I'm a graduating senior from Vanderbilt Universtiy, a top 20 American university according to the U.S. News & World Report for 2008 and I'm majoring in Computer Science in the School of Engineering.

Like all engineering programs, Vanderbilt's is competitive, challenging, and engaging. I've capitalized on a lot of opportunities that many undergraduate engineers never try: study abroad, graduate-level courses for undergraduate credit, IBM Programming Contests, and even full-fledged undergraduate research, yet I still find myself asking

• "How has any of this prepared me for the real world?"
• "Would I have been better off getting employed immediately after high school?"
• "Would I have been better off being a history major and doing computer science in my spare time?"

I ask myself these questions every day between now and graduation and I still don't know the answer. I'm writing this Hub to help other confused computer science students like myself to try and find answers to these questions.

I don't take my education for granted. On the contrary, I have learned a lot from my computer science experience at Vanderbilt's School of Engineering; here's all of the concepts I learned from my required coursework:

• Advanced Proficiency in C++ / OOP
• Moderate Proficiency in JAVA / OOP
• Introduction to LISP and ML
• Understanding of Modern Computer Architectures
• Understanding of Modern DMBS, SQL, and ERD
• Understanding of Classical / OO Software Engineering Theory
• Understanding of OO Design Patterns

• Understanding and Moderate Proficiency in Network Programming
• Introduction to Discrete Mathematics and Algorithm Analysis
• Introduction to Digital Logic
• Understanding of Calculus, Linear Algebra, and Numerical Analysis
• Understanding of Physics and Chemistry

There are a lot of other courses that I could have chosen, like Artificial Intelligence and Network Security, but my track was more C++/Network Programming oriented simply because I felt like those courses would help me accomplish my goal of becoming a master programmer in web-based technology.

My stated goal from my resume is to "use my skills in both technology and marketing to help an exciting technology company achieve its business objectives." How well does my education from within Vanderbilt only stack up against this goal?

Now I know that trying to derive a marketing education out of Computer Science exclusively is a nonsense idea so I'm not going to bother listing those goals; I did minor in Managerial Studies so I have been able to take some marketing courses, but let's just stick to a computer science in academia vs. computer science in the real world comparison.

• Proficiencies in JAVA, Python, Ruby-on-Rails, ASP.NET, PHP, or Perl
• Proficiencies in XML, XSL, XPath, and XQuery

• Understanding of Basic Graphical Design and Layout
• Understanding of Modern Software Engineering Theory (Agile, XP)

• Proficiency in OOP
• Understanding of Web Server Technology
• Understanding of DBMS, SQL, and ERD
• Understanding of Network Programming
• Experience with Industry Standard Development Environments, like Visual Studio

As you can see, what I learned at Vanderbilt doesn't exactly match up with what I need to know in order to land my dream job at a SV start-up. For instance, I learned a lot about classical software engineering, techniques that were effective in the 1960s and 1970s, but I was cautioned that modern software engineering techniques like Agile and XP are "dangerous" and "untested," even though such techniques are the standard in small organizations.

At least I was able to learn SQL and a bit of JAVA, both of which may be useful for my first job out of college, but why on earth did I have to learn physics, chemistry, a simple rehash of what I had already done on my A.P. exams in high school? To this day I am still not certain.

My Conclusion:

Ultimately, my education has equipped me with a lot of abilities, such as being able to deal with deadlines, groups, and a lot of computer science fundamentals that may be useful in appreciating modern C.S. tools and techniques, but I have had almost no instruction regarding how to actually use modern C.S. tools, such as modern languages, development environments, software engineering techniques, and so on.

Many Vanderbilt Professors sneer upon teaching modern programming languages and smugly use the line "this is not I.T.T. Tech." I think that while I have gotten a lot out of my Top 20 education, there are a lot of valuable, applicable skills that those "I.T.T. Tech" institutes teach that perhaps Vanderbilt should place more emphasis upon, if not at least SOME emphasis.