Any one in college?

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dust

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Dont know where to post this thread sorry if i am wrong.


Hey I am a senior and i have no idea what college i should go to. I know i want to work with comuters. I basically want to build, make, computers. Also i would like to design my own computer programs like java programs or something in that area. With graphic desgin and gaming design i like both of those areas i just cant draw or anything. I am more of a realism person i just cant think of a character and put it on paper i have to draw something that i am looking at.

Is anyone in a good computer college that they might think can fit into my liking i know this is a weird post but i want to have a good career to support myself and my family when i start one, and i know alot about computers so thats my strong point.

I really need all the help so if anyone has went to college or is in a college that would help me out i would very much appriciate it Thanks.
 
if you just want to build computers and stuff like that don't wast money on college. just get a job as a pc-tech. alot of people go into comp sci (myself included) thinking "oh, this will be easy, I already know about computers." Wrong! Computer Science is so much more than just plugging stuff together and making it work. here are the course descriptions of the courses I have to take at my college. Look over the list then decide if those are the kind of things you want to work with. Since being in college (I am now a Junior) I have found that I am really intrested in the networking aspect of computer science as well as distrubuted processing and programming. The hardware aspect (digital logic, architecture etc) are also facinating, but at the same time very challenging.

Just make sure you know what you are getting yourself into.

http://www.easternct.edu/depts/matcs/csc/majorrequirements.html

also, if you click on "course descriptions" at the top you will see more info about each course




also, what did you get on your SAT's and how much are you looking to spend per year on tuition and housing? I choose a state university because of its reputation, realtivly low cost and locality to my house (I live on campus, but I like being close to home incase I need to get something from there or whatever). I did well on my SAT's, however I could not afford to may $40k a year to go to college, so I went for a more reasonable alternative.
 
I have not taken the Sat's yet because I had issues that came up but i will be taking the next SAT that comes up i believe its in march. Also my first year is already payed by my mom then i have to pay the rest so not alot but not something where i have to go to because i dont have enough money. I want a good career
 
What do you mean by "build, make, computers"? Are you interested in ordering parts and bolting them together, or working at shop? I don't think you need a college degree for this; just get an A+ certification and learn how to keep ahead by reading press releases, reviewing vendor websites, ad so on.

Or do you mean that you want to design the chips and systems themselves? Then you're looking for a degree in Computer Systems Engineering, Electrical Engineering, or Computer Systems Architecture. Different schools will call these degrees different things, but you'll end up with electrical engineering courses, general enginerring courses, and enough math to understan what's goin' on.

The University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana and Stanford are noted schools in this field.
 
go to college. because you might not end up going into the field of your degree, but you will make more with a degree than without one.

you can easily work as a pc-tech while in school, btw, and that will help pay for school


it's hard to recommend a school w/o your SAT's, GPA, etc

i'm in college right now, and that is one helluva process

some random ones that you might want to look into:

digipen
wpi
rpi
carnegie mellon (http://www.cit.cmu.edu/)
MIT (bout as hard to get into as getting big momma into an apple juice box)

that's a short list with not even close to the number of schools you should be considering
 
That's a varied set of career paths you have given us.

I'd also like to know what you mean by building comps. I keep associating that with what a lot of people on this board do, building their own computers, and it's really not something you'd have to go to school for.

Computer science would expose you to theory and concepts useful in developing software and algorithms, and it's not just about programming, it's really more math and theory than anything.

As for graphics, that is a specific subset of computer science (like operating systems, language theory, networks), but if you want to just model things in Maya, 3DS, whatever, going to a design or art school would be a good choice, I'd think.

For game design - do you want to be a game coder? Artist? Or the lead designer, someone like a Cliff Blezinski (sp) or Shigeru Miyamoto?

I went to WPI (funny, I see it mentioned somewhat a lot on this forum, even though it's still a pretty small and relatively unknown school :) ) and studied computer science and eventually took a focus on software engineering, systems/networks, and foundational and language theory. Right now I work as a software engineer.

If you want to go down the CS route, good schools would be Carnegie Mellon (very selective), RIT, RPI, WPI (natually :D), University of Washington, Stanford, and University of California Berkeley, amongst many.

