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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Is the University pictured in point 3. the University of Waterloo? (school5.jpg)
I ask because it looks *exactly* like the rooms in MC :D
Hahaha, oh my goodness. You noticed too? It definitely, definitely looks like the MC classrooms. They’re very distinctive. o_O
Tineye.com shows the original of the picture to be http://www.sxc.hu/photo/541790 , where another commenter has asked if it’s the MC too. He’s got another picture that looks a lot like the DC building and I can’t identify the other room… And he’s from Canada… But he never explicitly states Waterloo. So I’d guess it’s probably MC. :)
At my school the teacher are teaching us microsoft access instead of mySQL for web databases :/
It depends on where you want to work as well. Some places won’t even look at you without a Bachelors Degree. Large companies have automated application systems and your resume won’t even be seen if you don’t have a BS and they require one (you’ll just be filtered to not qualified).
I think perhaps the most valuable thing you can learn from a CS degree is OOP principles/practices/design patterns. With that foundation, you just have to pick up the lexical structure of whatever language you want to add.
I don’t envy students nowadays because the nature of web development is so dynamic. I highly recommend buying books based on subjects you’re interested in and make personal projects. Read read read, code code code.
I’ve just started my first year in an arts degree in Sydney, so I know what it’s like making such a tough decision. Although I love working with web designs, I never ended up pursuing an IT degree because I realised that a lot of it had to be self-taught. So, I followed my first love and I’m now studying English literature at university. However, outside school, I’m still following latest trends very closely and in fact, I’m undertaking an internship at a web company.
I would say that when you’re making your decision, consider everything you know and everything you’ve researched about, then forget it and follow what’s in your guts.
I’m at uni doing a web design related subject. When they decided to teach us html, the lecturers notes were so old he was still using font tags and all his tags were in capital letters! (He was updating it as he went through the lecture!)
I’m of the opinion that uni is a nice buffer between school and real life. You get to learn about living on your own in a nice safe environment when people are willing to throw money at you – you wont get that at any other point in your life!
Although my course is rubbish, I wouldn’t trade in the experience for the world, I’ve learnt and grown so much at uni – I certainly wouldn’t be the confident person I am now if it weren’t for my going to uni.
I did not study web dev in university, and I am doing fine. I have never regretted not studying web dev.
I’m studying civill engineering and I work in web devolopment as a part time job for a small company. I have a good repetation in my city now. I think one day I will leave my engineering degree at home and start my own buisnesss in web devolopment.
I go to The Art Insitute of California San Francisco. Whoo Whoo!
Yeeee!
Web Design and Interactive Media.
Wanna See my Homework?
http://www.frankyaguilar.com/labs
AI represent!
The main gripe of mine about technology classes in general today, is that it seems that professors and teachers teach how to use a tool, (Dreamweaver, HTML Kit, etc…) and not the technology itself. They spend so much time and emphasis during the semester or school year teaching how to use the features of the program, not the technology. SOooooooo annoying
In one phrase: university isn’t about learning how to do your job.
In a lot more phrases:
As an avid scholar myself (though I cannot, unfortunately, proceed with a scholarly life), it saddens me to see that people think university = learn how to work. That’s not it, unless you’re into medicine or engineering or the likes. I don’t think that’s ever been the purpose of computer science courses.
Computer science is just that: science. It shouldn’t teach you about web technologies or even desktop technologies (and I have to say, those are nowhere near as outdated as was mentioned in the post) or what is the latest flavor you should use, any more than it should teach you to work with Windows or Linux. It should teach you about programming correctly rather than just vomiting code.
It should teach you about the underlying theory of programming, about compilers, about how languages are made, about the complexity of code. It should teach you about computer architecture. It should teach you how networks tick, how operating systems work and what is client-server model rather than how to configure a server.
It should teach you graph theory. It should teach you about projecting applications through best practices (though not the best practices themselves). It should teach you about software engineering and the different aspects of it. In essence, it should teach you how to Do It Right and How It’s Done rather than Which Technology to Use. If you know how to do it right, technology won’t matter nearly as much.
