[lgleason]

They are microwave degrees. CS enrollments are up, so give it a few years and most of these programs will go the way of the for profit technical schools in reputation and there will be a lot of consolidation etc.. For all of the shortcomings with a CS degree there are fundamentals that are taught that can't be replaced with a coding academy. The only one I give any credit to is the Nashville Software School because they are a not for profit and have a much longer program.

Back during the .com boom days of the late 90's if you could spell the word computer you could get a job making over 60K+ a year as a "programmer". Some of what is happening today is beginning to remind me of that. History shows us that the market will correct itself. It's just a matter of when.

[dbz]

I'm an App Academy graduate, and I've also been programming since 8th grade. App Academy targets the shortcomings of a CS degree by teaching people HOW to code. Students are supposed to come out of App Academy with 1000 hours of coding or 1/10 of mastery. App Academy has lectures on algorithms and data structures that aren't equivalent to a CS degree, but graduates can code, and many if not most CS students can not. These programs are very rigorous, and I can tell you without a doubt they are only growing, and certainly aren't going anywhere. If the market correct's itself, it is going to be on the "School" side, because CS degree education is broken.

[darrennix]

I can anecdotally verify that this was the case.

When I was 19, I knew HTML and enough Java to make a basic applet. I twice applied for a job over the summer that I was woefully under qualified for (ColdFusion dev) and was hired earning $35/hour+.