Re: [lists] Career and Education Choice (another)

[Elliott Bäck <ecb29 () cornell edu>]

Hi Jeroen,

Let me start with my qualifications to address your concerns.  I am a 
Canadian citizen studying Computer Science as a Junior at Cornell 
University in the USA.  So, I'm speaking student-to-student here.

Before you go off to school, I would learn a language like java, and 
make a substantial product in it.  C is great for legacy systems and 
kernel code, but most companies have abandoned it for Object Oriented 
languages.  So, learn java (If you know C, it's easy), and write a big 
project.  Maybe a webserver, or a compiler--there are resources for both 
online.  Since you already know some programming, doing a large project 
will help you decide if CS is really what you want to do.  You can also 
put it on your application letters!

If it turns out you hate writing 10,000 lines of code in a couple 
months, CS is probably not for you--unless you go strictly into theory.  
At Cornell, I just turned in a 36,000 line Compilers project, which 
sadly we started 5 days before the due date.  It takes a lot of code to 
implement the ideas you learn in class.

As far as universities go, here are the best (IMO):

+ Cornell University
+ MIT
+ Carnegie Mellon
+ Caltech
+ Stanford

I believe these five fall consistently into the top 10 schools for 
Computer Science for undergraduates.  They all have diffferent styles:  
MIT is for study nerds, Cornell is more for engineers to build something 
(although it has many research faculty and Turing winners), Carnegie 
Mellon is more theoretical, Caltech is both nerdy *and* engineering, and 
Stanford I know little about.

As far as undergraduate, as long as you go to a good school and get good 
grades you can pursue a PHD in Computer Science, which would then lead 
into research and other "scientific" jobs.

(Your english has a few typos, but it's better than a lot of native 
speakers, trust me)

Thanks,
Elliott C. Bäck

607-229-0623
http://elliottback.com



Jeroen van der Rijst wrote:

> Hello,
>
> I know there's another thread but i prefer my own one :)
>
> I want to get some skills in network/computer security/encryption and I want your advice which education I need.
>
> I'm 16 years old, I know a bit of C and I'm learning to program in assemble (linux i486) I will finish ( the dutch 
> version of )highschool in one or two years..
>
> Which ( Northern-American) university would be the best choice for me? Which education on that university?
>
> And last but not least, what basic skills do I need to start a career in computerscience?
>
> I do not want a highly paid job for security companies, I want a scientific job when I finished my education.
>
> Yours sincely,
>
> Jeroen van der Rijst
>
> (hope my English is not that bad, I'm working hard on it)
>
>