At least, that’s what I learned in the university.
Yes, you can learn how to Do It Right by yourself, but it won’t be via Google. It’ll be via books, commitment, practice, experience and contact with people who maybe never coded for the web in their whole lives but know how computers work, intimately.
That said, I wouldn’t go for web development (in fact, I didn’t). I don’t know what the course entails. I went for Computer Science because it gave me the broadest scope possible, the biggest picture available. Am I ready to join the workforce? No. I won’t be without experience (I graduated 2 years ago).
But the knowledge I got was precious. I went to college without knowing how to program at all (but I understood HTML and CSS and Photoshop, so I could make static web pages) and the first language I learned was C. It was quite a shock, but learning C made learning PHP and Java (and Delphi, believe it or not) so much easier. A lot of people say C’s old and complex, but the age and complexity of it made it a LOT easier to “downgrade” to easier languages (many of which are derived from C).
So, yeah.
i totally agree with you!!
“But the knowledge I got was precious. I went to college without knowing how to program at all (but I understood HTML and CSS and Photoshop, so I could make static web pages) and the first language I learned was C. It was quite a shock, but learning C made learning PHP and Java (and Delphi, believe it or not) so much easier. A lot of people say C’s old and complex, but the age and complexity of it made it a LOT easier to “downgrade” to easier languages (many of which are derived from C).”
me too, i learned C as my first language, i really love the complexity of that language, it was easier to learn Java, Ruby, VBasic, PHP (easier than anything), JavaScript and many more languages and tools.
Well said! Computer science provides you with the knowledge and fundamentals to be a solid programmer. It provides you with the knowledge of how the underlying gears turn, and so forth. That’s something I doubt you’ll ever get from google searches. There comes a time when you need to know whats really happening when you just start slapping code together.. I also started with C, and I feel that it was a great language to start with.
i feel… personally college is not quite the waste of money it seems to be. concept is very important and it is difficult to find good content on concept there are a few sources. there are silly concepts that you know and use with out realize you are using it. like fitz laws i have heard about them into interviews. they act like it is the one of the end all be alls. i was so fed up hearing it i told one of them it was common sense. of course it is easier to point at a barn then a bottle cap. who didnt realize that. personally i think it is so common sense i dont understand why it even has a name.
i mean its easier for me to pick my nose with my finger then my toe. toms law.
the other thing you get is design… yes i know you can go to psdtuts but that isnt teaching you design it teaches technique. if there is a good design site please let me know. color theory and composition are more important then a dropped shadow.
snipit sites dont teach you when it is ok to use flash. and dont think it is ok cause you want a cool kick a** menu… its not good. search engines cant read them, they are mem heavy, they require up to date plugins, slow to load and some people block them(i am one of them).
2. as useful as this site is it is still just code snipits and not whys. it is important to understand why you use this code and not that one. why can this line be hacked and not that one.
which gives you more confidence and a better understanding when writing something that you cant find a snipits. i see this a lot in the comment sections here and else where.
3 yes you can learn to do most things on the internet. like how to build an atomic bomb. but college helps teach you how to learn and lets face facts the internet isnt a creditable source of information.
i should have mentioned i paid way to much for college attending savannah college of art and design. i took computer graphics and as much as i could have learned how to do everything on the web i wouldnt have understood what i was doing if i hadnt gone to scad… i learned maya and a little max but because i learned it in college i was easily able to apply it to blender. sure there is Gnomon but its not the same. same for dreamweaver i can apply it in to different tools and such as note pad ++ and different frame works.
the most important thing about college… IS NETWORKING. i would give anything to have done better networking. and by that i dont mean computer to computer or crap like linkedin i mean actual face to face networking with other people. you can learn all you want but people are more likely to hire people they know or other alumni from their college.
My wife is taking graphic design in college right now, which is very hands on, project based type work. Downside is there’s no theory being taught…no insight as to why something is good design, or what actually makes a good design.
