Should You Attend University for Web Development?
We’re entering a unique age; an age where a simple Google search has the potential to replace professors. As students across the globe decide whether or not to spend massive sums of money – during a financial recession – to attend University this fall, they might find themselves asking, “Is it worth it?”
Especially in the web development world, it’s possible that the latest technologies and trends are being taught on blogs, rather than in the classroom. On a weekly basis, I receive emails from University students informing us that our “little ole’” blog has taught them more than their college professors. Considering the frequency at which these flattering emails occur, it does raise an interesting question: “Is University out-dated?”
Last week on Twitter, I asked our followers if they might be willing to answer some questions about their personal opinions on obtaining a degree in web development. The response was enormous; people of all ages – from students to teachers to seasoned professionals – responded with their firmly held opinions. Let’s review what they had to say! *Note – for the sake of anonymity, I’ve omitted the names.
1. Did you, at any point, consider not going to school for web design/development? If so, what factors caused you to take the plunge? Was the cost of attendance a big issue?
“I always considered going to school for development, Computer Science in particular. I saw the University as a way to bolster the fledgling development and design skills that I had, but also as a way to enrich myself in other studies that were never taught in primary education. A major factor is that piece of paper that they give you when you successfully graduate. While a portfolio is of utmost importance in finding employment, be it with a firm or as a freelancer, I find that the diploma and going to University helps perk up the ears of those that may know nothing about our field.”
“The cost of attendance was a big issue. I knew this when searching for the right place to go, and so chose what was within my means. I’m not sure how it works in foreign countries, but in the States, we have residency rates for public schools. I can consider myself lucky that I had a great University, at a very cost-effective rate, right down the road from me.”
“Web design and development have always been areas of focus for most of my life; so at no point did I consider not going to school to further my knowledge of the subject. At no time was attendance cost an issue.”
“I really didn’t have plans to get into web development. I had taken programming courses in high school and knew I wanted to do something with Computer Science. As I progressed in Computer Science studies, I realized that the college curriculum had not kept up with the real world needs of programmers. The future is obviously in web development, as more and more applications move to the cloud. Universities are struggling to keep up with this shift, and continue to teach traditional desktop application development. Of course, the fundamentals apply across both areas, and for those teachings I am thankful. I never considered not going to school. However, I didn’t finish :).”
“I attended university on the Gold Coast, Australia. There were no web design related courses, so I studied for a degree majoring in graphic design. I always planned to go to University. Unfortunately, I found that, at the end of my degree, I did not learn as much as I would have hoped -and believe the price of the degree was not worth the cost.”
“Still to this day, I feel I can quit web school at any time. I have always felt strongly, believing clients choose a designer without even thinking about his degree. If you have a killer portfolio, and no degree, you have a much better chance over the person with a degree and a portfolio that’s garbage. With that in mind, I chose to do both – have a good portfolio and a two year degree.”
“Back when I first decided to study, there wasn’t any doubt in my mind that I did not want to study a form of web design/development. The first factor was having a degree under my belt – I enjoy learning. The cost for the degree was a little daunting, but I knew that with a degree behind my back and the passion I have for this industry, I would be okay when I graduated.”
“I went to University to study Mechanical Engineering with the dream of designing roller coasters. After a year, I wasn’t getting along with the course, so I changed to Computer Science. That seemed like the logical choice as I already had a grounding in programming from learning PHP to write a pretty heavy personal website (about roller coasters). I wasn’t sure at the time where this new course would take me, but the answer was certainly not a career in web development.”
“Actually when I started my first job, I had no drive to go to school as I had self-taught myself so much already. I was also told by my boss that some of his best employees had been self-taught. About a year at this job prompted me to finally look at going to school to further my current knowledge. The business was going downhill, and I figured there was so much more I wanted to learn. It was tough finding my own time to learn stuff after my full-time job, and knew that dedicating a year to learning would only benefit me in the years to come.”
“Cost of attendance was definitely a factor in deciding where I was going to go. Funny enough though, I picked the most expensive route. I did this because it earned me a University level diploma over one year, as compared to a college certificate which doesn’t have as much weight to it. The one year time-frame also appealed to me, because of how technology changes rapidly. Taking a two-year course could mean that the first year stuff might be outdated by the time you graduate.”
“I graduated in 1999 from RIT. When I was about to enter school, the web hadn’t really taken off yet. I went for Computer Science, then eventually switched to Information Technology. By 1996, the web had exploded. I think I learned more on my co-op at the time on web development then I learned in the class room. Only the concepts were relevant in the classroom – the languages and the techniques weren’t.”
“Fast forward to today and I am in charge of hiring interns from RIT for 6 month rotations in our company. I see a lot of resumes. They all look the same. The ones that stand out are the ones that do outside work on their own.”
2. Many students have personally emailed me stating that their web dev classes do not cover the latest technologies. Have you found this to be true?
