[twblalock]

Universities are not intended to be vocational schools or trade schools. That's why electives are required to graduate. That's why CS programs teach theory more than practice.

It's always worth being a well-rounded person. The most successful software engineers I know are not the most technically proficient. They are the ones who understand how their customers and their employees and their managers view the world, and they can use that understanding to prioritize the engineering work that will have the most impact. They are good at explaining what they are doing in terms that non-engineers understand, they can take requirements from non-engineers and turn them into realistic engineering requirements, and they can talk to corporate executives without seeming like Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons. These are all good skills to have, and none of them are taught in CS class.

[blackflame7000]

Ok but in reality you need a degree to get a decent job so they are de facto trade schools whether you realize it or not. Your assumption that electives somehow make someone more 'rounded' is also laughable. That comes from being curious.

[F_J_H]

Agreed, but how much debt should one take on to learn these other skills? (Scott Galloway has been talking about this a lot lately - university degree cost inflation, which has skyrocketed without a commensurate increase in the quality of the product/service.)

There are other ways to pick up these skills, which are much more cost effective.

[twblalock]

That argument also applies to CS skills. There are lots of successful self-taught programmers out there.

Boot camps are the software equivalent of vocational/trade schools and they are looked down on for a reason.

[soco]

I assume your comment is made from an US perspective. Other countries manage to give students education without burying them in debt... maybe there's a lesson, somewhere...