And then when it comes to her HTML/web programming classes, I’m finding I have to reteach all the stuff the teacher “teaches” in class. It’s just not well executed or thought out. Even the in class examples are off base.
It’s really unfortunate that we have to pay an arm and a leg for her to come home and really not have gained anything. After two years of this, we’re strongly considering dropping the program and having her self-teach from websites.
Logic behind it is that there are alot more smart people on the internet teaching than there are in any one classroom teaching.
I suppose that’s one of the problems, too. As I mentioned before, it’s silly to think universities should teach you how to work. It should present the why, not the how, but then universities react to market wants, too, so… that means more “hands on” and less of what it should be about, methinks.
I have a friend who did graphic design here in Brazil and she’s learned a LOT of theory.
hey alex,
I have exactly the same problem, I’m not learning anything at school (high school to be exact !!) and then we have all those stupid courses like Ethics. I’m supposed to learn web design and coding and I have more work for Ethics then illustrator. Which I only have 1 hour a week and ethics 3 hours a week….
Does it make sense? not to me
I work at an award winning advertising agency as a web developer. I’m 26 and I’ve never spent even 1min in college.
Started bc i was a musician and i wanted to do that for a while. When that was over i didnt want to spend the money on college but I did toy with going to FullSail and ITT Tech. again, didnt want to spend the money. Got a job that in hindsight was very crappy but did give me the ability to lear A LOT as well as spend a big chunk of time researching and training myself.
Google and Lynda.com are definitely the reasons I have the job i wanted now.
College isnt outdated at all. Just depends on what you want to learn. If you’re talking about web related stuff, the things I do, it’s not even a question of if college is out dated. The colleges never kept in step with the web from the onset. they were never in a position to be up to date or out of date. close as you can get is a computer science degree which def helps depending on what kind of programming you want to do. But if you want to stick with xhtml/css/jquery/php/asp.net etc you definitely dont need to go to school for that.
that being said. I sacrificed 2 years of my free time staying at home reading, watching videos and training myself preparing for finally being able to get the job i have now. i knew i wasnt going to school so i had to work harder than those in school in some respects.
the main advantage that school gives you that is often over looked is time. when in school you’re #1 priority is to focus on school. when you have a job, its hard to focus on work, pay the bills, be responsible and learn a trade. the situation i found myself in was absolutely rare. I’m also of the opinion that if in school you’re able to learn things faster bc of again the time available and the atmosphere/mindset that you’re in every day. when you’re working full time and trying to learn web/design stuff online and through books/videos, switching gears from taking care of the dog and paying the phone bill to learning php can be a little difficult.
I’m definitely proof that you dont need school to do web stuff depending on what type of web stuff that is. I cant build complex applications for online banking or something like that.. but then again i never wanted to and i work at a place that has guys who do that and they needed me to do the stuff im good at and wanted to do.
again, colleges never had the chance to be up to date. in terms of staying on top of web trends theyve completely failed. a friend goes to a top 5 art school in the country and he was telling me about one of the web classes he was in and it was pathetic. the teacher really knew nothing about CSS at all, was doing auto generated by dreamweaver inline crap and its 2009.
for web stuff, right now. college isnt worth the money less you want a computer science degree.
David,
I am 34, I have a wife, 3 kids, and a lot of bills to pay. I am currently in an online college for web design. My problem is that I do not have time to spend learning the ‘college stuff’ because I am surpassing the lessons with my own studies.
I freelance web design, and what we have learned so far is not worth the time and effort away from my family and learning what I need to learn to get more work…
Thanks for your inspirational post.
I wish I had never gone to school. I wasn’t ready for the financial burdens and pitfalls of not having anything, no family support, no friends, an unfamiliar city, it was too much too fast and worst was there was nothing the school was teaching that I needed. They tried to make me believe Director was the Future of Interactive media and flash was a trend…
I took best of show from the online campus of my ground school at the portfolio review and then spat it out over the fact that my entire portfolio was wack and from pieces I had 3 years prior that I used to enter the school with.
