I consider myself a self-taught developer even though I hold a CS degree. The reason is, what is taught in college is not always up the standard required by the industry.
The only thing I learnt from college was the list of topics that needed to be studied. I spent time learning those things practically on my own.
That was the thing that helped me land a job immediately after college.
So I would say that a college CS degree is really a subjective, It depends on the person and the college.
Any self-taught developer who has the interest to improve him/her self can and will learn the foundations eventually.
My university's CS department had just enough "time" to skim over the big topics (one database class, really??) while we ran around trying to please non-CS profs in classes that weren't really necessary for me (two chem classes and physics).
I'm all for general knowledge, but if I need to know anything about chemistry (which I haven't yet in my role as a web dev), then I can go learn it, or change my major and focus on it.
The goal of a college education is to learn how to learn, so you can stop paying people to teach you. Becoming an independent learners isn't in spite of college, it is the goal.
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I consider myself a self-taught developer even though I hold a CS degree. The reason is, what is taught in college is not always up the standard required by the industry.
The only thing I learnt from college was the list of topics that needed to be studied. I spent time learning those things practically on my own.
That was the thing that helped me land a job immediately after college.
So I would say that a college CS degree is really a subjective, It depends on the person and the college.
Any self-taught developer who has the interest to improve him/her self can and will learn the foundations eventually.
Exactly.
My university's CS department had just enough "time" to skim over the big topics (one database class, really??) while we ran around trying to please non-CS profs in classes that weren't really necessary for me (two chem classes and physics).
I'm all for general knowledge, but if I need to know anything about chemistry (which I haven't yet in my role as a web dev), then I can go learn it, or change my major and focus on it.
The goal of a college education is to learn how to learn, so you can stop paying people to teach you. Becoming an independent learners isn't in spite of college, it is the goal.
I wish they told me that in college ! :-)