Choosing the Right Course of Study

	Computer Science:  The most rigorous level for software development. Standards of accreditation by Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) and IEEE generally ensure high quality programs.   Focus is on understanding the principles of computers, theory of algorithms, creation of system software, and application of computers to major and complicated problems.   Learning computer programming languages is NOT the focus of computer science. Students are generally expected to learn programming languages on their own.
	Electrical Engineering: The most rigorous level for hardware development.  IEEE standards apply.
	Computer Engineering: Cross between computer science and electrical engineering.  Excellent program at major research universities; watered down EE program at many schools.
	Software Engineering: Preparation for productive work on major software projects. Excellent program at major research universities; watered down Computer Science program at many schools.
	Computer Information Science: Tailored for business applications. Does not require the level of computer theory or mathematics required of the computer science major.

Choosing the Right Level of Study

	Facts of Life Long term employment security and good high tech jobs require excellent problem solving skills learned through hard work.  Do not avoid hard courses.  Seek out the hard courses. The internet company stocks are in decline, and there are massive layoffs in the IT industry today, including very smart people.  Those people are now competing for jobs previously held by people with less training.  Once the displaced workers have been absorbed back into the workforce, the job market will again rebound.  If you are willing to work hard, any time is a good time to get in.  If you want to compete, you have to be good. Quality of education is a combination of how much you are challenged by your instructor, the content (breadth and depth) of your texts, and how much effort you devote to study. An A in a tech school is worth a mid-level B in most 4-year colleges for the amount of effort required.  If you intend to go on to a 4-year school, you must work hard.  You CAN get the same level of quality, but the enforcement of quality control will fall much more on your shoulders. Major research universities consider 4-year colleges and tech schools inferior for the same level of education.  If you want a graduate degree, try to attend a major university for your undergraduate work.  Otherwise, you will be plagued with retaking courses. Credit for life experience, military experience, and distance education is a way of hooking you into going to a particular college.  Usually, residential courses are much more demanding that corresponding easy-credit methods.  The value of the degree you get is measured by who will hire you after you graduate, and what graduate school will admit you.  I strongly recommend against most of these schemes.  I have now warned you.  No sweat, no get. Some military programs are worthwhile for transfer credit, such as the Navy Nuclear Power program.  Even more, if you are interested in the Navy Nuclear Power Program as a means of getting college education, you should know that a significant number of U.S. Naval Academy Midshipmen were admitted after attending all or most of Navy Nuclear Power School.  Ask the Naval Academy Admissions Office if this is your interest. If you are interested in the military as a way of getting a college education, you should know that your first obligation will be to the needs of the military.  Military students do get pulled from classes for deployment when terrorists fly planes into buildings.  Military students still have to periodically do physical fitness tests and other duties at academically inconvenient times.  It is a very slow way to get through college.  Another way to consider is to use loans to go to college, become an officer, and pay off the loans with your higher income.  You can also consider ROTC.
	Tech school 2-year degree (usually in 2.5 years) Education is good for getting jobs with minimal cost and training time. Tech level employment opportunities exist for people with the right skills. Tech level employment requires strong commitment to continued training to keep pace of changes in hardware and software. Excellent low-cost opportunity to develop foundational mathematics skills prerequisites and computer programming language skill in C++ or Pascal expected in a 4-year computer science program. In graduate school, many assistantships rely on use of skills (networking, programming) that can be acquired in a tech school.  However, beware: students who accept assistantships to act as department network administrators end up with very little time for their own studies.  You must agree in writing ahead of time about limits to the amount of time you spend in such duties.
	4-year degree (usually in 5 years) Strongly recommended. Technology is changing rapidly.  By learning fundamental concepts, you will develop a better ability to anticipate changes and absorb new concepts.  It reduces the time required to learn new technology.  Principles of computing, networking, security, business have not changed rapidly.  Materials science has changed. Required to learn subjects outside of major area of study.  This is very helpful later in career. Most expensive part of an education.
	Graduate school Master's degree Usually 30 semester credit hours (2 years of classes) beyond a BS, plus a good paper and exam. In USA, best cost-to-payback ratio for education for time and income. Working level for high-tech design work and management. Ph.D. degree Research degree. Usually 60 semester credit hours (5 semesters of classes, plus 3 - 4 semesters of guided and independent research) beyond a BS, plus a significant paper, and written and oral comprehensive exams. In USA, the cost-to-payback ratio is not as good unless coupled with a good MBA degree.  Must love the field of study.

