[morgante]

I agree that's what they aim for, but in my experience far too many CS grads (especially from non-top universities) have absolutely no understanding of the core paradigms. Instead, they've basically memorized "this is how I make a linked list in Java." Ask them to do the same exact task in another language and they're totally stumped.

[kochthesecond]

My experience is the opposite, that those with formal education have a much higher chance of having grasped the concepts, over the language libraries.

[morgante]

You might have only worked with students from top CS programs.