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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]People don't seem to understand that the kids that graduate from a CS program and typically much more intelligent that the others who didn't, especially considering the competition to get into those programs over the past several years.  Do you think they won't be able to figure out their careers relative to someone who majored in, what, English?[/quote]

Omg is this a joke? Like a caricature of how stupid people can be? You actually think a CS degree means someone is smarter than someone with an English degree?   It's absurd that people think that all these code monkeys who can do math well are definitively smarter than people in other fields.  The ignorance is really astounding.[/quote]
NP.  I was an English major and have learned CS on the job.  CS is a very, very much more intellectually challenging field than English.

But that’s beside the point. PPP’s point was that with the intense competition for admission to CS schools, the average graduate tends to be a lot smarter than the average English or Education major because only top students are being admitted to CS programs.  Sure, there are very bright people majoring in English, just like there are probably some great athletes pursuing curling.  But those curlers are, on average, very much worse athletes than NBA players because the barrier to entry to become a curler is, like to become an English major, almost nonexistent. [/quote]

NP.  I’m a CS major (from MIT no less).  I don’t think I’m smarter than my sister who majored in English.  The same brain/personality quirks that inspired you (and her) to major in English are why you found CS harder probably just as the brain/personality quirks that make me good as CS caused me to struggle in English and have to retake my foreign language classes twice to actually learn anything.  Declaring subjects universely “hard” or “easy” is silly.[/quote]

I agree that people are wired to do well in say English vs. CS/Math and vice versa.  However, I think when the discussion is whether a subject is harder or not boils down to whether someone can at least produce something passable in one area vs. maybe not even understanding much of anything in another.

As an example, I tried to take a higher level math course in college for which I qualified based on prior coursework...and it is was as though I stepped into a different world.  I sat at the first class while a professor wrote a massive equation and to me it was just a series of letters and numbers...I couldn't even begin the answer the first set of problems...I didn't even understand what they were aksing.  It might as well have been asked in Chinese it was so foreign to me.  I knew after the first class I needed to drop and pick something else.

Now, I probably would not have received a stellar grade on some upper level English classes, however, I doubt I would not even understand how the answer the question.  The English class likely had more work, however, more work does not mean more difficult (relatively speaking).  Again, the math class would be the equivalent of taking an English class and the teacher said...you have to learn and answer in 8th century English vernacular...BTW, I am not going to teach you the 8th century vernacular, you are going to have to learn it on your own just to comprehend and answer the 1st assignment.[/quote]

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