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Don’t know if this should go here but,

 

 

My brother is graduating from high school soon and knows he wants to pursue a degree in computer science but doesn’t know which route to go. I’ve been researching with him and there’s so many things you can do. I have no idea what they do since I’m not tech savvy. What’s the best route he should go? Cyber security, information systems, engineering, etc...

 

Which one will he be able to find a job quickly after graduation and of course what’s the best pay?

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Guess it depends what interests him, and maybe he doesn’t know yet. I do systems engineering but would hate software development (coding)

He should probably take a few intro classes first and see which field interests him the most. Who cares if one field pays a shitload if you absolutely hate the work.

As far as finding jobs , most IT fields are pretty good so don’t think that would be a problem either way . I’d think software development would be the most common as most major companies have quite a few developers.

I know there are plenty of websites that will show you salary ranges for different positions

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Distributed systems, blockchain, and modern functional languages will get him paid handsomely.  

If he’s got the stomach for it, tell him to grabs some stats classes or if the school he’s going to attend will allow him to, specialize in Machine/Deep learning.   Data scientists make 90k+ straight out of schools these days.

I hire a ton of these types and it’s super hard to find anyone that’s good at it/not self trained.  

 

 

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I would recommend a more general focus CS program than something specifically focusing on information systems or data science or something.

You need to learn all the theory and basics to give you a good foundation for the continuous learning you need to do to stay relevant in whatever sub fields there are.

I went through the CS program 20 years ago, and very little I learned was on-the-job immediately practical. But all of it gave me the basics to understand, reason, apply logic, problem solving strategies, etc. which is really what you need to be able adapt to an ever changing landscape.

 

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12 hours ago, BillyBadAss said:

I would recommend a more general focus CS program than something specifically focusing on information systems or data science or something.

You need to learn all the theory and basics to give you a good foundation for the continuous learning you need to do to stay relevant in whatever sub fields there are.

I went through the CS program 20 years ago, and very little I learned was on-the-job immediately practical. But all of it gave me the basics to understand, reason, apply logic, problem solving strategies, etc. which is really what you need to be able adapt to an ever changing landscape.

 

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Go in and knock out the basics then specialize.  If he wants to get a jump start on things, there's no better books to read than Knuth.  The read is dry as fuck but is a great foundation and would give him a leg up going in.

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On ‎4‎/‎4‎/‎2018 at 6:31 PM, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

Distributed systems, blockchain, and modern functional languages will get him paid handsomely.  

If he’s got the stomach for it, tell him to grabs some stats classes or if the school he’s going to attend will allow him to, specialize in Machine/Deep learning.   Data scientists make 90k+ straight out of schools these days.

I hire a ton of these types and it’s super hard to find anyone that’s good at it/not self trained.  

 

 

este

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Knuth is good advice.

 

I graduated UTCS 15 years ago. Learned be stuff on the job to do the job, but the UTCS computer science problem solving building blocks definitely helped. The on the job learning has only intensified as an IP attorney, both software and hardware wiser. Many of the innovations I'm seeing now are in deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, vr/ar, distributed autonomous agents, and embedded/mobile hardware platforms.

 

 

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4 minutes ago, APMP said:

Knuth is good advice.

 

I graduated UTCS 15 years ago. Learned be stuff on the job to do the job, but the UTCS computer science problem solving building blocks definitely helped. The on the job learning has only intensified as an IP attorney, both software and hardware wiser. Many of the innovations I'm seeing now are in deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, vr/ar, distributed autonomous agents, and embedded/mobile hardware platforms.

 

 

Funny story about CS that may shed a little light.  I'm an IP attorney also, with an ME undergrad.  I graduated 30 years ago.  At that time UT did not have a computer science degree per se.  About the best you could do was take a "bunch" of numerical methods courses in Math.  Baylor of all places had I believe the top CS/IS program in the state with their DPA (data processing and analytics) degree in the business school.

Also, for several years after that, the Patent & Trademark Office would not recognize Computer Science as a degree basis for registration as a patent attorney.  A major part of that was the non-uniformity and lack of mathematical and scientific rigor in some CS degrees in those days.  Do they still require a transcript APMP?