If you want to be a graphics artist, design schools like RISD might be a better path, and there are always game degree oriented schools like Digipen and Full Sail.
 
Go to college.

You may like to build computers now, but you don't want to be installing windows XP for a living. Even if you are more into the hardware side of things, get a degree in Computer Science or Computer Enginnering and become a Systems Admin. You may even find that you like logic and programming. You aren't worth much to most companies unless you have a 4 year degree, it will hurt your career if you don't have one.

Go to college.

edit:

University of Central Florida has a great computer science program/department if that's what you're interested in.
 
Heh. When I got here (MSU), I was sure I wanted to do web design and coding, now I'm dual majoring in Political Philosophy and Political Science. My point: be sure to step outside your box as early as possible. You just might find something you're more passionate about.
 
Sat and/or act, look at degrees offered by browsing local university webpages, apply, Fafsa, take basic requirements first if you still arent 100% sure you are on the right path.
 
dust said:
Dont know where to post this thread sorry if i am wrong.


Hey I am a senior and i have no idea what college i should go to. I know i want to work with comuters. I basically want to build, make, computers. Also i would like to design my own computer programs like java programs or something in that area. With graphic desgin and gaming design i like both of those areas i just cant draw or anything. I am more of a realism person i just cant think of a character and put it on paper i have to draw something that i am looking at.
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I second whats said before about making sure... I thought I wanted to get into networking and computers, till I took a half year of CCNA. I also started helping out a bit with a few of the computer classes, with their networking and repairing all of the abused and mollested PCs... Im sure I could pass that class and get a job, hell im sure I could be a plastic surgeon and make more money than I would know what to do with. But, with me, if im not interested enough... Its just that, im not interested and its not happening.

Try to get into it some and figure out if you truely enjoy it, before you go and spend thousands of dollars on education.
 
Well i really think i would like to make programs and maybe even get into graphic design using adobe illustrater or something. I know i wont be making a living installing parts thats like a full time job out of college. I mean like i want to actually work for intel or amd something in that area i think that would be very cool. Or working for some big graphic card company.


Are there any local colleges anybody can think of for me. I have been looking all over and havent found any eye catching.
I live in Portland Oregon
 
dust said:
I mean like i want to actually work for intel or amd something in that area i think that would be very cool. Or working for some big graphic card company.
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On the technical side for those, it'd be either Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering. I'm majoring in all 3 at my school, and then going on to Signals Intelligence (hopefully)with the Marines (since they are helping to pay for my school as well). And that doesn't hurt job prospects at all.
 
movax said:
On the technical side for those, it'd be either Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or Electrical Engineering. I'm majoring in all 3 at my school, and then going on to Signals Intelligence (hopefully)with the Marines (since they are helping to pay for my school as well). And that doesn't hurt job prospects at all.
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i'm curious as to why you chose to triple major when computer engineering (at least at my school) is a combination of ee and cs. so majoring in cs and ee would pretty much qualify you as a ce as well.
 
_mike_ said:
i'm curious as to why you chose to triple major when computer engineering (at least at my school) is a combination of ee and cs. so majoring in cs and ee would pretty much qualify you as a ce as well.
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I'm "primarily" an EE, and CE shares most of the same classes with the exception of maybe ~20 credits or so, so that was a no-brainer. CS because the professors gave me credit/enrolled with credits gleaned from taking online courses during HS, so I'll still be out in ~5 years.
 
DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY ON FULLSAIL.

I go to UCF. I almost went to Full Sail. Trust me, read reviews online, talk to people who went. You'll find most were disappointed and felt it was a waste of time and money.
 
Here at California Polytechnic: San Luis Obispo, the CPE (Computer Engineering) program is EE and CSC combined, so that you cannot double/triple major in CPE and either CSC or EE.

What state are you in? That will likely affect your decision about what college to choose. I was deciding between Penn State and Cal Poly, because I loved the feel of both schools, but I chose CP because it was a bit closer to home (5 hour drive instead of plane flight), and cheaper, being in state.