“I find this statement to, unfortunately, be very true. Encounters with current/recent students, along with my own experiences, demonstrate that the education received is not up to date or even on par with the last decade. Changes and standards introduced in the last few years are relatively nonexistent from the curriculum which often leads graduates to either discover current practices on their own or find work where current developments are a radical way of thinking.”
“An example is a student who came to me for advice on design and development. When asked about tableless design, accessibility or valid code, this student informed me they had never even heard of such topics let alone covered their basics. Overall it was a disappointing experience to listen to – and unfortunately not a unique experience.”
“I feel that the Art Institute of Dallas covers a variety of topics and provides the foundation to learn about the latest technologies. Let’s face it, in this career field of web development and design, the information given to you at THAT VERY PRECISE MOMENT is old within a matter of minutes. It helps you to actually develop a PLE and research information on Web Standards as well as what one can expect from the program! I learned to develop my Personal Learning Enviroment and gain RSS Feeds from important areas – as a matter of fact, I found Nettuts+ through researching on my PLE. I am not like most students, I keep my eyes peeled and sharp to current technology! I hope to make many advances in the world wide web in a few years.”
“This is extremely true. A class I took in 2007 taught how to create a website with tables. I found out this year that they are finally teaching table free websites. Being a few years behind is definitely not smart, especially when you’re paying so much to learn this information.”
“I do agree that technological classes may be lacking in being on the forefront; this seemed certainly the case when I was in school. I hated it beyond belief because I couldn’t see the point a lot of the time. Now, of course, my school didn’t actually have Web Dev courses, but it still felt the same in any engineering course. However, two things to note and not despair! First, as you take more upper courses (beyond the 100s, maybe even 200s), you appear to catch up to the technology. My final years were consumed by Maya, Final Cut, Photoshop, and Cubase. Universities do have way more money than any individual and if you demonstrate enough of a need, they might spring to help out. Second, I now realize that much of what I thought was irrelevant helped me strengthen my foundation. That’s what many employers are looking for!”
“Definitely, at least during the first two and a half years. My last quarter, we actually had an iPhone Application Development class which was just fantastic. Not having been taught the most recent technologies is somewhat of a drawback, but if you’re willing make sure you catch up on all the emerging technologies outside of class, don’t depend on instructors.”
“As my course wasn’t specifically in web development, I can’t provide a detailed answer. However, we did study a module on PHP and MySQL – which was only really an excuse to teach us hard-core database programming. In fact, after we took it, a fair few of my fellow students still couldn’t write even the simplest HTML (and no-one used CSS). So in my experience, Computer Science is not the way to go if you want to get into web development. For me, the best classroom is your computer, the view->source menu, a good tutorial or two, and something which deeply interests you to make a website about… even if that something turns out to be your cat.”
“I feel that the course that I took did involve the majority of the latest technologies. The nice thing about the course I took was that it offered boot camps that could teach more of the cutting edge material. The course I took did not cover AJAX, but I managed to take a weekend boot camp to get the basic knowledge. Of course I wish the course would have included things such as WordPress, Ruby On Rails, and jQuery, but with a condensed one-year course it would have been tough.”
“I’ve found this to be true with the students I interview. Most come in without any knowledge of standards. None come in with and experience in ASP.NET (though they do have Java experience which closely resembles C#).”
“A lot of students come in without the knowledge of how to learn on their own. They don’t know, yet, that they need to be constantly monitoring blogs and twitter for the latest information on the industry. They don’t know that they need to keep their tools sharp.”
3. Looking back, are you still happy with your decision? Was it the right choice for you?
“I am very happy with my decision and am always wanting to learn more. I feel it was the right choice for me because it lead me to the path I am on. I have my own business, bshdesigns, and I also work for a company doing web design/IT work. I’m in the right place.”
“As someone who looks forward rather than backwards it is a bit unnatural to answer such a question. After graduating I found work relatively quickly and have been able to pursue my goals with minimal turbulence. So without a doubt I can say I am happy where I currently am, but am always interested in developing my skills further; be it on my own or formal education. The education I received was beneficial in many other areas but the web portion left little to be learned and was very much another of many outdated courses.
As to whether or not it was the right choice for me, I believe it was the correct choice. The wrong choice would have been to not been to develop my skills on my own at all and change career paths all together. I’m doing what I enjoy and that’s the right choice.”
“I’m quite happy I attended University. It’s unfair to base your decision on whether to attend college solely on if it’s directly professionally beneficial. Attending college is as much a lifestyle choice. I didn’t walk away with a degree, but I walked away much more cultured, a more professional attitude toward life, and a better understanding of ‘life’.
If someone requires a classroom setting in order to learn, they’ll never be truly successful in the web development world. You have to be passionate about it and constantly learning. Many employers are recognizing this and requiring employees to spend 20% of their paid time studying/learning new techniques. But, you run a tutorial site…so you know this :).”