If anyone could help me find an attorney I would like to help other students get back some of the tuition that was snagged from them unwittingly because the for-profit art institution was more concerned with selling you on the fact that 100% of the students get a job 6 months after graduation… what they fail to mention is that most would never be able to hang in the actual career force.
I spent 3 years during my academic career building a web design career learning CSS/Javascript and Flash (as2) and if it wasn’t for that I would be in sad shape.
Side money helps too. Definitely check the curriculum and if you just want to make money and have a career omit the degree.
Employers want you to have a good portfolio and be able to hit the ground running. All they are interested in what you can do for them.
A degree is like a six-pack that you work all winter at keeping so you can be fly in the spring and shutting it down in the summer.
I went to school for information technology, and am now working as a developer in an advertising agency. A lot of developers that I have seen, do not understand a lot of really basic computer science concepts, and I think that it hinders their ability to wrap themselves around some of the newer techologies that utilize those comp sci. techniques.
There is so much info on the internet, and I think it is hard for most people to build the proper foundation they need without any starting point.
On the other hand, I don’t think it is worth it for anyone to go into a mountain of debt for school.
I believe it’s a matter of “how well do you know yourself?”
Some people don’t mind spending 85% of their time learning about the fields they love. They absolutely love web design and web development, and no matter what the costs, they know they want to be the best.
These are the great web designers and developers we have today who didn’t feel the need to go to college. Which is fine. They knew exactly what they wanted to do, and they also knew how to organize and discipline themselves by their own. Of course google, web blogs and Lynda are great teachers, but when you’re managing 100% of your time, it’s hard to get the ability to run your priorities.
When I first applied to college, I didn’t know exactly what I was getting into. I knew I appreciated multimedia design, even tried to develop some novice skills at Photoshop and Dreamweaver a few years before. But I didn’t know where to start, from the very beggining, also because I didn’t fully knew what I wanted to do.
This is the great thing about University. It may not teach you the most correct techniques, but it points you in the right direction. Let’s put it like this: if you’re taught something in the wrong way, and you know it’s wrong, you will want to learn the right way to do it, because you cannot stand the idea of being outdated in that field. That feeling makes you think “wait a minute, I actually care about this more than I thought I did”.
University is not only about teaching the stuff you WANT to learn. There’s some good (altough you only learn it afterwards) about being forced to learn what you don’t want to. It motivates you to learn properly, and when you feel this, you will know what you want to do. What moves you, does it for some reason.
And of course, University isn’t only about the classes either. I still learn a lot from my college friends, since we’re a nice big real-life community dedicated to what we do. The experience itself pays off.
Don’t forget, there’s nothing wrong with a Diploma. It may not mean a lot to some companies you want to work for, but you know it’s there, it constantly reminds you of what you worked for, what you’ve been through to be and know what you are today. And believe me, that’s very important.
So to answer this question, my final summarized answer is:
Yes, you should definitely attend University for Web Development. It prevents you from getting narrow-minded about your area of expertise, it teaches you the do’s and don’ts, and more importantly it helps you figuring out what you want from yourself, from your life.
There’s one easy solution for this though, let’s walk through the steps to achieve it:
1. Lay a solid foundation. It doesn’t matter which language you choose to do web developing, you should first know the very basics and learn them well. What’s an array, proper HTML, how to work your logic, etc. I had a teacher that started his web developing class by saying “You should know by now HTML, so I won’t even bother with it”, which was a sad thing because this class was supposed to be exactly about that.
2. Make the class curriculum flexible. Why dogmatize stuff? Whatever you know today as true might get tweaked tomorrow, so it’s all about being flexible enough so you can keep up with constant changes.
3. Teach students about the web and where to find information. A book will rapidly get obsolete nowadays.
4. Establish ground rules and common goals, let them choose which framework to use. We all know that one can develop using several different techniques, languages, plugins, libraries… We measure success not based on which tools you use but the results that we provide.
