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I went to an engineering University. Besides having a wide variety of math required (3 semesters of Calc, 1 semester of either stats or probability, 1 semester of either linear algebra or matrices), we also had to take 3 semesters of physics, and 2 of chemistry. Most of us (those not just looking for a piece of paper) went considerable deeper in at least one area. No, you don't need to understand organic chemistry to write a CRUD app. But, you don't need university to write a CRUD app. I think I received an excellent education that prepared me for about any job out there. And, I've done it. I've done cancer statistics for the NIH. I've worked in avionics and simulation. Well, blah blah, no one cares about my resume, I'll just say I couldn't have done any of it without the education I received. I haven't done financial quant stuff, as an example, but how could I without the math background? Or how could I program a controller in a factory without understanding PID (done that)? How can I get a piece of that neat drone project (done that)? Hey, that computer vision stuff looks interesting, all I need to know is ...derivatives, statistics (done that too). For most of us, university is the last and/or best chance to really understand how the world works. For that you need quite a bit of math and science. Another example. We have a voluntary Arduino robotics workshop going on at work, coupled with 3D printing. Naturally, people are excited, and have all kinds of ideas. But, how do you execute on that if you don't understand how to design an op amp circuit, or filter data with something more sophisticated than a moving average? Robotics spans a number of fields, and to actually produce something more than a gimmick requires a lot of knowledge. Knowledge that you can pretty easily pick up in University, but knowledge you mostly just long for as you have to rush home at 5:30 to pick up the kids and make dinner. I guess this is a cranky rant from an old guy. But I hear about University programs that are nothing more than Java voc ed systems and I despair. $100K in debt to learn something most anyone on here could just pick up on their own. You don't need university for that stuff. |
You could have just learned it as you went. Done that.