Computer Science Degree?

Is going back to school for a computer science degree worth it for an older experienced self-taught programmer already in a good career? Here are my thoughts on a cs degree and going back to college when you already have good career options, a family to take care of and a busy schedule.
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[@ivangerginov5648]

Sounds good! I'm a fresh CS graduate. Since you have experience, I'd say you'll enjoy studying CS way more since you won't have too many things you don't know. Enjoy! Oh and also, many of my classmates were in their 30s up to late 40s, with busy schedules and families. It's doable. Somehow those people were the most motivated and always performed the best in the group.

[@jamescross]

Thanks for your thoughts!

[@ayanadiamond8179]

That’s amazing!!!

[@Web3Ninjas]

This is a great advice from you , you are full of wisdom

[@drewbird87]

Thanks for the video! I consider this every now and then. I pivoted to software when I was 32 and I'm in my 5th year. It would be interesting to me to hear what kind of path you're considering.

[@anthonybeckford5608]

Welcome back. Glad to see you are doing well

[@jamescross]

Hey, thanks

[@ant-dev]

i appreciate you james

[@arbabkhan_original]

Return of the king

[@pi8617]

I can say is that my friend graduated with a CS degree and she had many offers during senior year of college.. she started working at Allstate as a front end developer right when she finished school. That was like 3 years ago she did end up going back to school to get her masters in CS.

[@LookingAway359]

Happy to see a new video. Thanks for your thoughts 😊

[@lolerskates876]

What are your thoughts on Western Governors University (WGU)? Do you think it is worth it to get a CS BS from there? I have seen other KZbinrs talk about it, however I am worried the degree wont be as respected as a typical state school.

[@jamescross]

So, I actually worked there prior to adobe. At the time they only had a software engineering degree that seemed more of a dev ops centric degree with a lot of certs as the tests. Recently, I noticed that they have introduced a cs degree. My issue is that you are locked into having to take a certain number of classes in a given time window which would be hard for me with such a busy schedule. You also have a defined set of courses whereas other programs let you pick and choose electives that interest you. As for industry respect, I am sure there will be people who snub anything online. You have to weigh what works best for your timetable and budget. Whatever path you take, I would try to actually learn the materials rather than take shortcuts. Even from brick and morter schools, not all graduates are equal. Best wishes.

[@user-A.Reshidnomaterhow]

thank you

[@jamescross]

You're welcome

[@BigNate3x3]

Hello everyone in chat ummm have a question. I wanna start learning to code once again!! But I’m struggling to see what MacBook laptop to buy do I buy fully spec m3 max or do I get the middle end one cuz idk how powerful a laptop needs to be for coding 🙁

[@nexbedwars7408]

I'm a 15-year-old Indian boy who will be attending college in a few years. I'm not sure what to major in-all I enjoy studying is computer science, but it requires some physics and maths stuff which im not really good on. I'm pretty stuck, and I would really appreciate some guidance from you.

[@jamescross]

If you enjoy it, probably worth getting better at the areas you struggle with. You are young enough that you have plenty of time to get better at math and physics.

[@drewbird87]

🫨 He back 🙂

[@jamescross]

👊

[@kelle_li]

Harvard's CS50x complete Computer Science course is free to view. Would it not be beneficial to give that a go?

[@jamescross]

That is a good class. I've suggested it to a number of folks. The courses I am taking will give me college credit. But yeah, for a free intro, that is a good one for sure.

[@kelle_li]

@@jamescross Thanks James. It's been on my watch list for ages, time I get started

[@m7mo0o]

What’s the path you found?

[@Bad4Good2]

Why do I feel like you’re talking about WGU.

[@jamescross]

That is an option, but not the likely the one I will take.

[@Bad4Good2]

@@jamescross I’m going back for my CS degree too, but I’m going to a university that offers an online bachelors program. Please let us know what you’re planning to do! I would love to learn more about other options.

[@LookingAway359]

Is the program WGU? If not, do you mind sharing what it is?

