To those who take programming classes in college (or have)

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wyrd

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Last semester I ended my second year of programming courses, and I just realized that out of two years I have yet to take a programming course that remotely reflects real world applications. I don't think I realized that until I actually got pretty far into my current project, which is building an app to simulate a real world small business inventory system.

It's not to say my school sucks, on the contrary, I've had a few excellent teachers and have learned a lot from them. However, I just feel that it would've been nice if they applied the school work to the real world. I think Data Structures I (Data Structures II is 3rd year) is probably the class that resembles real world programming the closest, even more so then my VB, Advanced VB, and OOP (sadly) classes.

Does this change in the 3rd and 4th year? Or throughout college do you never really get real world training unless you actually take an internship?
 
It is unlikely that the language in which you write code or the applications you create today will be relevant in just a few short years.
When I was in college we were punching cards....boxes and boxes of them.

College is about learning theory and history, as well as learning how to learn. In a lot of cases it simply gives us a common language so that we can communicate.
I've never used physical chemistry, quantum mechanics or linear algebra while doing surgery or delivering a baby, but those subjects forced me to wrap my mind around concepts that were foreign and abstract.
Be grateful. Work hard. Bend your thoughts into bizarre shapes in response to the exercises they put you through today and you'll be well prepared for the bizarrities that life will throw at you in the years to come.

Trust me, someday you'll work for someone who'll ask you to do, and learn, things that seem to (and probably do) make even less sense in the grand scheme of things.

Jon
 
Bleh, perhaps I didn't make my post clear enough. Let me put it in far simpler terms.

Wouldn't it be better if programming courses were taught more towards the real world applications that are out today?
 
I understood you just fine....
I'd be worried about you if you werent impatient with the process. Your bright and unafraid to learn and take on a challenge. Being hungry to learn is a good thing. Keep pushing.

Jon
 
wyrd said:
Wouldn't it be better if programming courses were taught more towards the real world applications that are out today?
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Nope. Then it would be called "Training" instead of an "Education". Hopefully, you're gaining an understanding of concepts and problem solving techniques that transcend any current day programming skills, techniques, or languages.
 
Schools like MIT, UC Berkley, Harvard, etc. will have you doing real world things, but unfortunately, if you are anything like me, those schools are too expensive.

I go to a local state college, since I have to pay for it by working full time, and the CS department is quite poor. I, unfortunately, won't have a chance to work on any such project until after I graduate and join the work force (that is if I can get a job programming around here).
 
Training or Teaching

You can't expect colleges to have the most up to date teaching on modern tech. it changes too fast. I agree that training is learning the new envoirnment and how to write code Quicker and more efficently, (Although I still prefer the ease of use of VB to VB.Net which I have a lot of diffuculty with.)
Teaching teaches you to solve the problem, the method you use depends on the technology available.
 
I have been forced to learn Java as my language for my college course, I do not like it at all, however, it is perfect for the role that it is supposed to show, ie the role of a cross platform, heavily object orientated language.

All in all, Id have to say that there is a big difference between what you learn at college and what you will use in the real world. But the teaching at college may prove inavluable in learning the real word stuff, it will teach you concepts and ideas that will allow you to write more efficient and effective real world applications.

You can't expect colleges to have the most up to date teaching on modern tech. it changes too fast.
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Agreed. How can the teachers be expected to learn the latest stuff to a level where they can teach it? Basically they can't.

Stick with college, learn concepts. Learn real world stuff when you get to the real world. :)
 
If you want an education that teaches you to build real-world apps you can go to a technical college. University courses generally tend to teach you the theory behind programming, and give you a deep understanding of all the fundamental concepts and advanced techniques, but rarely apply that to real-world applications.
 
...but rarely apply that to real-world applications
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I'd disagree - as Jon pointed out, you may not think that you're learning anything related to the real world, but you are. You only get out what you put in, as was made so clear in Karate Kid. Wax on, wax off - why learn THIS when I want to learn THAT? Hopefully if you're really learning, it will all become clear when you do get to the "real world".

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Or to not use a 20 year old movie as a reference... Some may say I learned Modula 2 and Pascal in college (for the most part). But looking back, I may have learned the language but only as a tool to learn programming. The Ifs, Whiles, variables, and structures are the building blocks to programming. Also, all the other classes in a university contribute to your understanding of topics you might otherwise dismiss as extraneous. Why take Biology if you're never going to care about a Tibula or Fibula? Well, besides making you bit smarter about general knowledge which some might question the benefit of, you probably learned how to memorize better, take notes, and more. And you probably met some people in class you might not otherwise have met. Everything in life contributes to who you are... don't dismiss anything as extraneous.
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-nerseus (again)
 
Another point of view.

During my senior year at UNI, I managed a group that came up with a real-world application (from the design all the way to the deployment process). Sure it was for another department, but the software was working for real-life scenarios.

In my first semesters at the University, big projects were frowned upon because they wanted beginnners to learn the BASICS before going into something more complex as a real-life project. Heck, I even went to a class that involved LISP and Fortran. I didn't like the languages, but gained some experience (that Nerseus was talking about).
 
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