What classes have you been taking? Extra curriculars? GPA? SAT? ACT? These things all affect where you should consider.
 
Well im currently in Web design classes and im going to be going into cad. I couldnt take some of the comp classes my school offers because we just went into Acadamy classes which we have to choose 1 of 4 acadamies and its very very weird. I choose the one with most comp classes but i couldnt take them all at once. I am going to try and take a computer info support class to learn to OC and actually build a computer even though i pretty much know how.

I havent taken the SAT or ACT because i missed the Deadline but they are comming up soon i found out today there is one in like 3-4 weeks that i will be signing up for.

I live in Vancouver Wa. Basically 10miles from Portland Oregon.
 
Tawnos said:
Here at California Polytechnic: San Luis Obispo, the CPE (Computer Engineering) program is EE and CSC combined, so that you cannot double/triple major in CPE and either CSC or EE.

What state are you in? That will likely affect your decision about what college to choose. I was deciding between Penn State and Cal Poly, because I loved the feel of both schools, but I chose CP because it was a bit closer to home (5 hour drive instead of plane flight), and cheaper, being in state.

What classes have you been taking? Extra curriculars? GPA? SAT? ACT? These things all affect where you should consider.
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i'm looking into grad schools and PSU has a very strong CS/EE program at that level.

but to the OP, computer science is nothing like you may think it is. it has absolutely nothing to do with building computers and everything with designing efficient ways to solve problems with programs.

perhaps CS is not the route you wish to take... i'd take a programming course as soon as you can to see if you like it.
 
Does anyone know or recommend any good computer colleges in the state of Washington? I think I'm going to apply at the University Of Washington but I don't think I'm going to get in due to the acceptance rate difficulty. I want to major in Computer Science or Computer Engineering. My cumulative GPA is 3.78 (normal classes) and I'm going to take the SAT this Saturday.
 
I'm currently going to Baker College. Its a Michigan only college.. They have a surprisingly lot of different computer fields.

I'm currently working on dual minors in Linux/Unix Security and Network Security.. They also have Windows Security, Cisco certification programs, Computer Science, Networking, Computer Engineering, Computer Animation, and a TON of others.. They have (I think) 8 locations across Michigan.
 
dust said:
I have not taken the Sat's yet because I had issues that came up but i will be taking the next SAT that comes up i believe its in march. Also my first year is already payed by my mom then i have to pay the rest so not alot but not something where i have to go to because i dont have enough money. I want a good career
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just to let you know, the next SAT is in December, January, and then March.

You need to have taken your SAT's before college application deadlines (which is January 1st), so I would try and register for the earliest SAT date possible.

EDIT: NVM, I saw that you noticed that.


Also, look at University of Maryland - College Park. Great Engineering and CS program here...


p.s. I dont want to 'get all up in your grill' but, fill out your FAFSA form asap. Schools are willing to give alot of money for financial aid.
 
you should check out whether you want to major in cs or not. Its a lot of work at my university compared to other majors, especially when you move on to upper division. I probably spend about 16-20 hours each week doing programming, usually staying past midnight at a lab. You have to have lots of commitment, especially sitting through pages of debug errors
 
I would recommend to you a bigger state school, since it seems your knowledge of these fields is quite broad, and you may not like them. Bigger schools offer just about everything, so there will be good alternatives.

Also, you need to make sure you don't miss anymore deadlines. College start accepting people as soon as apps come in, they don't wait until the deadline, then start. You need to be on the ball here. AND PLEASE get that SAT or ACT taken, since basically none of it matters if you havn't. You need to figure out whether or not your scores ont hose tests will get you in to your school of choice. Then if they don't, you need to take them again, maybe even prepare for them.

I'm not tryin to down you here or anything, but there is ALOT more to each of these subjects than you understand. In all of them, you'll need to be proficient in math (Not A+ Cert), which hurts alot of people. Usually up to about Calc 4 and then a basic discrete mathematics course. That right there usually takes 4 semesters to complete. It's hard stuff, all engineering is, which is why they are among the most intelligent people in the world (Prolly exaggerating).