[@jamescross]

It was one of the programs I looked at. There are a couple of options. Kinda leaning toward Thomas Edison State University in New Jersey to be able to pick my electives.

[@Hinduknowledge007]

I wasted 1.5 yrs kn learning and cant get job in web development

[@ant-dev]

i promise its not a waste, only allocation of knowledge until you are presented an opportunity to apply what you know to solve real world problems. I broke into IT almost 2 years ago by chance that the employer was within reasonable commute distance from me and they just so happened to be looking for a bilingual candidate (which i was). It also happened this company had an underdeveloped IT department with dated practices like manual deployment of apps and websites instead of code pipelines for production. By implementing a simple automation pipeline for their inhouse PHP website i was dubbed as a tech genius by my manager and was highly praised for the headaches i saved of forgetting to copy a file to production. I had his respect for a while and got me a few raises without asking and eventually i was at a comfortable spot until i realized i was not covering new ground in my career, or in other words i no longer felt challenge since i knew the most of tools like containers and cloud compared to my coworkers and our poor team morale didnt necessarily nurture a collaborative learning environment for us since the higher-ups would immediately fire anyone they deemed incompetent despite it being a lack of support and training resources to get juniors up to speed. its dog eat dog out there, you must be ready to tackle the bigger fish before you yourself are fished out to die in this race. i forgot about my intention with this comment but good luck in your search for life's questions and your future career that lies ahead. please dont give up and instead give it all you got with each day being a new chance to be better than the last

[@abubakarsadeeq2974]

It's been long

[@AnthonyCrouchPhotography]

Self taught, working 5+ years, getting computer science degree is complete waste of time and money unless you just need a structured way of learning and have plenty of money to waste.

[@jamescross]

At this point, it's not a need for me. Mostly an interest. My employer also has a generous tuition reimbursement program.

[@ci6516]

Hard disagree : almost all developer jobs and internships require a BS or years of experience. Boot camps have been proven to be a scam , it’s not 2016 and knowing html css and a touch of JS isn’t enough . How does a self taught learn: True backend : aka relational database design and advanced sql , True backend languages such as Java , c# , or c++ Learn DSA , time complexity ? Learn a framework that is entierprise level like .net or spring boot Please my friend , as the world moves towards AI , the whole development world will move towards degrees . It’s already happening : knowing just 1 language isn’t enough . Knowing1 framework isn’t enough . You need to know how to learn many topics . This goes further if you go into data science which requires knowledge in statistics and linear algebra ontop of programming . There’s a reason bootcamps only teach MERN ; it’s easy .

[@ci6516]

The self taught was a valid option the past decade , but not anymore. Everything is moving too fast . And now more than ever you need the foundation and NOT merely application

[@elias38]

@@ci6516 college degree is useful for one thing only- getting an interview for higher paid jobs. You can’t learn better in college than by yourself because in college you learn a lot of subjects that waste your time getting to your goal which is getting a job. Besides you won’t have time at college to become good in anything because of random classes you need to take. It’s kind of jack of all trades master of none situation. Spend 4 years on Front End or learning random subjects in college then another two years to become a junior front end dev.

[@AnthonyCrouchPhotography]

@@ci6516 completely untrue, I consistently see self taught hired on a regular basis. The truth is, that there is a lot of easy simple jobs that don't require the math, and advanced subjects, just moving data around and interacting with users.

[@dapperdynamicdavid]

Your degree in history may be more useful than you realise. It shows that you had the skills, time and commitment to get that degree. You followed that up with learning coding. I also think that you are cementing your programming practical knowledge by being a KZbinr specialising in this area. Anyway, I saw another video ( kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z4a5mZSIq82ZgKMsi=Cnb9tbEo-PVp5TB2 ) where Quincy Larson, the founder of freeCodeCamp discusses getting a cs degree or not. At about the 1 hour 4 minute mark he discusses getting or not getting a second undergraduate degree. In most cases, he does not think it's worth it (getting a second undergraduate degree) from a pure return on investment point of view. How much extra you would earn over the reminder of your working life with the second degree against how much you earn without the second degree. There is also the time element.