There’s a great post (and an even better discussion thread) by Janelle Godfrey titled If I Could Turn Back Time: Why I Wish I had Studied Computer Science/IT/Technology in College.
The gist of the post is that Janelle is hearing/seeing massive declines in enrollments in college CS degrees and is wondering why this is happenning.
“So, I am wondering why students are turning away from this major, and I came up with three main arguments:
There are so many companies looking for technical hires that students think they can get a job without that degree.
Students feel that what you major in isn’t as important as what your interests are or what you are talented in.
Computer Science and IT courses are outdated, with old technology, so students don’t see the need to spend $30,000 a year on learning what they could learn from reading a book.“
Go read the post. Definitely read through the discussion comments, too.
I agree with Janelle’s 3 points and I would add a 4th — “college freshmen see the ridiculous offshoring of IT jobs and say ‘forget it!’”
Discuss.
-Ben
–ps…my college degree is in music performance (jazz voice, jazz piano). 99.9% of what I learned about computers is self-taught or comes from reading manuals and books. Lots of my very accomplished tech friends and collegues have either no CS degree or no college degree at all.
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