In my opinion, a university education should only be about intellectual curiosity with the greatest research minds. If you are only interested in the practical aspects of programming, I don't think that a university fits your needs.
To extend this thought, I also believe that someone majoring in any field--from English to art history--should be able to become professional programmers. I feel that industry is trying to make universities technical schools, when they have an academic focus.
That is not to say that I don't agree with some of the previous posters. We do need more training centers for people with practical inclinations.
I feel that the problem with this whole system is that people are automatically expected to go to university if they did well in high school. If not they will violate a social norm, and shame their parents. There should be practical schooling options for students that are also hard and prestigious.
In my opinion, a university education should only be about intellectual curiosity with the greatest research minds. If you are only interested in the practical aspects of programming, I don't think that a university fits your needs.
I agree with this. I've been working as a programmer for a couple of years now and I'm planning to go to university to study computer science. I'm kind of annoyed that all of the universities I've looked at are all business now: the brochures are full of how students won't "miss out" on the practical, real-world side of things.
That's exactly what I'm not looking for, but unfortunately there doesn't seem to be any place to go if all you want is computer science.
To extend this thought, I also believe that someone majoring in any field--from English to art history--should be able to become professional programmers. I feel that industry is trying to make universities technical schools, when they have an academic focus.
That is not to say that I don't agree with some of the previous posters. We do need more training centers for people with practical inclinations.
I feel that the problem with this whole system is that people are automatically expected to go to university if they did well in high school. If not they will violate a social norm, and shame their parents. There should be practical schooling options for students that are also hard and prestigious.