[dbachrach]

One of the best things I've heard: Be wary of anything claiming to be the real-world that is not actually in the real-world. Teaching "real-world" computer programming in school is an impossible goal. You only get the real-world experience when you are out in it. CS should prepare you for the real world, and help expose you to the real-world, but it's almost impossible to teach it. What CS does teach you is the bigger things. The bigger concepts that go beyond software engineering, or any particular project in particular. You learn how to think about big things and hard problems. CS at a university is not a prep course for your job per se. It's not a trade school. You're learning things that can be applied in the real-world but transcend the real-world. It's important to realize that there are more important things than just being able to program C# for your job.