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RANT: Comp Sci students, are your classmates as brain-addled as mine seem to be?

yllus

yllus

Elite Member & Lifer
For people not in the biz, let me explain that a lot of the work that happens in the computer science program at college/university tends to be done in groups. Not only is this usually necessary to get relatively large programs done within a semester, but it also touched upon the reality of working within a team construct out there in the "real world". Also, it's a rant and ranting is a time-honoured tradition here at AT. Don't go overboard with your razzing, or I will hurt you. 😛

Tonight I waited until 6 minutes before tonight's extended midnight deadline to receive a group member's portion of the documentation for one of our projects this term, I wondered what these people would do if left to fend for themselves without the guy like me who ends up pulling way more than his own weight in a project. Would they lay down and die, failing the project and subsequently the course? Would they band together and produce a project using their virgin coding skills? What do they expect to happen in the "real world", or in interviews where even the least minimally competent tech-knowledgable interviewer will realize how pathetic these people are?

One, it pisses me off that I have to do more than my fair share to pull a good grade.

Two, it pisses me off that these people get away with slacking because it's usually not in my best interest to get a rep as someone who's difficult to work with while I have more projects yet to do later in my studies.

Three, it pisses me off that many of these people graduate and go on to suck in the field, cheapening the weight of the degree we will mutually hold.

Four, it pisses me off that I will very likely have to work with/under/over people like this who went through the motions of acquiring a quality education but came away with little to nothing, thus giving me headaches down the road.

Just to deflect the people who will accuse me of whining, I have struck back one or twice when it's gotten too much or the slacking was too damn blatant. Two terms ago I informed a group member and then my professor that the member was not pulling his weight.

He had the gall later on to go clubbing the night I and two other group members were pulling an all-nighter to get a submission perfect. We struck his name off the final report, and that group member was suspended from his studies for failing that course and one other (that I just barely pulled a C in by aceing the final). He's back for another try now though and asked me to partner up with him for a class we're both taking. Yeeeeah, right.

One person in my 3-person group last semester simply decided to stop coming to class and communicating with either of us. I deliberated for a long time about what to do. I could put his name on the project and let it be, or I could let him flunk the course in style (I assumed he would anyways from not showing up and learning anything). In the end I left his name off, and he also was suspended from his studies.

Flunking a course up here in Canada means a loss of time and money - the money part being equivalent of $700 to $1000 CDN. I am happy to put a $1k hole in these people's pockets, but sometimes it just doesn't feel like enough. Please, tell me it's different out there in the "real world"? 🙁
 
I hate the majority, if not all of the people in my major at my school. They give people in CS a bad name.

-silver
 
Originally posted by: Ameesh
no its not, im gonna kill my coworkers for being idiots
Click to expand...

I thought that MS' world-famous interviews were designed to keep idiots out of the company? You still work for uncle Bill, right?
 
Originally posted by: RaynorWolfcastle
Originally posted by: Ameesh
no its not, im gonna kill my coworkers for being idiots
Click to expand...

I thought that MS' world-famous interviews were designed to keep idiots out of the company? You still work for uncle Bill, right?
Click to expand...

Amazon now I believe.

-silver
 
to be fair, you probably do coding outside of school. This is where I notice a large difference in my class: the school simply does not teach well enough for student to succed unless 1) they're really smart or 2) they do coding outside of class (work, fun, whatever).

CS is like the only major where you can get your ass kicked even when you do all the work.
 
Originally posted by: MAME
to be fair, you probably do coding outside of school. This is where I notice a large difference in my class: the school simply does not teach well enough for student to succed unless 1) they're really smart or 2) they do coding outside of class (work, fun, whatever).

CS is like the only major where you can get your ass kicked even when you do all the work.
Click to expand...
I dunno dude. Political Science majors must read newspapers, join parties and talk shop in their spare time. Journalism majors write, engineers electrocute themselves, english majors smoke ganja...it's only natural the computer scientists code.
 
Originally posted by: yllus
Originally posted by: MAME
to be fair, you probably do coding outside of school. This is where I notice a large difference in my class: the school simply does not teach well enough for student to succed unless 1) they're really smart or 2) they do coding outside of class (work, fun, whatever).

CS is like the only major where you can get your ass kicked even when you do all the work.
Click to expand...
I dunno dude. Political Science majors must read newspapers, join parties and talk shop in their spare time. Journalism majors write, engineers electrocute themselves, english majors smoke ganja...it's only natural the computer scientists code.
Click to expand...

My roommate and I have never written a program outside of class and we pull decent grades (3.3 for me, 3.2 or so for him). I'd like a job in the field but it's simply not do-able in this area. Sucks for us but not really our fault.

But like I said, the school should teach it better. People need to respect the CS major, it's hard!
 
Canadians suck at programming! 😛 JUST KIDDING 😀 Beat those slackers with a stick!

But it makes me wonder, I'm finding that all the socialogy, art, and business majors tend to get all the jobs that the Comp Sci majors desire....

Blame it all on H.R. but they tend to hire the people with the people skills rather than the people with programming skills.

So while those slackers are having fun and getting better "people skills," guys who work hard, study hard, and sacrifice "people skill learning time" (i.e. partying, clubbing) are the ones who are jobless and collect unemployment (if you're lucky).
 
Originally posted by: alpha366i
are most CS majors bunch of ugly anti social nerds with no gf?
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yes, but due to the rise of the internet, we're seeing an increase in ugly anti social nerd cs majors with ugly anti social nerd girlfriends.

and yes, there are a lot of idiots, just like any other field really. i don't mind the dumb ones so much as i mind the loud ones that think they know everything and are disrespectful to the professor though. i really hope something heavy falls on them some day.
 
Originally posted by: bleeb
Canadians suck at programming! 😛 JUST KIDDING 😀 Beat those slackers with a stick!

But it makes me wonder, I'm finding that all the socialogy, art, and business majors tend to get all the jobs that the Comp Sci majors desire....

Blame it all on H.R. but they tend to hire the people with the people skills rather than the people with programming skills.

So while those slackers are having fun and getting better "people skills," guys who work hard, study hard, and sacrifice "people skill learning time" (i.e. partying, clubbing) are the ones who are jobless and collect unemployment (if you're lucky).
Click to expand...

or you can work hard and play hard... and beat out both parties
 
Originally posted by: bleeb
Canadians suck at programming! 😛 JUST KIDDING 😀 Beat those slackers with a stick!

But it makes me wonder, I'm finding that all the socialogy, art, and business majors tend to get all the jobs that the Comp Sci majors desire....

Blame it all on H.R. but they tend to hire the people with the people skills rather than the people with programming skills.

So while those slackers are having fun and getting better "people skills," guys who work hard, study hard, and sacrifice "people skill learning time" (i.e. partying, clubbing) are the ones who are jobless and collect unemployment (if you're lucky).
Click to expand...

??? And what jobs would those be?

I work in IT, and yeah I actually code (bleagh). Once 6am comes around I can't understand a thing I wrote.
 
I "carried" one of my classmates through 3 years of classes. He got a pretty respectable GPA, but wondered why he always did poorly on the tests. He has a really good job now.
 
I carried my roommate (LordJezo) through almost the entire CS major. Every time we worked together, I told him I was going to leave his name off the project. Then he offered to buy me things like cases of beer and whatever, so I always ended up leaving his name on the thing.
 
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