[sl4yerr]

Yeah, I agree with @hsmyers - the question is extremely general.

I will say, however, that a CS degree does provide the basic programming and debugging skills necessary for a career in software engineering. The downside is that a 4 year degree is quite pricey, and much of the content of a CS degree is more theoretical and less applied.

I recently had an interesting conversation where a fellow programmer made the argument that CS was splitting into two branches, much like mathematics: applied CS and theoretical CS.

I think this is an oversimplification, but largely correct. A traditional CS degree is about 20% programming skills, and then lots of math problems to solve.

The time is ripe for a good software engineering degree (i.e. applied CS), which would be far more valuable in the job market.

[alyrik]

It's a general question, but the linked article explores it from a few angles of different kinds of career :-)

It agrees with your points - a split into applied and theoretical would probably be a good thing. The programmers I work with in the UK seem to come from physics/mathematics backgrounds, or electronic engineering, with just a few CS graduates. All of them (even the CS graduates) feel that a large proportion of what they learnt on the degree is irrelevant to their career going forwards. A degree focussing on practical software engineering would probably be very useful!