Reply to I Dropped Computer Science at CMU: Here's Why

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Did not watch but have seen 2 or 3 of the videos describing the absolute grind of CS programs at places like CMU, a Canadian college - forget the name, a few others. The problem is you have no idea how the kid on the video stacks up to your own kid in terms of intellect, persistence, motivation/drive, tolerance for rigor vs. the "need" to party, etc. [/quote]

Might be Waterloo (Canadian university).  At Waterloo at least...CS is out of the Math department not the engineering department.  I think any CS coming out of the Math department tends to be way more theoretical and difficult.

My kid met several CMU kids when evaluating colleges and they were miserable.  That said, their comment was if you want to be the next Linus Torvald (creator of Linux) then CMU is the kind of place you want to be.[/quote]

Yes, it was Waterloo. I just watched a little of the CMU video linked and the Waterloo student had a similar problem: It was a complete grind, studying/working virtually 24/7, no time for socializing, decided to quit stressing over grades and focus on preparing for job interviews. It's too bad this kid had to go through 2-3 years of high stress resulting in anxiety/panic attacks to reach the conclusion that he just wanted to get a coding job.

I do think these videos can be instructive for potential CS majors (mine included) who may want to evaluate programs based on whether they are more theoretical vs applied CS.[/quote]

The kid who created Ethereum dropped out of Waterloo (to create Ethereum).  Again, CMU and Waterloo are the places you go if you are looking to literally re-invent the wheel so-to-speak.  Some kids thrive in that environment...but it is completely different than most Applied CS programs.[/quote]

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