Part of that is because of how computer sciences grew. Being the bastard step child of electrical engineers and mathematicians (IMHO still the degrees that are most likely to result in a good programmer) and given how long it was before most colleges even had computer degrees and how silly the early degree programs were (remember when MIS degrees frequently didn’t even include a language) the industry is kind of setup to accept “outsiders”. I should ask the wife how many of the degree holders where she’s at (she works in a school) have truly related degrees, it should be the other extreme but I wonder how much of it is paper worship not content of the paper.
Some of these instructors are idiots. I went to the counseling dept. to learn about hwo to become a virologist, which classes I need to focus on to get that sort of degree.
They kept going on and on about transferring to university and were elusive about which courses and which specific degree I would be able to get from them to get on that pathway.
Very true. In 1967 they were almost pulling people off the street to teach them programming. I was a Linotype operator for 13 years and saw the handwriting on the wall when offset came in. I wondered what all this fuss about computer programming was and checked out a trade school - guys running around wearing a white shirt and tie plus lots of good-looking chicks sold me.
I figured I had a two-years' lead time to get in solid before the colleges started cranking out programmers by the boatload, just as they had done with engineers during Eisenhower's term. Never happened. The business just kept growing and growing and didn't really deteriorate, IMO, until they started bringing in H1Bs.
I figured I'd keep working until I started drooling on the keyboard (I was STILL getting offers of a permanent position at age 63) but, just as with the hot metal print trade, I could see the end of an era coming and bailed at 65. Good memories though as I was blessed with doing work that I thoroughly enjoyed and, so help me, often looked forward to going to work the next day.