“I strongly feel that this was the right decision for me. I felt a bit overwhelmed trying to learn all of the information on my own! I am a smart individual, but coming to the school, I have learned valuable information in just the FIRST QUARTER that has shaped my views on web development and design!!
“I am happy with my decision to go to University; I met some great friends with similar interests to myself and this will benefit all of us as we constantly work together and keep each other up to date on new technology.
I found out what the quality of work of graduates are and where I would rank myself. This gave me a gauge on how much I should be charging and what I’m competing against when it comes to web design work in my local area.
University was the right choice for me, although I can say I would be in the same position today if I did not attend.”
“Simply put, yes. Sure I would probably want to change a few things, probably go to a different school, but I am very happy with my decision to study and finish. I’m now a happy graduate!”
“Absolutely! Going to University was one of the best experiences of my life. But only as a life experience – I use nothing which I learnt academically in my career now. I did however pick up valuable people skills which are great for dealing with clients as well as the ability to write (reasonably) well, which is great for writing specs.”
“I am extremely happy with the decision I made to take an Internet Systems Specialist course. It worked out that I could work in the industry right after high school, and then strengthen my existing knowledge after a year at work. Schooling is also a wonderful place to work with programming languages and topics that you would otherwise never touch in your workplace.”
To wrap things up, my suggestion to those out there who are unsure about schooling is:
- Get some experience in the workplace to make sure this is want you want for a career as well as get some knowledge of business
- Get yourself enrolled in a high quality cutting edge school (doesn’t need to be a 4-year computer science degree)
- Once you are out of school don’t stop learning! Subscribe to RSS feeds, connect with other web developers on twitter, etc…
“I think if I were given the choice today to go to school or gain experience I would gain experience and go to a community college to gain education in the liberal arts. It’s amazing how when I was in school I hated Liberal Arts, but I feel that I use more of the skills I learned in those classes then I do in my technical classes.”
A Unique Perspective From a High School Web Design Teacher
There are few quality higher education opportunities for students wishing to pursue web design and development, however, this does not mean that they should not necessarily attend college.
First of all, college is not for everyone. Some people aren’t built for that kind of an environment, don’t have the resources, or lack the desire, all of which are more than adequate reasons to not attend. And it should be mentioned that a college degree does not mean any higher esteem than a knowledgeable professional. Nearly all of the web professionals whose blogs I read regularly don’t have degrees in web design and development and I’m sure many don’t even have college degrees.
Even if you cannot study in your desired field, college can still be worthwhile for you.
I have yet to meet the high school student in our program who I felt was strong enough to go directly into the workforce, so I have only suggested college to students.
When I do meet that student I will not hesitate to suggest the workforce. I think that there is much to gain from students choosing a line of best fit for their college experience. If they prefer design I suggest Interactive Art majors and if they lean towards development I recommend Computer Science degrees. These majors don’t offer exactly what the student is looking for but a “line of best fit”. I do this for several reasons but the largest being that there are so many core concepts to gain from these fields that apply to the web. It’s these concepts that can be so hard to gain on your own from reading a book or shadowing colleagues. Also, the socialization of attending college is also an excellent experience, independent schedule management, working with teams, and meeting others are all benefits of attending. Please understand that I am not saying that it is worth paying all that money simply to learn socialization, but it is an added benefit.
My strongest recommendation to students is to discuss this decision with their parents, family, teachers, and guidance counselors and to make the right decision for them and their family.
I have never regretted attending college, I have a degree in CS and then reformed to teaching. My college degree trained me extensively in my area of expertise and even parlayed nicely into web design and development skills.
So Should You Go?
The answer to this question can’t be answered by anyone but you. When preparing this article, I spent a great deal of time deciding whether or not to offer my own opinion. As Nettuts+ has grown and grown, I’ve had the honor of holding a small bit of influence over some of our younger readers. With that influence comes responsibility. I ultimately determined that the smartest move is to stay in the shadows on this subject.
Having said that, I’ll leave you with this: Under no circumstances should you let anyone else decide what’s best for you. Ask questions, do research, and then make up your mind. The choice you make will be the correct one…for you.
What’s your opinion?
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By Jeffrey Way
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University seems to just a big drink-up to me anyways, meet new people, go to plenty of partys, maybe learn a little bit, but just a waste of time from getting a head start at life. Ok so obviously some people do well out of university, but most people I know who have attended, have NOT ended up in a career in their field of study, and are generally in a job that’s far from it.
I didn’t go to uni (surprise surprise), but I had a very well paying part time job when I left high school, and on my days off I offered my services free of charge at a web agency. After a few months I was offered a full time job there.
I’m currently still working there and learn at such an intense rate purely because nothing beats hands on experience and when you’re forced to learn something because you suddenly have a professional deadline, you learn it quick smart!
