UMD Cuts Computer Science Class by 50%

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Also looking ahead, other than UMBC, does anyone have any CS school suggestions for a current underclassman that will likely have a 3.8 UW GPA and mid 1400 SAT.

I have the same question about a high schooler with a very similar situation (4.0 UW GPA so far). He's looking for a school that's not huge - less than 10k students would be great- and within a 12-hour drive of Maryland. Suggestions welcome!

WPI, LACs

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Also looking ahead, other than UMBC, does anyone have any CS school suggestions for a current underclassman that will likely have a 3.8 UW GPA and mid 1400 SAT.

I have the same question about a high schooler with a very similar situation (4.0 UW GPA so far). He's looking for a school that's not huge - less than 10k students would be great- and within a 12-hour drive of Maryland. Suggestions welcome!

My senior with similar stats did not get into UMD CS (he did get admitted to the university just not the major):

He got into
UConn
RPI
Lafayette
UMBC
Lehigh

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Wow. When I enrolled in CS in early 90s, they would basically take anyone as long as you passed the math prerequisites. That was before CS salaries took off.

That was also when computers were wound up with a crank at the back, without wifi.

Ya back then when I was 25 I was barely making more than SES3 pay as a low-level programmer. It was rough.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CS majors and classes are enot important for the high paying jobs the unwashed masses are clamoring for. It's not a big deal. programming is the easiest skill to learn for free on the Internet.

CS is not just programming.

Lower level programming has been off shored for many years. That's not where the money's at.

The big money in the future is going to be AI and ML.

Those require PhDs, the best background for which is Math. Classes in operating systems, java programming, etc, are far less useful than those in calculus 3 and advanced statistics.

But even within the math courses, some are more useful for building a foundation than ithers. It's good to know partial differentiation and the gradient as that's how gradient descent works, but integration in all of its forms is far less useful (remember, students have a limited number of courses they can take, so parsimony is key). There's a lot of room to improve the curriculum so that a PhD stops being necessary.

PP here.. good thing my ML major kid is also dual majoring in math, and planning for a +1 masters.

Don't think they are looking to get a PhD, though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CS majors and classes are enot important for the high paying jobs the unwashed masses are clamoring for. It's not a big deal. programming is the easiest skill to learn for free on the Internet.

CS is not just programming.

Lower level programming has been off shored for many years. That's not where the money's at.

The big money in the future is going to be AI and ML.

Those require PhDs, the best background for which is Math. Classes in operating systems, java programming, etc, are far less useful than those in calculus 3 and advanced statistics.

But even within the math courses, some are more useful for building a foundation than ithers. It's good to know partial differentiation and the gradient as that's how gradient descent works, but integration in all of its forms is far less useful (remember, students have a limited number of courses they can take, so parsimony is key). There's a lot of room to improve the curriculum so that a PhD stops being necessary.

In all my spouses years in CS, he knew one person with a PhD and it was completely unnecessary. I think parents hype things up as they don't work in the field and conflate things.

[Anonymous]

PhD is rarely needed in industry outside “research lab” environments.

Masters degrees are common throughout the commercial tech sector, partly because certain types of US visa require at least a Masters degree. US citizens often need the MS just to avoid a glass ceiling in promotions. An MSCS with a concentration in AI and with good skills/knowledge is more than enough to get one of those jobs in industry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CS majors and classes are enot important for the high paying jobs the unwashed masses are clamoring for. It's not a big deal. programming is the easiest skill to learn for free on the Internet.

CS is not just programming.

Lower level programming has been off shored for many years. That's not where the money's at.

The big money in the future is going to be AI and ML.

Those require PhDs, the best background for which is Math. Classes in operating systems, java programming, etc, are far less useful than those in calculus 3 and advanced statistics.

But even within the math courses, some are more useful for building a foundation than ithers. It's good to know partial differentiation and the gradient as that's how gradient descent works, but integration in all of its forms is far less useful (remember, students have a limited number of courses they can take, so parsimony is key). There's a lot of room to improve the curriculum so that a PhD stops being necessary.

In all my spouses years in CS, he knew one person with a PhD and it was completely unnecessary. I think parents hype things up as they don't work in the field and conflate things.

It's a large field. Your hustand likely works in one little niche. Nevertheless, PhDs aren't required to do mundane engineering jobs like websites.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:PhD is rarely needed in industry outside “research lab” environments.

Masters degrees are common throughout the commercial tech sector, partly because certain types of US visa require at least a Masters degree. US citizens often need the MS just to avoid a glass ceiling in promotions. An MSCS with a concentration in AI and with good skills/knowledge is more than enough to get one of those jobs in industry.

Serious AI jobs are research and do require a PhD. Someone with a masters will mostly be doing things like data entry.

[Anonymous]

I guess talented kids who were shut out of UMD can just move to China, which has recently started 2300 undergrad AI programs. It seems pretty shortsighted that we aren’t offering more educational opportunities in this area and CS overall.

https://macropolo.org/chinese-university-ai-ambitions/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:PhD is rarely needed in industry outside “research lab” environments.

Masters degrees are common throughout the commercial tech sector, partly because certain types of US visa require at least a Masters degree. US citizens often need the MS just to avoid a glass ceiling in promotions. An MSCS with a concentration in AI and with good skills/knowledge is more than enough to get one of those jobs in industry.

Serious AI jobs are research and do require a PhD. Someone with a masters will mostly be doing things like data entry.