I never took 90% of those classes. Even for a class such as Programming Languages, we never did any actual programming. I'm assuming superuser2 went to Stanford, where their curriculum is no where near what's common.
Other than Intro to Systems, which is required, these classes are representative of a list from which you choose 8. There's also 3-quarter intro sequence (all programming) and the 3-quarter theory sequence (all proofs, some pseudocode). You could get away without taking some of these, but then you would do similarly substantial programming projects in other domains (compilers, machine learning, 3D modeling and rendering, visualization of scientific datasets, etc).
Our department tends to be derided as "very theoretical", so I'm surprised to hear that we do more programming than others.
To be fair, you could also load up ~6 of your 8 with proof-based math classes about CS theory (graph theory, combinatorics, mathematical logic I-II, whichever of complexity or formal languages you didn't count towards the required theory sequence, etc) but the people who do that are on tracks towards PhDs in math or the subset of math that is CS theory, not the programming job market.
HN threads about CS education tend to posit that it shouldn't matter where you go to school because ~all CS programs are the same, so I assumed my experience would translate. Perhaps this is not so?
All CS programs are definitely not the same. I have seen threads positing that it doesn't matter where you go to school because its non-academic stuff that makes the biggest difference, but haven't seen much sentiment of "all CS programs are the same"
I do think that the more selective schools graduate better people largely because the start with the better people, but don't think the school makes zero difference.
Other than Intro to Systems, which is required, these classes are representative of a list from which you choose 8. There's also 3-quarter intro sequence (all programming) and the 3-quarter theory sequence (all proofs, some pseudocode). You could get away without taking some of these, but then you would do similarly substantial programming projects in other domains (compilers, machine learning, 3D modeling and rendering, visualization of scientific datasets, etc).
Our department tends to be derided as "very theoretical", so I'm surprised to hear that we do more programming than others.
To be fair, you could also load up ~6 of your 8 with proof-based math classes about CS theory (graph theory, combinatorics, mathematical logic I-II, whichever of complexity or formal languages you didn't count towards the required theory sequence, etc) but the people who do that are on tracks towards PhDs in math or the subset of math that is CS theory, not the programming job market.
HN threads about CS education tend to posit that it shouldn't matter where you go to school because ~all CS programs are the same, so I assumed my experience would translate. Perhaps this is not so?