I just recently obtained an AS in Dynamic Web Development at my local technical school. While it was not cheap I feel as if i had learned a lot and it only got me started. I tried learning these things from scratch from tutorials and books, but having a teacher to explain what it was I was doing, why it was doing that and then the final outcome proved to be really useful. Now it is much easier to learn new things based on my schooling from tutorials and books since now I have an understanding of whats going on.
At my school, I took classes in dynamic web design HTML/CSS, JAVA, VB.net, PHP, ASP.net and Actionscript 3.
The problem with most self-taught web designers is that they have never had exposure to some of the finer concepts of computer science. It is much is easier to go from theory to practice in my opinion. My first job was a php web developer, I had never used php, html, javascript, or much html before. I had implement 5 or 6 RFCs, gone through the Oracle certification course, and learned about 7 programming languages. I was contributing code by the second day on the job.
I have worked along side of some self-taught people who were very bright, but you just can’t know what you don’t know. They looked like a deer in the headlights when talking about subjects like the factory pattern, modularization strategies, and algorithm complexity and run-time.
Now I am sure the is a group of self-taught programmers a mile high that know much more about the subjects that me, its just that most don’t. It’s not like a site like Nettus is going to delve very deeply on these subjects either, since they are more theoretical than practical.
I’m a Msater student major in Database and Web System. I have several years experience in Web Development, I still think I have learned lots of new stuff in University. Like Web Standards, Web Services, Data Warehouse, Distributed Database, Interactive System Design, etc. Sometimes, I can learn how to communicate with the users, because the user is not me, always speak user’s language. It’s expensive, more than $1000/credit. If you don’t attend university, for example, it is possible for you to not know what is adaptive and personalized web system, the model, algorithms, etc.
It’s hard to say, because everything you plan to do has tradoffs.
Just do what you want. Follow your dream.
I believe it’s fairly hard for Universities to keep professors who know the most recent technologies.
I mean if you have the option of working in the web business, working with new technologies daily, and making a good income or teaching college students, not being in the actual “field” and possible not being in tune with new trends, what would you choose. As much fun as it would be to be a college professor in my 20′s I think it would be easy to fall behind the curve if you aren’t working in the web business daily.
I believe that is a big problem in finding professors to teach web design/development classes. So then colleges are stuck with Joe Smoe who learned how to make table based layouts in Dreamweaver back in 1998 and is now teaching a class.
While college may not be the best place to learn web design/development there are many other life lessons you will learn in attending, like partying, partying, and keg stands.
I received my Bachelors in IT, concentrating in Web Development and I unfortunately had professors who were not up to date with the industry standards.
I worked in a web design firm my last semester for my internship and the real world experience within that firm opened my eyes. There was one individual who was passionate about web design & development that steered me down the right path and his passion inspired me to educate myself, as this industry requires you to learn everyday.
To conclude, my time in college did not prepare me for this industry because the professors were not knowledgeable of the industry at that point in time, they only had a snapshot of what it once was and one professor was just learning a programming language as he was teaching us, so that class was another story.
When looking to enroll into a college/university program, speak to current students, professors and ask what they are covering in their class.
Great topic! I accidentally fell backwards into the web world, ejecting from an course leading to architectural design – don’t regret it a bit. The dealbreaker for me, in terms of deciding “school or no school” was that all the programs I reviewed either taught technology (versus fundamentals) or that they were simply obsolete, having been designed years or decades prior.
The educational institution is not set up to move at the pace of the web design industry, courses are often times not relevant even in their first offering.
If school isn’t for you, the best thing you can do is find a friend thats in a band or does side projects, and build a website for them, view other webesites code, replicate it, change it, do what you need to learn even a little, after that find someone to give you a chance in the field your interested in, and its easy from there. Just find ways to get done what your client wants. You will learn much faster and material that is top of the line for todays standards
Great topic I agree, but ,in my country, if you don’t have a college/university degree you will not get a job as a developer. Of course I know it is not necessary to attend 5 years of university to create a web site.
Sad, isn’t it?
Check out FullSail.com if you can afford it, it’s fanstastic- web design AND development, industry standard material, up to date facilities and curriculum, and lifetime auditing once u graduate. Just be sure you take the right degree program. I took Digital Arts and Design I learned 35% of what they learned and I wish I learned more server side scripting and iPhone development. Again if you can afford it, it will give you good headstart. Also the success stories come from people with the drive to succeed, bad reputation comes from those who are mediocre and expect to have things handed to them.
It’s easy to bash university as a waste of 4 years and thousands of dollars. Sure, most of the web design and computer science courses I took were outdated. But the fundamental concepts were still taught, and any good university teaches you so much more than table-less layouts and programming.
If/when I get bored of full-time design/development, I’ll likely start my own business or take a leadership position at a Web company. The business, legal, and various other principles I learned in school give me a much better chance at succeeding than typing “how to run a web business” into Google.
I am definitely NOT saying that you can’t be successful in different walks of life without a college degree. Clearly that is not the case. However, if you have the resources, I’d highly recommend going to school in addition to learning current web practices from great resources like NETTUTS.
