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Comment by Zombieball | Hacker News Reader

Do a lot of first year computer science students get paid $75k/year?

I know internships can easily earn that but my understanding is they go to 4th year students.

As a data point, the University of Waterloo releases data about hourly earnings for students enrolled in the co-op program. The first co-op term for students in Mathematics (the faculty Computer Science is under) is typically taken after completing 2-3 semesters of schooling.

According to the data for students doing internships in the United States, the average first year Computer Science (or more accurate, first year Faculty of Mathematics) student is making $30.57 USD an hour [0]. However, going to the States is typically a function of one's experience, and so this is more common in upper years.

If you take the average for work terms in Canada, the average first year (or more accurately, first year Faculty of Mathematics student) makes $18.84 CAD [1].

[0] https://uwaterloo.ca/co-operative-education/about-co-op/co-o...

[1] https://uwaterloo.ca/co-operative-education/about-co-op/co-o...

It's worth noting that Waterloo is probably the #1 undergraduate program (at least in North America) in terms of industry placement and co-op programs. Their students are heavily sought-after.

(This doesn't disqualify any of what you said; it's just worth pointing out for those who are unfamiliar with the program.)

I had a job paying that kind of money when I was in high school working on applications for a large internet provider.

The skills came from learning to program starting in the 5th grade.

So first year students don't make that kind of money but as a first year student you might have skills that were honed earlier which allows for that type of job.

A lot of first year cs students have under a year of experience and can only list python, Java and possibly C++ under proficiencies. What's more sad is when you try hiring at a job fair and 300 4th year / master's students also only have python/Java/C++ with no side projects.

Plus several years more of coursework.

Personally speaking, vast proficiency in any given language or languages doesn't mean that much to me. You'll pick up es6 or go or whatever else. I care about the thought processes behind development choices, their implications on computational efficiency. They teach this in school, at least in the schools I attended.

In fact, many professors were adamant they didn't care about languages at all other than someone grading it can read it. Some classes never wanted to see your source code. Most classes didn't have code at all!

Yep, that’s one of the biggest takeaways I got from observing my friends who got their education from known good CS programs vs. weak CS programs.

Those in good programs had classes that were focused on the actual subject matter (algorithms, OS, compilers, ML, etc.) with the language just being a tool, and in upper level classes, professors absolutely didn’t even care what language you used, as long as it got the job done (within reasonable limits, of course; no one likes grading BrainFuck code, even though some people attempted writing assignments in those as a joke).

Those in weaker programs, instead, had a “Java class”, “C class”, “javascript class”, etc.

We recently hired exactly the person you describe.He was hired for non tech position with potential transition if performs well.

Would not be definition a 1st year CAstudent have no professional experience unless they are a late entry.

CS isn't a vocational course.

Should have been: not much has changed for better..

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