5. This classes shouldn’t be assigned to just one teacher, maybe to a coordinator and a group of assistants, each one having some knowledge on different languages, resources, etc.
6. Color theory, design essentials, typography essentials, all things should be covered somewhere. Above all there should be a class about copyrights, how to respect them, how to enforce them, but most importantly the options you have to publish your stuff on the web. This will be key to instructing your clients.
7. Teach them how to communicate with the client. We tend to be over “geek” about our stuff… We, above all, should learn how to communicate in terms our clients will find at ease.
8. Last but not least, students from later years should be available to provide help to newer students, this can help create a community of developers.
8 difficult steps, some defy the way Universities approach knowledge but become clear once we understand that this is how things do work on the web right now anyways. Docendo disco, scribendo cogito (By teaching I learn, by writing I think)
I attended college a couple of years ago with a Multimedia course because I didn’t really know what I wanted to do at that point in time. The systems, software and curriculum was years behind what I already knew when I arrived there. Only after my 2nd year did they finally decide the upgrade the systems, but not the curriculum. Unfortunately the web is one of those things that are constantly changing, so with a teaching system that is extremely slow, it’s not something that can be viable in a ‘college’ situation, more of in a specialist school? IMO anyway.
Having just completed a uni degree in IT here in Brisbane, Australia, I too can sadly agree with the majority. The degree taught me very little about web development and it’s technologies (HTML, CSS, JS etc).
I graduated feeling like the last 3 years were a breeze and I’d just sunk 20k proving what I already knew.
However, in my final year there was a Mashups unit which was fantastic!
I did find that my degree taught me to be a better programmer though (OOP) and how to design databases better with normalization. The few design courses that were related to my major reinforced my knowledge of colour, typography and alignment but nothing new sadly.
The best education you can get is sit down with a text editor and an idea and go for it. Reading W3C or the hundreds of web design blogs when you get stuck, but the best teacher IMO for Web Development is just going to be yourself and Google.
I went to college for 4 years, but not in web design/development. I’d done it on my own since 8th grade, and figured that I should go to school for things I couldn’t entirely do on my own. (I went for music, I’m a composer when I’m not a web designer ^_^) I’m currently the web designer of a county in New Jersey, and while I got lucky to land this job, I didn’t have a degree in design and seem to be doing fine. Best thing you can do is read blogs, get a text editor and play.
Ahh, Just what I need (15 years old for the record).
Sorry to say, I am going university and College, BUT not for Web design and development. As soon as im 18, i’m completely dropping all web stuff and working on business and economics.
I think a college degree would be better to get a job; however, the person who has a degree isn’t necessary a good web designer or developer.
I just read about an internship position in which the company is required a bachelor or a master degree. A master degree in web design? I don’t know what to say about that. Also, as an intern, you are responsible for relocation and all other expenses. That’s just too much to ask from an intern.
I have taken the DIY route and I don’t regret it for a minute. I really think it comes down to passion and self-motivation. However, there is something to be said for a teacher telling you the right way from the very beginning. I think both methods have their advantages. Good read, thanks.
Sure, you can go out and buy a book and get the same information out of it… But, I think the degree you earn will give you a HUGE advantage over others.
I just finished up my degree in Graphic Design and was applying for a freelance job, along with many other talented freelancers, and I got the client because I have a degree now (and because I’m awesome lol)!! I think clients/employers look at a person with a degree and think “They’re committed enough to get the degree, they’ll be dedicated with their job as well.” …Not saying that people w/o degrees aren’t…
I think Universities are a great foundation to learn development. Some Universities are very “under-funded” and are quite outdated. However, I think specialty schools/technical schools (i.e. The Art Institute, or Full Sail) are more up-to-date on equipment AND cirriculum.
Yes, it sucks to have to pay back all those student loans afterward, but I’m soooooo glad I did it!!
I’m a CS major (still studying) and my uni courses has certainly helped me with web development, in indirect ways.