As indicated here, there is a wide/wild variety of subject matter and professions encompassed by "computer science."  Also, in many cases, those with an affinity for computers are simply exhibiting a technical bent that lends itself to engineering, with computers remaining a hobby.

I might suggest that he find a CS-type degree that shares its first year curriculum with most of the engineering majors (I believe this to be true at UT).  That way, the technical degree will remain mostly open and, if he winds up hating the hell out of all of it, the hours from engineering/CS won't be lost entirely in some other major (engineering calculus, for example, is "good" for a business or economics major, but not vice versa, and the physics will count as science credit in any degree, etc.)

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Funny story about CS that may shed a little light.  I'm an IP attorney also, with an ME undergrad.  I graduated 30 years ago.  At that time UT did not have a computer science degree per se.  About the best you could do was take a "bunch" of numerical methods courses in Math.  Baylor of all places had I believe the top CS/IS program in the state with their DPA (data processing and analytics) degree in the business school.
Also, for several years after that, the Patent & Trademark Office would not recognize Computer Science as a degree basis for registration as a patent attorney.  A major part of that was the non-uniformity and lack of mathematical and scientific rigor in some CS degrees in those days.  Do they still require a transcript APMP?
As indicated here, there is a wide/wild variety of subject matter and professions encompassed by "computer science."  Also, in many cases, those with an affinity for computers are simply exhibiting a technical bent that lends itself to engineering, with computers remaining a hobby.
I might suggest that he find a CS-type degree that shares its first year curriculum with most of the engineering majors (I believe this to be true at UT).  That way, the technical degree will remain mostly open and, if he winds up hating the hell out of all of it, the hours from engineering/CS won't be lost entirely in some other major (engineering calculus, for example, is "good" for a business or economics major, but not vice versa, and the physics will count as science credit in any degree, etc.)


Yup. When I took the patent bar ten years ago, the USPTO required both an undergraduate transcript and photocopies of the CS course descriptions from the relevant UT undergraduate catalog.
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11 minutes ago, TwiceHorn said:

Funny story about CS that may shed a little light.  I'm an IP attorney also, with an ME undergrad.  I graduated 30 years ago.  At that time UT did not have a computer science degree per se.  About the best you could do was take a "bunch" of numerical methods courses in Math.  Baylor of all places had I believe the top CS/IS program in the state with their DPA (data processing and analytics) degree in the business school.

Also, for several years after that, the Patent & Trademark Office would not recognize Computer Science as a degree basis for registration as a patent attorney.  A major part of that was the non-uniformity and lack of mathematical and scientific rigor in some CS degrees in those days.  Do they still require a transcript APMP?

As indicated here, there is a wide/wild variety of subject matter and professions encompassed by "computer science."  Also, in many cases, those with an affinity for computers are simply exhibiting a technical bent that lends itself to engineering, with computers remaining a hobby.

I might suggest that he find a CS-type degree that shares its first year curriculum with most of the engineering majors (I believe this to be true at UT).  That way, the technical degree will remain mostly open and, if he winds up hating the hell out of all of it, the hours from engineering/CS won't be lost entirely in some other major (engineering calculus, for example, is "good" for a business or economics major, but not vice versa, and the physics will count as science credit in any degree, etc.)

 

7 minutes ago, APMP said:


 

 


Yup. When I took the patent bar ten years ago, the USPTO required both an undergraduate transcript and photocopies of the CS course descriptions from the relevant UT undergraduate catalog.

 

 

Small world. I work in the IP domain as well but on the tech & services side.

Edited by GlenFromTheMailRoom
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1 hour ago, utexas8 said:

Thoughts on cyber security?

Always going to be a need for it.   Especially with almost every single business having a digital footprint now.  What's going to be interesting in cyber security is the advances in A.I. and what that means for most of those types of roles.  Intelligent network monitoring is going to be a thing sooner than a lot of people realize.

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Tell him to be careful on his first internship. In the 90's I wanted to work with Object Oriented Design and R&D. Took first internship that came along because of my grades and ended up doing databases, 4GL, C and SQL became my first language. It took me years to get back to what I wanted to do. I was able to get back because one never forgets what you learn at a good CS program like UT.

