People who went to college for programming, how did it go?

[Jeroen1322]

Hi guys!

 

I'm in my last year of high-school and i'll go to college (well sort of but college is the best word to describe it in english) for Application Development and i'm kinda shitting myself..

I can make website with HTML/CSS/JavaScript/PHP so i kinda have the basic ''programming skills".. Well some words in tutorials i reconice  

 

When i watch C# tutorials or speak to my school's SysAdmin and talk about the "C# Bible" i get very unsure if i can do it. 

I really love making websites and learning programming but when i see the more advanced stuff it is scarry. 

 

I am self tought and that was pretty dificult so i don't know how it would be in a class, maybe it is easyer but maybe it will be harder.. 

 

How was your experience? 

[Hans Christian | Teri]

Most courses start from nothing, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

[Jeroen1322]

Most courses start from nothing, I don't think you have anything to worry about.

Alright, thanks!

[Interfectorem]

Hi guys!

 

I'm in my last year of high-school and i'll go to college (well sort of but college is the best word to describe it in english) for Application Development and i'm kinda shitting myself..

I can make website with HTML/CSS/JavaScript/PHP so i kinda have the basic ''programming skills".. Well some words in tutorials i reconice

 

When i watch C# tutorials or speak to my school's SysAdmin and talk about the "C# Bible" i get very unsure if i can do it. 

I really love making websites and learning programming but when i see the more advanced stuff it is scarry. 

 

I am self tought and that was pretty dificult so i don't know how it would be in a class, maybe it is easyer but maybe it will be harder.. 

 

How was your experience? 

Just having prior experience is already great. This @Hans Christian | Teri said, I'm pretty sure they start from nothing. 

[FakezZ]

Well I will go to "college" in 2 years for programming. The thing is that the courses there are pretty generic. I will have to then later decide and focus on specific field. Right now I'm leaning towards web development, although I have only self-taught myself c++, java, some c# and javascript. I really don't know if this is going to be the right choice. I mean game development would also be nice, but so would be application (mobile and desktop) development. Ohh gosh choices!!!! I am really afraid I will make the wrong choice there and regret it for the rest of my life :'(

[Nuluvius]

Like others have already said, they assume you know virtually nothing initially then build up from there. To be honest I found the process painfully slow. That said everyone is different and even if you end up struggling you'll usually always be able to get assistance when needed. As for making an incorrect decision; most courses now present pathways and modules with a high degree of flexibility regarding switching and changing. They are usually very aware that you're not going to know what's right for you until you have actually begun experiencing things for the first time.

[LePawel]

The first app I've done for uni was... Rooftop Pool Calculator!

i.e. get roof strength, weight of water based on volume, return yes or no.

Everyone has started somewhere. Find the area you want to pursue, and keep making small, single-purpose programs in that direction until you find yourself comfortable to push for something bigger, move on, scale up, repeat. Finally buy out facebook and change logo to a dickbutt.

[P1X3]

It is all fun and giggles until you get to Discrete Math. I passed first course with C although got hit hard with proofs. Second course finished me off with a kick in the balls.

[LukeTim]

Beyond the tiniest bit of batch and BASIC (just stupid little stuff, I didn't fully understand what I was doing), I had done absolutely zero proper programming before I went to University.

Software was only half of my degree course (the other being Electronic Engineering), and now I am a professional Software Engineer.

 

You have absolutely nothing to worry about.

[Darko_Nerivar]

Hurrah for self-education.

University gave me directions, I just followed them.

 

University only teaches how to learn, they say. So true.

[Doldol]

Hurrah for self-education.

University gave me directions, I just followed them.

 

University only teaches how to learn, they say. So true.

I would have to agree, I dropped out of college after passing my first year due to the only programming class I had revolving around Scheme and that was to continue. It ain't the 70s anymore! One of the best decisions I have made in my entire life.

[ZiggyManSaad]

I'm taking an Intro to Logic and Programming right now. It's great. Also, check out Barnacules Nerdgasm's YouTube channel. He's done 4 C# videos and it's helped me.

[Doldol]

I'm taking an Intro to Logic and Programming right now. It's great. Also, check out Barnacules Nerdgasm's YouTube channel. He's done 4 C# videos and it's helped me.

