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At Georgia Tech, the CS program has 'threads'\*. You can choose to study theory, or you can study graphics or whatever other practical discipline strikes your fancy.

I guess it's not perfect, but it seems to work.

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Yes but all of that was after you had gone through most of the weed out boring stuff (at least that was how it was further back than I care to admit). You really had to be committed to it to stick around to get to the fun stuff. But, I think what Matt is really saying is maybe CS is backwards. We could boost people's interest in doing the fun stuff up front and then layer on the foundational underpinning once they've got your attention. I bet if people are really excited about doing what he's saying they might be more inclined to stick around for the really hard stuff. But, even if they don't there is merit and growth that happens in learning the practical or, as academia might see it, mundane things.

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