So in closing, take SAT SOON, apply RIGHT after, do FAFSA, get these things rolling.
Then go to school, prepare for hell, and if you make it through, all power to you. But don't be shocked if you just don't like it. It's understandable. Choose a route that makes it possible to switch.
 
Wingy said:
I'm not tryin to down you here or anything, but there is ALOT more to each of these subjects than you understand. In all of them, you'll need to be proficient in math (Not A+ Cert), which hurts alot of people. Usually up to about Calc 4 and then a basic discrete mathematics course. That right there usually takes 4 semesters to complete. It's hard stuff, all engineering is, which is why they are among the most intelligent people in the world (Prolly exaggerating).
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LOL
I couldn't help it... but every engineer(civil, computer, and electrical) that i know is more likely to nuke a problem than to solve it.

I'm a senior at UC Irvine BTW so if you have questions ask away. I'm majoring in Information and Computer Science but could easily add a few more classes for a CS degree also. I've taken my 3 quarters of Calculus, 2 of discrete, and 1 of statistics. I'm currently in 1 of 2 classes in cryptography and a class in finite state automata (the most difficult class i've ever taken).
 
I go to Georgia Tech and love (to hate) it. I'm a senior graduating this December and it's my opinion that it's a great school (maybe I'm a little biased, but others would probably say the same). I'd Say MIT is GREAT, if you can get in. Make sure to work hard, where ever you end up studying.
 
I attend the University of Washington. My freshman year I was planning to get a CS degree, but after taking the Intro Programming course (i.e. intro to java) I had a change of mind. Now I'm pursuing a Chem Engineering degree.

I got accepted into UW with a 3.5 gpa and ~1200 SAT score. Although, I had an IB load(similar to AP) when I was in high school. So it looks like you have a pretty good chance of getting in unless you bomb the SATs. Unfortunately, you have even a better chance if you are a minority since UW is an affirmative action school.
 
synergyo1 said:
Although, I had an IB load(similar to AP) when I was in high school.
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Quite possible the smartest thing one can do. I think I saved about 5 grand by taking Calc 1-3, Discrete Structs, Bio, Chem & History in HS instead of paying out the ass for those credits at school. The terms I "saved" by not having to take these I'm instead putting towards three majors.

Oh, Pro Tip: I decided to take two liberal arts classes online whilst on my work term (cooperative education school, real cool), and use up my limit of guest credits with those. Easy 4.0 credits, doesn't hurt your college GPA, cheaper, and well, easier, since most liberal arts teachers seem to be evil. (This is from the perspective of an engy @ an engineering school though. :) )
 
worx said:
Does anyone know or recommend any good computer colleges in the state of Washington? I think I'm going to apply at the University Of Washington but I don't think I'm going to get in due to the acceptance rate difficulty. I want to major in Computer Science or Computer Engineering. My cumulative GPA is 3.78 (normal classes) and I'm going to take the SAT this Saturday.
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Me and worx are good friends we go to the same school and we have been talking about college and what ones are good and we do need some help. We are in the same boat even though he is more advanced to me. He taught me almost everything i know.


Ok i got the SAT schedualing part down. The only thing i am worried about is all the book work and homework. I love doing hands on work nothing like reading highlighting and taking notes.
Also one huge factor here, i cant do math at all. Of course i can add subtract and multiply and divide but who cant? The algebra and calculus is what is hard for me.
The math classes I have taken here are everything up to Algebra 3/4 i didnt take calculus because i would fail it for sure i dont understand MATH! anything else is easy but math for me.
So I have been looking into PSU and i read the 16-20 hrs a night in lab which is understandable (its college),
So overall i have a big question which is the best path to take? CS? CE? EE?
I understand it is going to be a living hell but i am thinking about my kids in the future i dont want them to live in a bad family i want them to have all the choices of life they can.
 
if you like hand's on stuff maybe you should go to a community college for a 2 year degree.

in CS math is everything, and you are going to have to take at least calc 1, calc 2 and discrete structures no matter where you go for a 4 year CS degree.

college is alot of work, including just studying.