I agree with you, man
thx for that post Jeffrey! Also the comments are helpful. Was looking for such a discussion ‘cos I’m ’bout to study something related to web development. The problem is, that no major course exists. Computer science is probably the most closest. After reading all this, I am not sure weather to study at an University at all :-S
I went to college for a 4 year degree in what was essentially graphic design with an emphasis in multimedia (though the actual title of the degree was something more along the lines of “production art”).
I learned very little in college relating to the field, both from a development and creative standpoint. I was already fairly savvy with XHTML, CSS, and most all of the Adobe applications… Though I found my teachers to be very sharp individuals, there’s just too many people with blank slates that they have to cater to as well.
You can’t really point any fingers at colleges for “not keeping up” with web technologies–its nearly impossible! I think college serves more as a 4 year span for you to generate as much portfolio-grade work you possibly can before entering the work world and losing whatever remaining financial ties you have to your family. But, oddly enough, a lot of employers still require a college education. Having a robust portfolio can definitely go a long ways, but the truth of the matter is, if you’re applying for a job with no degree but a good portfolio and there’s other “educated” individuals competing for that same degree, you’ll quite likely get the shaft.
I’d have to say at my university we’re pretty much up to date with the latest technologies. They’ve introduced RoR recently to accompany the PHP modules and cover many of the frameworks for JS and PHP, etc.
Having said that I’d say I have probably acquired more knowledge off sites like NETTUTS than I have from university so far.
I just switched from a major of Computer Science to a completely different school so I could major in Web Development. It was a risky decision because I could do so much with a Computer Science degree, and as you’ve pointed out here, some schools just don’t provide up-to-date lessons in web development. That could have really been bad if I would have chosen the wrong school.
I’ve now gone through two terms at my new school with my new Web Development program, and I’m very happy with it. I think this is a very informative post for anyone that’s interested in web development, and you make some good points about what to consider when choosing the right school, or going to web development school at all.
I know I will go to university in some field, I just haven;t decided if it will be web development. fortunately I still have a few more years to decide :)
Im a selft tough web developer, and also im a university student, althou im not in web dev at my uni, i do atend a similiar carrer.
i think uni is very needed, if not to fully learn a specific field, at leat to learn basics of most fields you will encounter your self as a profesional.
belive me, i tryed it, i was a freelancer for about 4 years and couldnt move on the business world, people took advantage of my capabilities, now, i decided to go to school and ive been learning so many things that i have claimed “hey if i knew this before, things would have been diferent”.
my advice, attend uni, but also, keep you self tough abilities, you will need them in the web dev world.
PS. Excuse my broken english.
This was a really good article. I’ve been kicking it around for a few months and after hearing these i am leaning towards apprenticing with a good web designer. I wish i there was a web design course at my highschool so much you have no idea.
P.S NETTUTS is letting extremely immature comments in lately
I am in a web classes right now and, honestly, they are useless to the point of being disadvantageous because I am spending so much of my time trying to jump through their hoops that I have little time to continue with efforts that give me forward progress. Somehow I just find table based design a tad bit of a waste of my time AND money.
So far my self-taught education is serving me head-over-heels better than what I have learned in my classes. At the most the classes teach me how to use the Adobe Suite but not the affective theory and design practice that even the tuts+ sites teach.
I know people want to assume that a degree is always the golden ticket. But for web, it is a detriment. The web is ever changing to the point where that middle man (the school) is a choke point and, as long as you have the will and desire, usurping that choke is one of the best things you can do for yourself.
There is more to learn in a university setting than just what the professors teach. Those who attend school only to learn a profession miss out on 90% of what school could provide.
In school I learned to better interact with clients as I dealt with teachers’ whims and demands. I learned to listen for what a teacher wanted me to know, not only what they were telling me.
In school I learned to network with students and professors. Those skills have helped me in client and co-worker relations. When my team hires a new person, we are more concerned about hiring someone who is likable and personable and moldable, than we are about hiring a know-it-all or someone who can’t work as part of a team.
In school I learned that I needed to step on all of the bases. I needed to do all of the paperwork, and meet all of my obligations.
In school I learned to communicate. Few programmers work solo. It is important to be able to communicate clearly with one another and with clients. In school I learned to be able to organize and present ideas.
In school I was forced to take some classes to graduate that had nothing to do with my major – English, Creative Writing, World History, Art History, Biology, and Religions. This have helped me to be a more well rounded person, and have helped me better appreciate the world and it’s peoples.
Did school teach me to program – yes, at least it helped me on the way. But my learning didn’t end when I graduated. Every day we all struggle to learn and keep up. That will never change regardless whether you go to college or not. Had I not gone to college I would have robbed myself of some of my most precious memories. Had I not gone to college, I feel my ability to enjoy life and appreciate it would be diminished.
