Question for CS majors.

[RussianVodka]

As stated above I have a few questions for CS majors... But before I begin I want to find out a few things:
1. What college did you go to, where, and what was the tuition.
2. Was it a University or an Institute?

Now lets begin with the questions that I meant to ask:
1. How much knowledge of programming is needed to be enroled? I\'ve seen some collages that offer courses for those who have no knowledge at all.
2. If I have sufficient programming skill, would I be able to take a test and be placed in a more advanced course (like the one that I would normaly take on year 2 or something).
3. I heard that many professors do not allow you to use many of the STL libraries, instead you have to create all your functions/algorithms from scrach every time.
4. How much programming knowledge do you have when you graduate?
5. (not collage related) What are the chances that the first job I get is something other than tech-support?

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Granted most of those varry from collage to collage, but I\'m still interested on what you have to say.

[buddha]

Well, you might want to consider a math major with a computer science emphasis.  This is a highly marketable degree. If you go with something like DeVry, you are sort of asking for tech support jobs.  Not to knock them...

I\'m not a CS guy, but a mathematician.  I know that much of the more advanced programming is done by mathematicians with programming skills.  Also, if you are interested in bio-technology and bio-informatics, you will want a math degree with a CS/programming emphasis, also take some genetics courses.

I mention bio-informatics because it is a rapidly growiing and lucrative field.  If you have an idea of what kind of programming you want to do, that should enter into your decision.  For the ones I mentioned above, I recommend my alma mater: UCLA.

Good luck!

[lynx_lupo]

Yep, mathematicians and physicists(physics?) make the best programmers in the scientific field (very specific algorithms). For practice, like making guis and similar, a different problem solving aspect, an IT student will surely have more experience.

3. Of course you have to write your own implementations! That\'s how you learn how things work, how to do and not do them, how they could be optimized and how they work in special cases...

[steuben]

again, one of those guys that did math with cs leanings.

but in order:
1. queen\'s university in kingston. when i left it was i think about 7200 a year. living expenses pushed things to about 13k. mind you that was the eng program an a&s program, i think was about 4200.

1. some. but not to much. every languagge course that i ended up taking started _everybody_ off as if they only knew which end of a mouse was which. i think the people who had the hardest time in the programming courses were the ones who knew more then one language and not the one being taught.

2. no. don\'t even ask for it. as much as you think you may know, it isn\'t enough. take the intro course and accept the easy mark. and perhaps earn some money tutoring on the side.

3. yep. the rumors are true. this is because until you understand what the packages are doing, you can\'t tell where the problem is and how to fix it.

4. about 2-3 languages depending on cores and electives. the _basics_ of about a couple dozen algorithms again depending on cores and electives. and a keen understanding of how little you actually do know.

5. depends on the market, and if after four years of computers you actually do want to work in the field. but, tech-support is always available so don\'t shun it too much. and don\'t pick a program becuase of the job that you might get in 4 years. pick something that you can learn about for 4 years and do for the next 40.