. A person seeking a Chemistry major, for example, knows basically what it's all about: chemistry. A hard science. CS tends to be more vague. Seems like BYU CS program is pretty good preparation for a CS graduate program. It's probably not as good of preparation for general industry stuff, except that I felt I was taught the algorithms and techniques necessary to be successful in any programming paradigms I was placed in, rather than being trained in just one language-de-jour. One thing in regards to this that really killed a lot of my associates who had little computer background was that the BYU CS program expected that you already knew how to program, and could do so in any language with minimal language-specific training. I personally felt, and still think, that this is a good thing, but it all depends on your needs and where you plan to go in the future. If you're planning to get a BS and then just go be a software developer in the industry, you probably don't want the BYU program. But if a masters is in your future, maybe consider it. Michael > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
