[mdc2161]

Personal anecdote: I didn't major in it because I had no idea I would enjoy it.

I was fortunate that my engineering program had two semesters of Java. We spent more time hand drawing logic gates than coding in the intro course and so it wasn't until the second (data structures) that I realized it was something I wanted to pursue. It was too late for me to change majors at that point, but not too late to take internships and then a job as a programmer.

[ellius]

Same here. I wish I had the degree, but I don't regret the ones I did get (history and economics). I get to use code in a job I enjoy and thrive in, which gives me a leg up on the competition. It has made it difficult to break into fields I now think would be interesting (esp. security or systems admin), which I think has been the only downside. I can learn a lot of the interesting stuff on my own time and apply it when appropriate for my normal job.

[Osiris]

I took one year of CS then finished with a degree in International Relations (basically political science and economics) and Latin American studies. I loved school and the topics I learned about, but they have no bearing on anything I've done professionally.

University came out of a tradition of being educated for education sake, not to build job skills. Even computer science doesn't teach you how to be a software developer. It's an academic study of computers.