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2 hours ago, DanTheHorn said:

Tell him to be careful on his first internship. In the 90's I wanted to work with Object Oriented Design and R&D. Took first internship that came along because of my grades and ended up doing databases, 4GL, C and SQL became my first language. It took me years to get back to what I wanted to do. I was able to get back because one never forgets what you learn at a good CS program like UT.

In all fairness OOD is something he could teach himself now.  But yes, be careful.  What he’s saying about interns doing all the sql is true and it’s boring.

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3 hours ago, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

In all fairness OOD is something he could teach himself now.  But yes, be careful.  What he’s saying about interns doing all the sql is true and it’s boring.

What I am saying is he should make sure that he does not take an internship that is so far off from what he wants to do that he gets pigeonholed by the recruiters when he graduates and is unable to do what he wants.

Edited by DanTheHorn
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  • 2 months later...

My son will be a senior this year in high school and he will be going to UT for college and is interested in computer science as his major...My question is what can he do to help prepare for this? He is very smart (outside chance at valedictorian) but his computer skills are limited at this point to your normal teenage crap.   Are there any good online beginner type classes that would help him to be better prepared for this major?   

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there is a lot of good info here

my opinion as was just said 2 post up if you do not like programming (or do not want to be a programmer) then a CS degree MIGHT not be for you because that is what most CS degrees will focus on

having said that as several others said up thread if you go to a VERY GOOD CS program they will develop critical thinking sills that will translate to many different jobs and industries (IE the two people up thread with the highly coveted law degree in the IP "space") that is often out of reach for many law students even if they are very good law students

math majors are also in demand especially as programmers because many companies especially the larger ones believe it is much easier to teach programming to an employee than it is to teach math and programming at the end of the day is about math because a computer is a mathematics machine no matter what goes into it or comes out of it....it will all be programmed and processed using math to get the results

so for example the post #22 asking about their son....well if he is very strong at math then concern over his programming abilities are not as great Vs if he is weak at math and thinks he is a l33t haxorz

make sure he has a high quality computer, he needs to learn the linux OS and he needs to not be cheap on the software if he uses it for his class work he needs to find a way to afford to get it on his personal computer if at all possible (including illegally IMO if needed)......fuck all that going up to school if you can avoid it and dealing with crowded computer labs and their hours and I would imagine today it is easier to log in remotely (vs using damn dial up), but still having what you need to do the work on your own computer is a great advantage

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I went to UT and somehow got into CS program 20 years ago. Huge mistake as I knew computers decently enough but I’m terrible at math. I couldn’t get past engineering calculus. Fuck that class. I spent so much time trying to figure that out I got behind on other classes. College got hard until I got a job for an online company and changed my major so I could graduate ASAP.

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I entered the CS program at UT in Fall ‘91. Hated it. Lasted one semester. Didn’t help that CS101 or whatever was Pascal, and used the same exact textbook as I used in high school. Everything was done by TA’s. Ended up getting a BA in government. Work as an IT Consultant now, so joke’s on them!

My son graduated HS this year and is going to UTSA for a Cybersecurity degree. It’s actually a BBA. Interesting program spread across Business, Engineering, and Sciences colleges. Very highly rated. I hope he likes it and sticks with it, recruiting out of that program is very solid.

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3 hours ago, kmac30 said:

I went to UT and somehow got into CS program 20 years ago. Huge mistake as I knew computers decently enough but I’m terrible at math. I couldn’t get past engineering calculus. Fuck that class. I spent so much time trying to figure that out I got behind on other classes. College got hard until I got a job for an online company and changed my major so I could graduate ASAP.

408C and D?

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On 4/10/2018 at 4:33 PM, GlenFromTheMailRoom said:

Intelligent network monitoring is going to be a thing sooner than a lot of people realize.

It pretty much already is a thing. I was involved with a project last year for AI network monitoring. Once that fucker was plugged in and running, it started identifying events of interest with a very high rate of accuracy. I have to admit I was pretty freaked out. All of those SOC analyst jobs will become obsolete pretty soon.

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Thoughts on cyber security?


Predictions are for big shortages in security jobs. Definitely a hot field. The only risk IMO is that people are starting to experience “breach fatigue” since they are so common. Especially millennials don’t seem to really care if their data is stolen.
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