I love and enjoy what I do, but it is not my life’s work. My life’s work is to build, better, and enjoy my family, my community, my nation, and my world. It is the things learned at school that I couldn’t learn from a blog that have helped me, and will continue to help me the most in that work.
I love this article. Recently, I been mulling over finishing my degree in Digital Multimedia\ Technology. Most of the things I learned were out of date, before they were being taught at all. I have a certification in Web Production. The question I’m figuring out now is whether I continue somewhere else or blot into freelancing.
Good topic of debate, but ultimately the notion is ridiculous.
Whilst I cannot and indeed shall not state that I have not learnt a large amount from online blogs such as this fine example, inherently if an individual were to base the foundation of their development education solely from articles sporadically placed around the web of dubious validity then consumers who employ these ‘blog educated’ individuals will in turn lose out on a professional level of service, compromising the reputation of the profession as a result – an unacceptable future indeed.
Blogs such as this should be used to reinforce skills developed in controlled educational environments where those who teach have the vast majority of answers and time to develop the skill set of the pupil in question.
I do however agree that in some institutions the level of education provided is wasteful and that an education from the web may in fact be of a better quality than one bought on the basis of student fees. Financial difficulties may be a reason for one to join a substandard school, I can identify with that, but ultimately if there’s a true desire to succeed and prove yourself to an institution then this shall shine through and scholarships are likely to be made available. This reason does not provide reinforcement or validity for solely an online education.
It was really nice reading and I am really appreciating you, in my case also I attended a leading university of London, and while I was following I realized the subject area was little bit outdated, we got so much of idea and other Latest trend because of the industrial guys who are working for Innovative and research companies. Because we got some guidance from them. So in my view the student always should be in touch with Industrial Folks, because a university can give you a limited amount. By our effort we can get more than what we get, as a Graduate i would like to conclude as “An Academic Qualification is really important to get a better job, also You need to get a better influence to get a job in these type of seasons”
V for u man, giving some good reading!
also test your self http://eyoosuf.blogspot.com/2009/04/programmer-competency-matrix.html
I have been studying architecture for 3 years now and on my last year.. I have taught my self web dev… Uni is a complete waste of time.! Web deb is about freelance and selling your self… And you don’t need a uni to teach you programming..
Strongly advice other people to find a job instead and build experience!
If I was hiring and it came down to someone who was just out of a 4 year web dev university and the other had been self educated and had the same 4 years in experience I would be more inclined to hire the self educated person. It is my impression that the majority of web dev courses are outdated and don’t cover a wide enough scope to prepare the ‘student’ for the real (and diverse) world of web dev. If I was too choose a 4 year education vs. 4 year experience i would not choose to study web dev. I would study something with a larger horizon and learn web dev on the side, too me it is not too impressive that someone has a degree, it matters that they can code and deal with client expectations.
I do think that web dev courses are important, and it is not a bad idea to do a 4 year web dev program. But I don’t think it is as beneficial as in other industries and would prefer to have 4 years experience over 4 years education..ideally have both. Do the college and run your web business at the same time. Now that would be the ideal condition. :)
l just totally agree with your point of view….! school courses not letting you think outside of square..
I say real world web industry experience is king. Classes are not nearly as valuable.
I have a BA in music recording, and I now run a successful freelance web design / development business (www.casjam.com)…. maybe that says more about the lack of jobs in the music industry, but still.
Intern at a web agency, read sites like Nettuts.com, teach yourself by doing. It’s the absolute BEST way to learn web design.
This hit me a lot, I’m tired of going to school and everytime we have a laboratory exercise I finished it in less than 30mins, and I’m always the root of all arguments coz the professor doesn’t want someone outwitted him (thats how they think what I am doing).
the fact that this is true is because technology runs so fast, every year there is a new version, ex: Cs2 Cs3 Cs4. so if you go on a 4 year course, and they taught you something about Cs2, then after you graduate the Cs5 has been released and you are left behind.
I think the web development campus primary role is to teach their students the basic on how they could start, and give them tips on how to find good resources on the internet and make the subject interesting to learn.
To answer the question, I think no is the answer. I personally feel University is just a means of proving your capacity to learn, and that you’re committed – which is ultimately what any employer is seeking. I think in the long run I won’t so much value what I had learned about the subject in general, more the ways we’re taught in which to learn.
I think it would be an overstatement to say what I have learned from my time at University wasn’t beneficial. I have learned a lot, even in my first year; teamwork, inspiration and time management would probably be the key words. But a sure fact is that you’re going to learn far more by yourself, whether that is through books, the internet or any other means. Self directed study is the best possible study – it’s about developing your own way of learning, thinking and doing.
University is a great experience. I sometimes doubt it for not being up to scratch. I think what makes it worthwhile is the experience – it’s what you make it.
computer science, web dev or any programmin related courses should focus on problem solving… mathematics… logic.. rather than learning languages..
If you love it, teach yourself. If you go to school, you’ll be doing this anyway, except now you’re blowing money on it.
