Yes, I did graduate from Stevens, this May actually. I’ve been trying to hide that fact since I still think I didn’t get my money’s worth (but it is possible that I had big expectations). But thanks for the vote of confidence; hopefully I can reverse my own bias against the CS program there.

One interesting thing I’ve discovered is that the CS program might actually be of better-than-average quality. At my new job, I’ve been swapping war stories with fellow CS degree-holders, and my stories are consistently the most horrific (“we never had to implement a compiler!”)

I actually dropped another hint about Stevens in this post that references Linda Laird. She is a professor that teaches software engineering courses. As one Duck to another, I really recommend you try to take the graduate-level SE courses. They will make your transition into “the industry” much more smooth.

For that matter, I also recommend Co-op. It really greases the wheels of your employment search. If you stick with it through your junior and senior years, along with those software engineering courses, you might actually be able to apply some of those classroom techniques on the job. It’s like catching lightning in a bottle, but it can happen.

And finally: take courses that Duchamp teaches, whether the course interests you or not, whether it is required or an elective. The man’s lectures are two and a half hours of unique word choice, riotous dry sarcasm, and giggle-worthy exaggerations.

Feel free to pick my brain about any Stevens-related stuff you wanna dish about.

It made me happy to see (or at least infer) that you’re a Stevens grad, as there are far too many graduates of far too many CS curricula that don’t really know what they’re doing when faced with real programming issues. Even better, you give me hope that my chosen program will leave me well-prepared for facing such programs.