At 'Geek Heaven,' students are skilled in tech, if not talk | Hacker News Reader

At 'Geek Heaven,' students are skilled in tech, if not talk

latimes.com

20 pointsjmillikin16 comments

Although it seemed like a good idea when I read the headline -- get a bunch of engineering students, cram them into one school, and see what happens -- actually reading the article was disappointing. Their "core" course listing[1] is heavily stacked towards "enterprise" languages and buzzwords. Where I would have expected a heavy emphasis on maths, there is XML, UML, and Java. The "Math" section itself is anemic, and contains the sort of classes that could be found at any community college.

Furthermore, the culture appears to value immaturity and irresponsibility. All-night Warcraft "raids"? Pervasive hygiene issues, to the point where students are proposing mandatory showering? This sounds less and less like a school, and more like a sugar-fueled gaming convention.

[1] http://www.neumont.edu/education/programs/courses.html

Yes, the math courses would be considered mostly remedial at a state flagship university like University of Minnesota Twin Cities, not to mention at an Ivy plus university.

Sounds only marginally worse than some of the departments at my school.

(University of Pittsburgh for those wondering)

Mandatory showering would have been much appreciated during my undergraduate CS course :( Windowless lecture theatres in the summer... never again.

Also, all night raids are a pretty good way to foster teamwork and a common ground, as long as you can survive the next day!

  * CSC105 Using Modern Operating Systems
  * CSC160 .Net I: Introduction to Windows Forms Development
  * CSC260 .Net II: Introduction to ASP.Net Web Development
  * CSC263 Advanced .Net Programming with C#

These all come from the "Computer Science Core". This is not really a CS program...

I think the mandatory showering was a joke. (Three times a day is insane anyway)

I live nearby and the curriculum is very weak. No studying operating systems. No compilers. No proper survey of languages. Algorithms is very weakly taught. But you do get all the certs you want before you finish. They do get some gifted students. Unfortunately those are the students who would be better served in a more challenging environment. The rest get what they want, a more respectable sounding form of a technical certificate.

Sure, they get a job when they're 20, but what about ten years down the line when their language/framework-specific training is obsolete?

Also, it's hard to imagine that such narrow training is going to produce creative engineers. Although great schools like MIT may focus on science/tech, they have more than just CS as a major, and a lot of what comes out of these places is interdisciplinary.

It's questionable whether the extra work time they get by graduating early will is worth the high tuition anyway, when they could do just as well at a state school or maybe even a community college.

It seems to be a proprietary college with an essentially open admission policy.

http://collegesearch.collegeboard.com/search/CollegeDetail.j...

I graduated from Neumont in 07... I can tell you the school was VERY different just a couple of years ago. I blame their marketing department going after only highschool kids now.

This comment could be upmodded with details. Lots of them. I'll guarantee you one vote per detail.

Details? Like what? When I was there, I loved the school. The original founders of the school had a great vision and knew what the industry wanted out of new grads. Sadly, the board of directors wanted to take it a different direction to make a profit sooner.

In the past they constantly brought in companies and literally asked them what technologies they wanted new grads to know.

Almost all the students had jobs lined up months before they graduated. Many even had multiple $60k+ job offers.

I loved the time I spent there. I met many ambitious students and worked on a ton of side projects with them learning technologies that were never taught. The school definitely attracts a wide range of students. From the entrepreneur to the basement WoW addict.

I hope things work out. Its a great concept, and employers are definitely happy with the students Neumont produces.

"In the past they constantly brought in companies and literally asked them what technologies they wanted new grads to know."

So it's a trade school then. Lets see how you do 10 years out.

Basically it's compucollege, with a more friendly name. And after seeing that picture (Didn't load for me at first), I won't be hiring from there.

The picture of Logan with the silly expression is so gratuitous.

Was that picture really necessary? Oh, man.

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