Sure, they don’t teach you CSS or PHP/Ruby/Python/Javascript but they teach you the foundations to build upon. For example, I would have had a much harder time understanding recursion, closures, higher order and anonymous functions without my programming classes. They teach you the best practices, then you need to apply that knowledge to whatever programming language you wish to work in.
I’ve also found the HCI courses very useful, even if they don’t teach you design or how to become a master at photoshop. Otherwise I think it’s easy to miss that knowledge.
As far as programming goes I think you need to ask yourself what you want to be doing. If you’re fine with building small-medium sized sites with PHP and your CMS of choice, you don’t need to go to uni. But if you’re interested in building larger scale applications and development tools (JQuery, Rails, Django or Prototype e.g.) then I think uni, or reading loads of programming books that are *not* web-related, is a must.
It’s all about if you wish to create the future or if you’re fine with using the tools other people provide you with.
Hi Jeff, this is so relevant to me as I contemplate returning to college after taking a semester off. The reason why is I learnt more via the internet on my summer break than I did in the six months at college beforehand. They were still teaching us to code table layouts!!!
My next semester is focussed on the technologies and includes javascript so I am hopeful that it will be more current. If not, I will continue teaching myself. I am a mature age student with lots of work history behind me (though not web/IT) so I hopefully the piece of paper won’t be so important.
Thank you so much for your tutorials and articles.
no.
Although I must admit my University course in Web Development left me ill prepared for working in the industry (even when graduating with a first) I wouldn’t change the fact I went. The truth is I don’t know if going to University has led to where I am now or if not going to University would have led me to be better or worse off.
University did however offer me opportunities outside of just education that I wouldn’t change for anything. If you go to University you must be prepared to put the work in and not to expect that because you’re in class that you will automatically become a web god on graduation. In my case I was probably behind those who had opted to work in the industry for 4 years.
Yet my case and my University may be the exception, different Uni’s obviously run different courses and some are better than others to prepare you for working life.
great post, thanks…
i think it is good to have a collage degree, but not in web development only
in Palestine collages are concerned with the core of the science, and they
are considering the web development as a secondary issue.
i have a B.S. in Software Engineering ,,, but all what i have had studded has
no relation with computer, as i think.
Programming, design, and other things i learned it during special courses out
the university or my self through books and the web, such as this amazing
web site.
in my study at the collage we have studded 8 courses of Math, and they
gave these courses much awareness than important courses such as web
design… isn’t that boring?
so my opinion is that studying the core of the science in the university is
required, but also it is the collage responsibility to give the student the
trust with himself after graduation by giving him courses such web design.
thanks for this discussion :)
Thanks ,
for the article
very interesting!
I have searched the internet time and time again for a good quality web design/development degree and could not find a program that I thought would be worth the large amounts of money most of them want. After reading many forum threads and articles including this one I found that it is best to enroll in a business degree program as so many web designers will be doing freelance work and will need good business skills. Besides you can get a job doing anything with a business degree if you find web design/dev is not for you later on. But like so many of you said, you can learn all there is to know about web design/dev on the net from sites like this as well as from the countless books out there. I have spent a long time thinking about what I should go to school for and I am soon enrolling in a business class with a focus in entrepreneurship and it will cost me nearly nothing compared to most of the web design schools out there. I’ll just get some certificates from w3schools to put up on the wall beside my business degree.
Firstly, this is a good debate. I personally think you should go to the University so learn web development or any other science for that matter.
I believe any one can do web development who takes interest in this and after all its not rocket science.
The differences come when you go for bigger software development jobs.
Not only that, going to University and studying a subject for 3-4 year makes you learn and understand various other aspects of computer science which a person sitting at home and doing development in php and mysql probably doesnt know.
Degree gives you an overall knowledge, however its not a way to secure a job. It just shows you different paths and you need to decide what you want to follow.
Having a degree and the skills makes you stand in the market with confidence and people will buy you. So if you have time and money, go for it.