A degree from an university in computer science or related field isn’t meant to teach you the latest and greatest. Its to teach you the fundamentals and the ground work so that you truly understand programming inside and out. It’s not to teach you that RoR is the latest and greatest framework, and it “just works”, its there to teach you HOW it works, and provide you with the knowledge to understand whats happening.
My curriculum required me to take courses in compiler design, operating systems, computer architechure, and none of which I’ve directly used, but I do understand how they work, and those concepts can lead on to understanding other things as which might be more practical to me.
Web development is a vocation, not a discipline or an art. Going to college for it is a waste of time and money.
Going to school for web development isn’t going to get you the cutting edge knowledge of the latest trends (that is what YOUR study is for, college is just as much classroom learning as it is out of classroom learning, a professor is there to DIRECT that learning).
College is also for learning HOW to LEARN. You also gain valuable skills through college. Trends will change, but the skills attained in college such as focus, hard work, critical thinking and confidence are timeless.
Among other things, college…
1) Shows commitment to prospective employers. College isn’t easy, and employers respect an individual who can stick it out.
2) Teaches you accountability and reliability.
3) Allows you to venture out into other fields that may benefit you later. (I was hired as a web designer at my current job, but from skills I learned in college I also directed and produced a T.V. commercial and do all of their print design).
4) Network with professors and other alumni. Over 75% of employees that were hired last year was through networking.
If your goal for college is to learn the latest and greatest trends, you are wasting your time. You can do that at Nettuts :)
If your goal is to become educated, reliable and skilled not only in your field, but in your life, then you will get what you PAY for.
ALSO, don’t be discouraged!! I did awful in high school, attaining lower than a 2.0 GPA on a 4.0 scale. (Don’t want to say what it actually was, because it is so bad, but I did pass… barely). I got into college on probation. If I could get above a 2.5 my first semester I could continue there.
I graduated with a 3.7 GPA out of a 4.0 scale. If I can do it, you can too!
Totally agree with you Jason.
I have to say that I graduated with a degree in design 2 years ago and I learned about print because they didnt have a web degree. The web classes I took were a JOKE. Since then I have learned everything off the new and have been doing tons of design and production work for the web ever since. If I could I would not have gone to school and I would have prob lied about it. I’ve never been asked for proof of college. I did however have a lot of fun drinking tons of beer and partying so I guess that alone was worth its weight.
I had the same problem an earlier commenter had. I took computer programming and my school’s program was badly outdated. Our only web development course was on ASP.NET 1.1. Once I got into web development on my own I had no urge to continue my program so I dropped.
However, I wanted to continue an academic life so I took up a philosophy degree last year. I can keep up with web development as part of my job through sites like these, while academically I work on my degree in my spare time.
Great Article. I haven’t read all of the previous posts but here’s my two cents.
If you are going to do any type of design you should really get some formal training. Whether that is at a 2 year of 4 year college. Design is something that is taught, there are great designs and not so great designs.
Print or Web all design should follow the same basic principles of hierarchy, flow, etc.
When it comes to actual technical skill I have learned most of what I know through sites like this. Now I run my own web design business.
Also I networked out, at first, though a lot of people I meet at school.
For me, Attend any university or college for web development only suit for those people who cant understand the basic syntax of any programming language, no many how many article they read.
And is true that web dev classes do not cover the latest technologies. where my class still teach using frame to create website. It will be good that study from web but holding the certificate is good if someone want hire u coz some people who is computer idiot or noob will always want to see you diploma or degree certificate now many how many killer profile u show to them.
I recently spent a paid week consulting with a PAC 10 school about how I helped the local 4H program put their content on Blogger. Think about it. Here’s a supposedly major university teaching circa 2000 web design and not at all up on any sort of dynamic content, blogging or social media. For this you pay all that money? And Blogger? The head of the design program thought it was a fad.
If you actually want to do design for the web, a design school is good. Learn design, layout, typography and composition. If you want to do development take programming. But except for maybe schools like Stanford, university profs are dinosaurs.
If you want to spend a couple of years making templates, keeping up with the latest on sites like net tuts, you’ll be a better designer, out less money and probably working for an agency while some poor sucker is still attending dated classes and going into debt.
Attending a university got me a lovely piece of paper, and not to mention, thousands of dollars in debt.
It was a complete waste of my time and money.
The classes were all outdated (Dreamweaver MX? TABLES?) and probably hurt me more than helping. At least they were easy.
Didn’t learn hardly anything, unfortunately. I’ve learned more on my own in a few weeks than I got in 4 years. One big problem though: went to the wrong school.
Don’t go to the University of MN-Duluth for anything web or design related. Program sucks, super outdated, STILL teaching tables…. I was very disappointed.
Hi! Firstly I would like to say thanks to Jeff, he is doing a great job with net tuts and the his other websites.
People like Jeff should open universities where they can educate college professors about web design so that the students who can learn about building web sites the right way.