	Attending a Trade School, VoTech School, Technical Community College As a preparation for employment, strongly consider a co-op program that includes internships at large businesses. As a stepping stone to a 4-year college, vigorously check out the details of credit transfer.  Find out exactly what is included in articulation agreements between a college and a tech school.   Transferability of credits is a function of the receiving institution, not the sending institution, no matter what is "promised" !!!   If you plan on attending a particular school, contact that school to determine what is transferable.  Merely being transferable is not enough.   The total minimum number of credit hours for graduation is the transfer category usually referenced in transferability discussions.  You also need to know about transfer of credits towards satisfying degree program requirements in your intended major and minor. Schools are businesses.  They may measure "profit" in "non-profitable" ways, but they are still businesses.  They generally want at least 2 years of tuition out of you, no matter how it is justified.  Plan on it.
	Planning for Career Development.  Expert today, Ex-spurt tomorrow.  You must plan now to continually upgrade your knowledge throughout your career.
	Professional Organizations Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): http://www.acm.org/ Algorithms and Computing Theory Ada Programming Language APL Programming Language Applied Computing Computer Architecture Artificial Intelligence Computers and the Physically Handicapped Computers and Society Computer-Human Interaction Data Communication Computer Personnel Research Computer Science Education Computer Uses in Education Design Automation Systems Documentation Electronic Commerce Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques Groupware Information Retrieval Knowledge Discovery in Data Measurement and Evaluation Microarchitecture Management Information Systems Multimedia Mobility of Systems, Users, Data and Computing Management of Data Operating Systems Programming Languages Security, Audit and Control Symbolic and Algebraic Manipulation Simulation and Modeling Software Engineering Electronic Forum on Sound Technology University and College Computing Services Hypertext, Hypermedia and Web Association of Information Technology Professionals (AITP) [formerly DPMA: Data Processing Management Association] http://www.aitp.org/ Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and Special Interest Groups (SIG) on many areas of computing: http://www.ieee.org/organizations/tab/society.html IEEE Computing Society IEEE Neural Networks Council IEEE Systems, Man, and Cybernetics Society IEEE Today's Engineer e-Zine http://www.todaysengineer.org/careerfocus/index.html
	Professional Growth and Continuing Education Academic professional society conferences: discuss research from last 6 months to 2 years; registration fee is usually in the $150 - $400 category. University seminars: Thesis previews and hiring interviews; discuss research from last 1 to 3 years; no registration, open to the public, usually required for graduate students, usually free coffee and fat pills (donuts). Trade shows: discuss commercial offerings of products that might be delivered during next 6 - 18 months Commercial workshops and seminars: sales-oriented, discuss commercial offerings of products recently delivered, and features near introduction Commercial short courses: usually $800 - $1500, vu-graph specials.  Good if you have a photographic memory, or need quick refresher training for information you once knew.  Poor choice compared to studying hard.  Like "Internet Guru in 1 month courses for $6000", it is a bad investment.
	Computer Publications Weekly and Monthly Rags: PC Week, ComputerWorld, InfoWorld.  Advertiser-driven articles.  Lots of hype.  Sometimes very good for announcing new products. Poor source for fundamental knowledge or understanding.  Good for understanding business aspects of IT industry.  Better sources are stock market analysts' reports. Textbooks Professional society journals