I have not touched a single piece of hardware for any of my classes yet and I only have a year left (well maybe one linux server that I had to setup in my room as part of a testing environment for a databases class)

In CS you basically learn theory and how stuff works and where you can apply it. How well you apply it determines how much money you make when you are done.
 
dust said:
Me and worx are good friends we go to the same school and we have been talking about college and what ones are good and we do need some help. We are in the same boat even though he is more advanced to me. He taught me almost everything i know.


Ok i got the SAT scheduling part down. The only thing i am worried about is all the book work and homework. I love doing hands on work nothing like reading highlighting and taking notes.
Also one huge factor here, i cant do math at all. Of course i can add subtract and multiply and divide but who cant? The algebra and calculus is what is hard for me.
The math classes I have taken here are everything up to Algebra 3/4 i didnt take calculus because i would fail it for sure i dont understand MATH! anything else is easy but math for me.
So I have been looking into PSU and i read the 16-20 hrs a night in lab which is understandable (its college),
So overall i have a big question which is the best path to take? CS? CE? EE?
I understand it is going to be a living hell but i am thinking about my kids in the future i dont want them to live in a bad family i want them to have all the choices of life they can.
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CE/EE are incredibly math intensive majors (pretty much all engineering is math-heavy, I remember being roommates with 3 mechanical engineers, 1 physics/math major, and I knew many people who were in the engineering programs at the school I attended). Calculus is just a bare minimum for these majors, and at my school ECE students must satisfy 7 math credits, and that is not including all their major-area courses, which are very math heavy. CE/EE do split time between theory and application work, as well as lab work (circuit design, building logic boards, etc.).

Here is the latest program description for my alma mater's ECE program:
http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/Catalogs/Ugrad/Current/ecedept.html

Computer science is also very math and theory heavy, but you work more on the software and systems side, not with hardware like the EE/CE majors. My math load involved Calculus 3 and 4, Linear Algebra, Probability and Statistics, Discrete Math, and probably some others I don't recall. There were also the CS math courses like Foundations of Computer Science, essentially the underlying theory of computation (one of my favorite classes), algorithms, and theory of computation (the senior level class that extends Foundations of CS and adds in topics like nondeterminism, decidability...).

CS is also definitely less hands on than EE or bio or chem and such, and most of the time I had was spent sleeping or reading theory papers. It is very interesting stuff though - compilers, operating systems, networks, languages, foundational theory. I never had to be in a lab for 20 hours though, though there are some people I knew who did spend that much time in a lab. It varies from person to person. Some people also enter CS thinking "oh, it's just CS, easy cake." Do not enter with that mentality, CS can be very challenging and I would say it is a hard major, but perhaps not as severe as EE (which at my school is probably considered one of the worst, thanks to one of the classes :D ).

If you have never been on friendly terms with math, you might want to re-evaluate your position, or start cracking the books and improve your math skills. Of course, math, like many other things, is something some people just may not 'get.' You and only you can decide if you can hack it.

In that respect, I think a more diversified school is better (and not a fully tech oriented one like WPI) because you certainly have more choices in terms of majors.

University of Washington is definitely a very strong school for CS (very, very good for graduate level CS), and it's a good school all around. I don't know about their acceptance rates, but I know a girl who graduated with me, went to University of Washington and she did not have the grades worx had. She took advanced/honors level courses since my high school had stepped classes, so the GPA was weighted. In terms of ranking, I don't think she was in the top 50 of the graduating class. She started as an EE major, two years in decided it just wasn't for her and switched over to Geographic Economics. She seems to enjoy it and is now working for the city planning department in Puget Sound.

It's all right to not know what you actually what you specifically want to do yet. I think a good portion of students fresh in college have no idea what to major in, and the first year is intended as the 'core' courses year where you don't take major specific courses and can experiment with courses a little. At my school though, the minute you enter you can take major-specific courses, which was an advantage for myself since I knew I wanted to be computer science (though I'm more of an anomaly than the typical college student since I knew what I wanted to do for years).
 
i wouldn't say CS is any less math-intensive than engineering.


the engineers on my campus only take one more math course (differential equations) than do the CS majors. however, i am taking an additional upper-level math to get a math minor.
 