But C# isn't a language you'd want to learn in my eyes, it's only useful in a Microsoft environment, why learn something only useful on one platform, when there are tools as good or better with support for nearly every platform? A direct substitute to C# would be Java.

[ZiggyManSaad]

But C# isn't a language you'd want to learn in my eyes, it's only useful in a Microsoft environment, why learn something only useful on one platform, when there are tools as good or better with support for nearly every platform? A direct substitute to C# would be Java.

The way he shows what he does helps when you need to write pseudocode. It helped me anyway.

[DigitalHermit]

Terrible...

 

It starts off slow and basic, then suddenly the difficulty ramps up...

 

I learned C... The thing that made me fail so hard is the part where you try to do a full duplex socket TCP/IP implementation alongside File I/O and SQL (It was for a text-based multiplayer game...)

 

The other thing was when they made us implement Ajax in C (for a web-based multiplayer game)...

 

Couple the heavy projects with the absurd amounts of math, physics, and electrical analysis homework... So yeah... I failed...

[Doldol]

The way he shows what he does helps when you need to write pseudocode. It helped me anyway.

 

Ah, well you should look into Python, it's so easy that a simple program in python is very close to what you'd write in pseudocode!

 

Example:

for item in items:    print item

[ZiggyManSaad]

 

Ah, well you should look into Python, it's so easy that a simple program in python is very close to what you'd write in pseudocode!

 

Example:

for item in items:    print item

Well then, that's super easy. I just started my class so I have a long way to go before I start learning more languages.

[Darko_Nerivar]

I would have to agree, I dropped out of college after passing my first year due to the only programming class I had revolving around Scheme and that was to continue. It ain't the 70s anymore! One of the best decisions I have made in my entire life.

 

What I mean is - we had courses of how stuff works: networks, OSs, microcontrollers, parallel programming basics, mission critical systems, clusters and GRIDs, etc.

Also, our ...ahem (so much time wasted)... Java course was just like that - lecturer was reading docs *facepalm*

 

And why are you so enraged by Scheme? That is a great language to get a hang with functional programming! Yeah, it ain't 70s, but hey, we still use good ol' C and C++ got mature only about a year ago(C compiler was used to compile C++ compiler before that... duh...). And OS you use right now(well, if you are not using Solaris ) is C-written. Come on, mate, don't say language is old if it was first implemented/used 40 years ago.

[Doldol]

What I mean is - we had courses of how stuff works: networks, OSs, microcontrollers, parallel programming basics, mission critical systems, clusters and GRIDs, etc.

Also, our ...ahem (so much time wasted)... Java course was just like that - lecturer was reading docs *facepalm*

 

And why are you so enraged by Scheme? That is a great language to get a hang with functional programming! Yeah, it ain't 70s, but hey, we still use good ol' C and C++ got mature only about a year ago(C compiler was used to compile C++ compiler before that... duh...). And OS you use right now(well, if you are not using Solaris ) is C-written. Come on, mate, don't say language is old if it was first implemented/used 40 years ago.

 

Yeah but C doesn't stubbornly decide that absolutely everything is a list......

Which programming language in the real world actually uses that same idea? Yeah, none. C evolved, and was a much better idea at the time still, but the point that the language was old perhaps was misplaced, as personally I like C too, Python was invented in the 80s etc. I'm aware of the C-ness of most OSes.

 

But calling a function like (func arg1 arg2) is impractical, and something no practical language uses, (+ 3 4) is just confusing and a bad idea. In this day and age teaching functional programming should be done in a language like Python (Aside for my personal affection with it.). It also makes transitioning to OOP easier.

 

My course took it to ridiculous levels anyway, they taught us OOP in Scheme too, which is a mess in that language.

[MikeD]

Yeah but C doesn't stubbornly decide that absolutely everything is a list......

Which programming language in the real world actually uses that same idea? Yeah, none. C evolved, and was a much better idea at the time still, but the point that the language was old perhaps was misplaced, as personally I like C too, Python was invented in the 80s etc. I'm aware of the C-ness of most OSes.

 

But calling a function like (func arg1 arg2) is impractical, and something no practical language uses, (+ 3 4) is just confusing and a bad idea. In this day and age teaching functional programming should be done in a language like Python (Aside for my personal affection with it.). It also makes transitioning to OOP easier.

 

My course took it to ridiculous levels anyway, they taught us OOP in Scheme too, which is a mess in that language.

