Ask HN: A degree in Web development?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8213442

by shire • 12 years ago

8 3 12 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

Is it possible to earn a degree in Web development? how does it differ from a CS degree is it worth it?

sp4rki• 12 years ago

It is possible to earn a degree in Web Development. You can also earn various levels of 'certification' by attending different bachelors and/or courses in various universities/colleges both in the US and abroad.

http://www.hackcollege.com/school-finder/schools/web-develop...

In general CS degrees vary in the curricula depending on the emphasis' offered by the institution. That being said, in general a CS degree doesn't specialize in teaching you how to design, program, and deploy a consumer facing web application. They might touch on the subject, but seldom do they spend much effort to educate you on the ups and downs.

A traditional degree generally teaches things like operating systems, algorithms at various difficulty levels, networking, and a bunch of other topics that are in broad terms skipped when teaching about design and development of web applications. Have in mind Computer Science as a whole is comprised of various topics and skill-sets that are more "traditional" and change or mutate at a much slower rate in comparison to the tools and skill-sets required for Web Development. "The next big thing" and segmentation of tools and tech is a reality of life when developing web applications, much more so than in traditional Computer Science jobs.

Now to answer your last question. I don't think a Web Dev degree is worth it. Web Development itself is easy in the grand scheme of things. I dropped out of school because I found it extremely boring (CS, don't think I would have lasted more than a few months in a Web Dev bachelors) and wanted to do things with the knowledge I had collected since I was 12 years old. The reality is that neither a Web Dev or CS course will get you half as ready for the real world requirements. That being said a CS degree will prepare you for a plethora of different roles, including Web Dev, and in MY OPINION is totally worth it, specially if you go for a Masters after. Get a traditional CS degree, or even better get a business degree, and get the experience and knowledge of building web apps on your own. That's what I wish I had done instead of just taking the plunge without a degree.

Someone1234• 12 years ago

It is absolutely possible. My University offered them.

Now what I am about to say is "unfair" but realistic: Many people within the technology world won't respect a Web Development degree as much as other similar degrees. They're seen somewhat as an "easy" degree where you learn "soft" (non-transferable) skills.

So you might graduate and be great at PHP/MySQL/etc web-apps, but ten years later you need to learn some new language, and how flexible will you be? A Web Development degree only marginally adds to your flexibility.

My University offered the following courses: Computing, Computer Science, Software Engineering, and Web Technologies. Here's a brief overview of them:

- Computing: Computer Science without the Maths (it is actually fairly theory heavy in programming, software engineering, and computers in general). Just CS if you took out the maths and put in other generic computing courses in their place.

- Computer Science (same as Computing but with a lot of maths classes and less generic filler)

- Software Engineering: "The business of software development" (this has all of the 101s from above, but is more business focused and management focused, it is a software project from the top down for medium to large-ish teams).

- Web Technologies: Same 101s as all of the above but in the final years you don't do maths OR heavy theory, but instead do actual practical web development (using Java, PHP, and similar).

CS is the most well respected, then I'd say Computing and SE are similar, and finally Web technologies is last. SE has a nice niche for people who already have the industrial experience but lack a degree (essentially turning them into a future manager). SE is quite popular at Masters level after people do a CS at degree level (again, for manager credentials).

There's also a lot of Game Development degrees around now, and some fledgling "Mobile Development" ones. I have no knowledge of how respectable Game Development degrees are in that industry but I will say a Mobile Development degree suffers some of the same pitfalls as a Web Development degree (no flexibility, just platform specific knowledge).

So decide wisely. As a final thought: Whatever degree you pick make SURE it is one you're going to be able to pass and finish. The most important part of a degree is frankly a piece of paper that you spend $30-60K on, everything else, including actual learning is almost secondary. There are far too many CS washouts who couldn't cope with the maths and who should have just done Computing or heck even Web Development (since a "lesser" degree beats no degree at all).

joeclark77• 12 years ago

I doubt it'd be worth it. If you don't want to get into heavy theory, you might consider an information systems degree (aka management information systems) which generally opens the door to some high paying jobs. I know, because I teach the capstone course to an IS degree program. Our students finish with some competence in programming, databases, and web development, but instead of computing theory they have a lot of courses in other business disciplines -- marketing, finance, accounting, entrepreneurship. In my opinion, it's a pretty well rounded bachelor's degree.

Ask HN: A degree in Web development?

Related Stories