I guess another point to make is...that at some colleges, the CS dept does in fact fall under the larger umbrella of the math dept. CS spawned from mathematics to put it very broadly. In fact, almost all engineering spawns from math (with the exceptions of course, like chemical, biomed, etc. But your civil/mech/aerospace/electrial/computer...are all math-orientated.)

Sincerely,
Math Whore
 
I go to New York University and am doing a Computer Science dual major with Economics and I love the program here. The professors are very friendly, and the overall environment here in the city is just fantastic.

Also, there are just tons and tons of girls here.... an amazing ratio.
 
Zwitterion said:
Go to college.

edit:

University of Central Florida has a great computer science program/department if that's what you're interested in.
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I'm currently in the UCF Computer Science program, 2nd year... So far I've gotten one to many professors with poor english, the program is solid though, the assignments they give out do most of the teaching and there is one of the TAs that is dead on. He's my TA for Computer Science 1, here is his site, check it out. The TAs are more useful than the teachers by a long shot. Overall seems like a good program, the school is awesome, the teachers hardly speak english, TAs are good, the program is HARD though.
 
An advantage of a math-intensive major is that it is crazy easy to get math minor. I think I have to take one extra class to get it. And, at least at my school (Clarkson University, anyone else go here) as a CE I can get a software engineering minor simply by taking specific electives. Unfortunately for me (freshman), I am basically taking junior/senior year of high school over again. And the ratio here is pretty horrible...
 
Im at SFA in east texas with a double major in physics and engineering. I haven't really figured out what I what to do yet but I may end up with 2 engineering degrees. One aeronautical and one electrical. I started out at a community college where I go a full scholarship for, get this, jazz trumpet and piano. now I have so many electives to fill up I will end with 2-4 degrees in the next 2 years.
I will be transfering to A&M at the end of this year.
 
nameless_centurian said:
i'm looking into grad schools and PSU has a very strong CS/EE program at that level.
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Yeah, it does. I believe the "computer science and engineering" graduate degree is ranked 7th in the nation, or somewhere close to it.

To the OP...
I'm currently a junior in computer engineering at PSU. I never took calc in high school, so needless to say, it has been an interesting 2-3 years here so far. There is so much math involved...I could have never even imagined it while in high school. Luckily, though, I'm just about through it now. So, if anyone says it's impossible for math retards to get through a field like computer engineering, they're right to some degree but you can get through it...although you MUST HAVE a strong work ethic. Some weeks, I'm starting class at 8am, going to classes for the majority of the day, then coming home to eat a quick dinner and spend the rest of the night (until 1am usually) doing homework. I really regret it sometimes, but I find so many of my classes interesting that I let the intensive work load slide a bit.

Anyway, as it was said already CE = (some) CS + (some) EE. I chose my electives to be more on the CS side since I'm better at coding. Now, I found this project particularly interesting: http://b2k.pnt.net/shots/cpu2.jpg . I essentially built my own multi-cycle MIPS datapath. It was extremely hard (at least for me) but I ended up getting a perfect score on it. The strange part is, CS majors had to take this class as well despite it focusing on some of the EE side of things.

Basically, if you want to major in CS, CE, or whatever...you're going to have some classes that you really don't like (it's inevitable) and you're going to have some classes that you really enjoy. If you don't feel like you want to go through the hassle of all the calc and physics and what not...then I'd advise you not to major in CS/CE and instead choose an IT field.

College isn't for everyone, so don't feel pressured to go. Good luck to you.
 
I graduated from University of Nebrasaka at Omaha (UNO) with a Comp. Sci. major and a Native American Studies minor. If I was about three math classes away from a math minor as well, but decided to punt on that option.

When I was leaving I know the comp. sci program was shifting towards INFOSEC, but the staples of programming and networking still existed.

It's a good school, and when I find myself getting sick of my nightlife I will probably hit up my masters at UNO as well.

w00t, go Mavs!
 
just2cool. pretty cool project you did. i might have to look into doing something similar for me final project this year
 
COputer hardware engineering > computer science...

Most computer hardware guys no WAY more software than computer science guys.. plus.. they know hardware :cool:
 
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