 

Actually, you'd be surprised with the level of thought that went into languages that see everything as lists.

Just to (try) to entice you: a program in Scheme is... guess what? A list!

Have you ever written a function that changed it's own behavior in runtime?! I have, in Scheme (it's called Racket now, whatever). And it was awesome!

And other implementations such as common lisp allow you to change the meta-protocols that control how functions and structures behave (change what happens when you call a method in an object or use a struct as an operator).

 

Furthermore, even without diving into all that fancy stuff the functional paradigm is very useful when introducing students to programming. I also started with Scheme but the point of the class was to learn the fundamentals (what's an algorithm, difference between recursive and iterative process, ...) and to write code using proper abstraction levels and techniques (for example declare functions inside others so they can only be used in that context).

 

What I mean is - we had courses of how stuff works: networks, OSs, microcontrollers, parallel programming basics, mission critical systems, clusters and GRIDs, etc.

 

This. The language can change but the fundamentals are always the same.

You'll also have things like Logic for Programming, theory of computation or discrete mathematics. Some of them are tough, but important nonetheless.

 

But you should get informed about the choices you have in terms of institutions and degrees in your country/area. Search online for the descriptions of classes offered at each place and see if you like what's in the program or the objectives.

My university has webpages for all classes taught in every degree and anyone can see information about it (except documents only meant for the actual students, but even those are sometimes public).

Edited September 11, 2014 by MikeD

[robodude666]

You'll be fine.

Any amount of experience is very helpful to have. As mentioned by others, you'll more than likely start out slow (unless you test out of classes, or go into an advanced program), and ramp up in difficulty. There generally ends up being a big curve somewhere near the middle where things go from really easy to really hard, but working through the coursework ends up being very rewarding in the end.

 

But C# isn't a language you'd want to learn in my eyes, it's only useful in a Microsoft environment, why learn something only useful on one platform, when there are tools as good or better with support for nearly every platform? A direct substitute to C# would be Java.

Glad not everyone has the same eyes then. In my eyes, Java is a worthless language that teaches poor design practices and forces users to work in ugly user-unfriendly IDEs.

C#, while is a Microsoft technology, can work on other platforms using Mono, which actually works pretty well.

In either case, you don't learn a single language and use it everywhere. You should learn multiple and pick the best one of the job. As much as I hate .NET, you can't argue that C# + .NET is one of the best ways of writing applications that are intended to be windows only.

But... That's not what this thread is about.

[Coppercrawler]

You'll be fine.

Any amount of experience is very helpful to have. As mentioned by others, you'll more than likely start out slow (unless you test out of classes, or go into an advanced program), and ramp up in difficulty. There generally ends up being a big curve somewhere near the middle where things go from really easy to really hard, but working through the coursework ends up being very rewarding in the end.

 

Glad not everyone has the same eyes then. In my eyes, Java is a worthless language that teaches poor design practices and forces users to work in ugly user-unfriendly IDEs.

C#, while is a Microsoft technology, can work on other platforms using Mono, which actually works pretty well.

In either case, you don't learn a single language and use it everywhere. You should learn multiple and pick the best one of the job. As much as I hate .NET, you can't argue that C# + .NET is one of the best ways of writing applications that are intended to be windows only.

But... That's not what this thread is about.

 

I totally agree with you, C# is great language to work with and I've had loads of fun and success using it for my needs. As for worrying about whether programming is for you or not, there are many different scenarios and projects which include programming which change the knowledge and understanding which you need. As long as you understand the fundamentals (sequence, selection, iteration...) then you are more than capable of programming well.

[szomeret]

I went to university for general computer science studies. We learned a good deal about data structures, algorithms, discrete math. This was the first part. Then we learned the languages. In one specific class we were forced to use a different language for each assignment (Scheme, Haskell, Prolog). It was not too bad, you learn so much from the basics that you become able to see patterns and learn the basics of a new languages quickly.

 

The best advice I can give is to simply learn to learn on your own. You seem to be already taking the initiative, so you are probably going to do fine as long as maintain this enthusiasm. Some people become defeated and give up, don't do that.  

[rockking1379]

i went into college with some programming background. yeah i floated through my first year programming courses with ease. and as a freshman took a software design class with seniors. currently i am a junior and still keep learning more and more.