I don’t know if this comment will ever get read, seeing as I’m late to the party (work just got in the way) and there are already a bunch of comments. I’ve come across this debate many times in the past, so here’s my take on this:
I agree that the technical aspect of what they teach in a university setting might not be the latest and greatest. I went to Cal State Northridge, which actually has a dedicated department for Multimedia (and a damn good one at that). Granted, I learned the bulk of what I do from job experience, but my classes and professors gave me such a solid grounding that it prepared me more for the larger world. There’s just no realistic way a university program can teach you the basics AND get you up to speed on the latest techniques in a 4 year program.
Technical stuff aside, the most important stuff I learned while at school was audience analysis and the theories behind media messages and practices. Technical stuff you can learn anywhere, but so many designers miss certain crucial things when it comes to effective design since they don’t know how to tailor their work for an audience. Your programming and Photoshop skills may be top notch, but if you can’t critically think about what your work is actually saying to your users or how to effectively reach an audience, you’re missing a big part of this business.
For example: the classic debate of Firefox vs. IE. If you are a professional with knowledge about who your audience is, the answer is…it has to work for everyone. Too many times I see designers say “I’m going to design it one way, and if people see things are wrong they’ll just have to upgrade their browser.” Ok, say someone is using IE6 and visits your site only to see a completely broken layout. Do you really think they’re first thought is “hey, maybe it’s my browser”. I guarantee you they just say “wow, this site is broken” and they’ll leave.
Being able to see the bigger picture aspects such as audience analysis have made my time at a university more than worth it.
I think this is only true with web development, here are some whys.
Can you build a commercial airplane without going to aviation school ?
Can you set up network server including software and hardware for fairly big social network without going to school ? (only few talents can do this without going to school. This is also IT, right?)
Can you build a small bridge with capacity of just 3 cars without going to construction school ?
Albeit, on the internet there is pretty much information about everything you ever need to archive anything you could ever imagine. But There is job which to be done you needed to have hands on experience. A person who wants to be a doctor even if he learns all medicine and surgery techniques on the net he still needs a body to practice with, but a web developer just need to have computer. That’s half of my point.
And Since web development tutorial is so easy to find not just because Google power, its also because the people who do web development are internet SAVVY, most of them have their own website and probably a blog,
they work closely with computer 24/7 (if he’s a hardcore developer), it’s a few clicks away to publish their knowledge or latest technique they just find out. Whilst a doctor work with patients most of the time and medical knowledge is hard to give away for free even the doctor want to give it away he needs investing time in writing a safe comprehensive medical advice. In the case web developer giving away their knowledge is also due to promoting themselves in IT world not just for helping or for fun, so it true that you can do web development without going to school, but its only true with web development.
I strongly agree with craig!
Also, learning web development is just a click away, The one with the highest enthusiasm and the most creative mind stands out.
The only reason why I might consider going to design school is only to meet other people with the same interests that I could share/get techniques from (although blogging could be a substitute), Talking with real people at real time is still the most effective way of learning.
Let’s face it, degrees are for academic subjects. Web development progresses far too quickly for a curriculum to be established.
The core elements of computer science (the computer science degrees that aren’t just a programming crash-course) haven’t changed much in a decade, we all still learn the theory and it can still be applied today.
A module or two on web development I can understand, such as in HTML & CSS, PHP or another scripting language. A degree in “Web Development” is a waste of time and money and it’s something that is very much self-taught.
Although I was strong in High school, I didn’t attend University, my mother could not afford it (my father I haven’t seen for at least 22 years (I’m 28)). Now I am working already, I don’t have time to attend university and I would not have the money anyway.
I worked some time after hours for free in an NGO and they taught me some Photoshop, they needed a webpage and also only knew some basic HTML working with tables and taught me that too. Until then I worked in construction but had to leave because of backpains. So I started teaching myself basic design with tutorial sites (this one didn’t exist, yet). And I had to re-learn HTML, ditching tables and using CSS instead.