Sadiq Hussain.
Hi!
I strongly believe that studing web dev would be great wasting of time, because you’d learn tons of old things, tons of useless things and never reicieve good knowledge because real web developers aren’t in school as teashers, they work … maybe I’m wrong, but I belive that if you all alone learn for 3 od 4 years you’d become much better
i really wanted to further my study in Computer Science because i like doing stuff in web development field, but in my country, competition in Computer science is quite high ( off course it is not a good excuse though) but instead i further my study in Computer Engineering because the word “computer” there! ^_^ … although it more focus on electronic circuit and devices rather than programming … i learn web development by my ownself and off cause using internet, discussing in forums and frequently visit websites that have a wealthy of informations regarding web development and last but not least , read computer books such as ( Dont” Make Me Think! by Steve Krug and Web User Elements by J. James Garret ..a really good reading materials)
Hope Nettuts and Psdtuts and can share with us more and more infos in da future
thx ^_^..
I know that for myself, I needed a university degree to get me started with programming. I had some really basic introductions in high school but they didn’t take me far enough to really get me hooked and learning on my own.
Then I went to university and basically minored in Computer Science, by my second year I was hooked and was able to do my own projects when I wanted to learn something new.
However, after year 3 I started doing a co-op, which I am still doing, at a start-up. I can say, without a doubt, that in my 8 months there I have learned 10 times as much as I learned about programming, business, user experience, customer support, all of the ‘real-world’ things that University glazes over.
In my opinion, a University degree is perfect if you want to work at a big corporate software company. But if you are interested in freelancing, startups, or finding your own way, then the decision is up to you. A university degree may be necessary, as it was with me, to get you on your way. But in the end there is no replacement for valuable experience gained in the field.
@Jeffrey, I think we should have had a poll I doubt anyone could read all of these “essay-like” comments.
Oh men, reminds me of being a college student here in the Philippines. I go to a small college and not a university but for the past 4 years Id say that my teachers really havent taught me a lot of technical stuff on programming, web development particularly. They teach more of the concept of programming then its done, they give you something to do, a project or a homework and its all up to you to google it. I could say that I wouldve been better studying by myself at home through the internet but there are still a lot of things that you cant learn or experience without going into school.
By the time when they were teaching us html, i already knew it like 3 yrs ago. I also learned CSS, Photoshop myself. And they never taught us Php which is what im using now for my project. They only teach Php to 3rd year students and Im already 4th year. They passed us by. what the crap?
Its a good thing theres a lot of good people in the internetthat are willing to help you when your teacher/school just let you down. sorry for this.
I’m late to the discussion. I finished a 4 year Computing degree course 10 years ago. Using skills that I learned on that course, I walked into a job. The degree was a requirement for that job (rightly or wrongly.)
I strongly disagree that a simple Google search has the potential to replace profressors. Quite clearly, university courses vary in quality and relevance, and let’s not forget that there’s a lot more to computing than throwing together a few lines of PHP or jQuery. I think that the specific field of web development and design does not require a degree to get started in a professional capacity. Other fields of computing do.
If I were thinking of starting a degree now, and I wanted to specialise in web development, the cost would be a big negative. It was largely ‘free’ back then, and I had the sort of life experiences at uni that I’ll never forget. I learned skills that you can’t necessarily pick up by reading the odd blog, and I also met my wife whilst at university.
All the best to people thinking of what to do next!
Best article ever published here at Nettuts. I have been here at this site since the day it was lunched but never had a good read such as his one.
I think i am now convinced that i DO NOT need school. I can’t take it when they try and impose stuff on you.
Thanks for the article Jeffery. :D
Good luck getting a high paying job without a degree. Sure, it is possible, but you are putting yourself at a huge disadvantage when compared to others.
What are you going to do when compared to someone who has a equally good portfolio as you, but has a degree from a university and your formal training is through blog posts? You’re going to be looking for another job.
The school I went to not only taught skill building, but they gave you inside information about what the industry is like. What to look forward to, how to work the industry to get what you want out of it. They also offer work critiques. They go over your work, tell you ways to improve it, and why it should be improved. This will make you a better designer/developer. You aren’t going to get this from Google searches.
For most people, self teaching will only get you so far. When you realize it, it may be too late.
I’m starting at University on a Software Engineering degree in October and I am still very glad that I made that choice.
I am already an experienced Developer; I’m 18 years old and I’ve been self-taught in programming since the age of 12. I am even at this moment working as a freelance web developer and earning ridiculous amounts of money for somebody my age.
While I do personally already know how to do things in multiple programming languages, university is more about the theoretical and formal side of development. If you’re only going to be a freelancer in your career then fair enough — you don’t need a degree. But getting into some of the bigger software houses and anything above a low-level position in a business a degree is almost (and I do emphasize, almost) impossible; the formal qualification is something that I see as very important to have.
Good luck with the degree. Have fun at uni!