I Dropped Computer Science at CMU: Here's Why

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

Agree. 90% of it is useless if you want to "make money." The difficulty is there to filter out people who aren't workaholics and super smart--most of the theoretical stuff is absolutely useless. This is the case everywhere.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

Agree. 90% of it is useless if you want to "make money." The difficulty is there to filter out people who aren't workaholics and super smart--most of the theoretical stuff is absolutely useless. This is the case everywhere.

Where does a computer science professional use history, a foreign language, much of English for that matter. So, should a kid interested in pursuing CS in college not waste time taking courses in history, foreign language, English? The theory courses give foundation and understanding that expand the student’s knowledge base, critical thinking, and troubleshooting. Such skills are very important while working because the problems one tackles at work will be very different from the problems one solves in assignments and exams at college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

Yeah, why do these stupid schools teach computer science in the Computer Science department instead some other subject students want to learn instead?

It's endemic! I was talking to my plumber the other day and he was pissed about how useless his math degree was for his plumbing career. He had to go to a whole different program after college to learn how to pipework!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:CS is a lot easier than engineering by definition. All this drama about CMU or MIT CS is not necessary.

Which dictionary are you using?

[Anonymous]

The dude want to get an IT job so he switched his major major from CS to IT. I guess it's important information for people stupid enough to find that information surprising.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

Yeah, why do these stupid schools teach computer science in the Computer Science department instead some other subject students want to learn instead?

I’m sorry you’re too stupid to appreciate that much of the computer science taught in the computer science department is irrelevant and useless to the actual work that is done in the tech industry.

[Anonymous]

should a kid interested in pursuing CS in college not waste time taking courses in history, foreign language, English?

No he should not. But he will be forced to so that the college can milk his parents for another year of tuition and fees etc. Basically welfare for non-tech professors.

The theory courses give foundation and understanding that expand the student’s knowledge base, critical thinking, and troubleshooting. Such skills are very important while working because the problems one tackles at work will be very different from the problems one solves in assignments and exams at college

The skills you need to solve problems at work, you will learn at work. Academic theory will remain largely useless to this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

There are millions of software developers. There are a handful writing compilers, operating systems, transaction monitors, developing new languages, etc. The handful use such nonsense every single day. Don't go to CMU SCS/Waterloo/Cornell/MIT unless your ambition is to be one of the handful. You'll never use the nonsense and you'll hate suffering through it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

Is your "working world" computer science or code monkeying? If the latter, just do an 8 week boot camp, get a bunch of certs, and be well on your way to a 6 figure code monkey job. No need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars at one of the best universities in the world if you're just writing drivers to operate touchless faucets.

If the former, then you definitely need all that theory. And more.. continuously for 40+ years.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

Is your "working world" computer science or code monkeying? If the latter, just do an 8 week boot camp, get a bunch of certs, and be well on your way to a 6 figure code monkey job. No need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars at one of the best universities in the world if you're just writing drivers to operate touchless faucets.

If the former, then you definitely need all that theory. And more.. continuously for 40+ years.

Exactly - try truly understanding all the new machine learning, neural nets, and LLM methods without a solid understanding of mathematical analysis and non-linear optimization. Or computational linguistic methods without graph theory and category theory.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DD (TJ grad) was waitlisted at CMU CS. Now she studies CS at a T20 college and although considers herself the best CS student in her college class, she knows how far ahead CS-wise her ex-classmates got by studying at CMU and MIT. Their CS classes are much harder than hers, and she has to self-educate in her spare time.

OP, what amount of money are they making?

It is possible that MIT manages the stress in a better way. CMU has very hard grading on a curve...so it is difficult to get an A or a B. At the same time, Stanford CS (as example) basically says everyone will get an A or a B. Having the threat of a C (or lower) hanging over your head can cause massive anxiety vs. knowing that as long as you are trying, you won't get less than a B (and most will get As).

+100
Most of the kids in a program like CMU SCS have never gotten a grade below an A on any high school assignment. The transition into an environment where C's (and below) or 50% & below are handed out freely, and following what the kids believe is "intense" studying (relative to their history), can be soul crushing for them.

It makes you wonder about the kids who are crushing it in these high level classes vs this kid, who seems intelligent enough, but obviously was in a program not suited for his interests. What did these other kids experience in HS that this kid did not?

The kids who are crushing it are not smarter, they are just working harder. The kid who quit very likely never had to work very hard at something in HS, never had to reach out for help, and always had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos. When in Florida, the kid had plenty of time for games, reading, and watching videos, as well as partying and women. Meanwhile the kids at CMU were having no fun at all, just grinding away.

Being in a tech program very often means committing to that being your whole life for four years. Not everyone is sufficiently motivated for that.

I would put it another way: if four years of CS is not fun, you should not be majoring in it. Because you are looking at 40+ years of CS if you want to go into that field.

There are a lot of kids, and DCUMs, that see the $$$ for CS majors and say, "that's for me." But picking a major you hate for the money is why so many kids drop out of "hard" majors.

The things you do to get a CS degree don’t track all that closely to what you do in the working world. In my view the CS curriculum is typically padded with too much theoretical nonsense.

Yeah, why do these stupid schools teach computer science in the Computer Science department instead some other subject students want to learn instead?

I’m sorry you’re too stupid to appreciate that much of the computer science taught in the computer science department is irrelevant and useless to the actual work that is done in the tech industry.

I'm sorry you're too stupid to appreciate that most of the chemistry taught in the chemistry department is irrelevant and useless to the actual work that is done in the foodservice industry.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry you’re too stupid to appreciate that much of the computer science taught in the computer science department is irrelevant and useless to the actual work that is done in the tech industry.

You couldn't be more wrong. All of the theory that you say is irrelevant and useless is what separates A players from B players. My CS curriculum in the 90s is still useful to me today (example - data structures, db design, algorithms). I'm the guy that writes the difficult code while the boot-campers are the code monkeys that update templates or (slowly) write simple scripts.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:CS is a lot easier than engineering by definition. All this drama about CMU or MIT CS is not necessary.

I heard mech eng is a lot easier than CS.

Huh?? Mech eng is probably toughest engineering major of all.

? no it isn't. It's on the easier side.

https://www.crimsoneducation.org/uk/blog/unraveling-engineering-pathways-a-comparative-look-at-the-easiest-and-hardest-engineering-degrees/#easier-and-harder-engineering-majors

[Anonymous]

Just wondering if this could be someone trying to scare competition away from applying to CMU.