Honestly, I get the job done, but I always have the feeling that I suck. Tutorial sites like this one are good, but they teach you just techniques, new trends, specific methods. What they are lacking are the basics, like the principles of typography, color theory, spacing, whitespace, those things. You could maybe read a SHORT article about these things, or even buy a book about these things, but they always lack cohesion between multiple topics and just don’t go to much into details. Only the general idea is given.
That’s the design part, now the coding part is even worse. I get HTML and CSS, but PHP or javascript I lack the motivation to learn them on my own. If I where in a building with a teacher and other students I had to learn, but in the comfort of my home this gets tedious. Yes, I can copy some pre-made PHP code here and there, figure my way around jQuery or even create a basic theme for WordPress. But write my own code? Big no no, for now. I hope this changes in the future.
I just recently started forcing myself to learn PHP and MySQL. For this purpose I bought a book. I feel it’s easier to force yourself to do something if you payed for it, although that hasn’t worked before. For now I am doing fine and I have the feeling this time it will work.
Spend time building an impressive portfolio and learning the skills you want, any employer in web development or design will prefer this to a limited portfolio and a degree. From personal experience, university tend to be behind on latest technology anyway.
I have been freelancing locally for a few years, but after my last deployment to Iraq I was forced to make a career move. As a disabled combat veteran with 10+ years in service I decided to go back to college for a degree in Web Design. With family responsibilities (3 kids just starting school, a wife, a home) and medical appointments 3-4 times a week, I chose to attend an online university for my degree.
Though the online system works well with my schedule, it does not provide the social interaction that a traditional campus delivers.
With an AA in IT and a little over a year to go for my BS in Web Design, I find myself asking this very question, is the piece of paper worth it?
I spend a good amount of time self-learning from blogs and various FREE websites. My struggle is making the time to do my school work in subjects unrelated to my career, and of course those that are related are a few (sometimes more) years behind.
I have to turn potential clients away simply because I do not have the time so I can complete my homework. It is very frustrating to think that I could be making money, building my portfolio, adding to my design / dev experience but can’t because I have to devote hours and hours to reading text books, writing papers, and the most frustrating part: building sites and apps that are outdated so they meet the requirements of the assignment!
I am considering dropping out of school so that I can pursue more work and have the time spent on school to spend on self teaching new trends and technology (and spending with the family).
I go to college online, so I will not miss out on the social aspect; I am middle-aged with lots of experiences, I need to jump-start my new career, not waste time learning outdated information.
I am on the last High School year. I am new into web desing and develepoment, but i will try to get good at this. I have a question. Is there anyway to contact Jeffrey Way? I looked for an E-mail adress on his web site, or to try send an message on the Twitter but i can’t. Jeffrey how can i contact you?
Thanks!
Being keen and having an eye for design and believing in yourself will get you a job in the end, just make sure you have an up to date and impressive portfolio.
I would say you should definitely go to college before you enter any profession – be it web design and development or computer science. The main reason is that college education imparts life skills such as clear thinking and independent decision-making and moulds you into well rounded personalities. Besides, not all skills learned in college can be picked up on the job. For example, a graphic design degree not only teaches the necessary tools and applications used for designing, but also imparts business skills that students need to function in a professional environment. Even the Department of Labor has stated that graphic designers with a college degree are likely to enjoy best job prospects.
Doing a degree for a profession like Law is essential but its not as important to gain a degree in a subject like web development and I am telling you this from personal experience. When I graduated in Computer Science I was already at a disadvantage because there were many people who did the work route and not the education root which meant that they had an advantage over me.
Everything you need to know can be found on the internet in the form of a tutorial. I gained a degree with very little programming knowledge and then learnt what I know now (PHP, CSS, Ajax) from forums/tutorials/blogs and I am currently learning about XML from this website.
I know that some people wont agree with what I am saying but this is just my opinion.
Sorry here is the website:
http://www.liquid-technologies.com/xml
Hi,
I you’re a XML student and you need an XML editor, you can get one for free: http://www.xmlblueprint.com/.
Thank you,
Jamie