[GeneralMaximus]

I've started realizing just now that your standard CS degree is completely useless in the real world. I feel like I've learned absolutely nothing in these two years. Fortunately, a combination of real life events and comments from people on HN has opened my eyes to what I don't know. So, here's what you - correction, we - need to do to complete our education:

1. Contribute to a FOSS project, or start and manage your own. Alternatively, build a product and try to monetize it. This pretty much covers everything that your CS degree claims to teach you. Now we can move on to more important things like ...

2. Learn to meet and talk to new people. Learn how to be comfortable around people, and to make other people comfortable around you.

3. Learn to speak in public. Learn to clearly present your views and opinions to an audience.

4. Meet women. You won't get time to do this once you're a Silicon Valley billionaire ;P

5. Learn how to negotiate. Learn how salespeople and negotiators employ simple psychological concepts to get people to agree with them. Learn how to protect yourself from these people.

6. Study non-CS subjects. Psychology, economics, music, art, whatever. It's critical that you broaden your horizons beyond standard CS topics.

This is what I've figured out so far. If more experienced people have anything to add to the list, please do :)

[endtime]

>I've started realizing just now that your standard CS degree is completely useless in the real world. I feel like I've learned absolutely nothing in these two years.

Does that mean you're a sophomore? If so, you've probably just learned the most basic foundations of CS. I've done 6 years of CS (I was a CS major and I'm just about to finish my master's) and I'm pretty sure I've become a better programmer every year. Maybe I sucked to begin with, in fact I know I did, but nevertheless, I've gained a LOT from my extended education.

[GeneralMaximus]

Yes, I'm a sophomore.

I attend IPU, which is more or less a Java school. What they teach us here is geared towards the lowest common denominator. I can confidently say that I could've learned everything IPU has taught me on my own. I've been teaching myself since high school, so I don't find picking up new stuff very difficult. If there's something I don't understand, I ask someone on IRC/Reddit/StackOverflow/HN. The world is full of smart, helpful people you can learn from :)

YMMV, depending on the school you attend.

[endtime]

Fair enough, though one important thing about CS is that when you're starting out, you don't know what you don't know. Also, like I said, after you do the basics you can get into the fun stuff (graphics, AI, theory, etc.; whatever floats your boat).

Also, I haven't attended a "Java school". Most of my undergrad projects were in C++, and in grad school I've been forced to use Java in maybe 3-4 classes but have done at least one project in each of Lisp, Python, C++ (actually I think this is the plurality), and C#. That said, I'm guessing by "Java school" you're referring more to mentality than actual programming language...to which I say, fair enough. Some departments are better than others.