[addicted]

The key point isn’t that CS grads need to remember the stuff they learnt. What they need to remember when facing a real life problem is that they had studied about something that was similar to the problem they were solving, and have the ability to look up and easily grok the solution they had studied a decade ago.

As someone who is not a CS grad, it’s often difficult to Know where to even start looking for a solution until many years of experience, something that CS grads I’ve worked with and mentored were able to do as interns.

Of course, there’s always the flip side that CS grads need to learn to not always apply the fanciest and “coolest” algorithm that they learnt in college because it isn’t always the best approach to a problem, but that’s a much easier skill that can be learned anywhere within months to a few years given the right mentors.

[Breza]

I also think real value comes from learning how to learn about computers.

[kiba]

I made an effort of actually trying to retain what I learned, but mostly it just mean that I search just as often though.

However, I see the depth of my knowledge in computing isn't that deep.

I can now define what a computer is without fumbling for a definition.

[catchmeifyoucan]

Agreed. I think it’s primarily reference material. I took an Organization of programming languages course once, and even though I don’t use Prolog everyday, I’m able to jump and think about it if I ever have a case where I’m working with Boolean logic. Alternatively, I don’t know much about semaphores in the OS, but when I think about locks, it’s something I can refer to for more ideas. I wouldn’t say it dramatically improves my life, but it’s just random knowledge that I wouldn’t be intimidated by if I stumbled upon it in the real world