I am a student enrolled at Tourou University International in the BSCS program. Recently I received a letter about major changes in the BSCS program. Virtually all of the courses in the previous program are either gone or seriously modified and replaced with other stuff. Much of the new stuff is mainstream(that which is popular today) and that kind of stuff. Many of the older coursers that are gone were really suited to my needs and I really wanted to study those instead of the new stuff and I really feel let down by these changes and I feel I will learn less valueble stuff. The changes seem to center all attention on high level languages like all of the web programming languages and database stuff, ASP, JSP, PHP, etc. Virtually all of the lower level languages are gone, C is gone completely, there is one C++ course but it is combined with java and C# in one course which is absurd! This is a terrible let down. I think it is terrible to not discuss C before C++ and considering that C is the language in which most operating systems are written by the most part. I dont get it. There are virtually no serious computing and programming courses except these high level languages that teach you nothing about the internals of the computer,operating system, memory, cpu, etc. I mean in my oppinion they are supposed to teach you the real deal, C, C++ and ASM and then you can by yourself buy an ASP, PHP or whatever book and learn it in a week. A person with a strong background in lower level languages learns these higher level languages in a very short period but on the other hand the people that learn high level languages have a harder time learning these lower level languages especially asm, because they are simply more difficult and require more knowledge about the computer, memory, registers, cpu and other things. I dont want to study computer science when I am not really learning the science of computers and these languages like ASP, PHP, etc all go through a pre-processor that reads the scripts and runs it. The pre-processor for PHP is written in C by the way and I doubt they will teach the mechanics of it. I dont know what to think. According to the college they are bound by the plan that I was taking but they are no longer offering the courses that I had on my plan so they can't do anything for me. I can take these courses they are now offering but I wont learn anything from it and it doesn't compare to the previous program in my opinion. So the thing to do would be 1. deal with. 2. Switch schools. Has anyone gone through anything like this and has any advice/recommendations for me because I am not looking to get just a degree, I want to learn stuff that is challenging and something that I need and is really helpfull, not just the language of the month. Thanks,
This seems to be a problem with most online BSCS programs - too much fluff (it's applied, useful fluff, but it's fluff that belongs more in CIS programs than CS programs). Only a handful of expensive options (like New Jersey Institute of Technology) treat their online BSCS like a serious CS program (with all the compiler, operating system, assembly classes intact). My suggestion if you're far enough into the program that switching isn't a great option is to finish the program and then get a masters in CS. There are many more "real" MSCS programs available online than BSCS programs.
Wow, that really puts you in an awkward position. I have to agree that Touro's new CS curriculum looks more like an IT curriculum. If you still have a ways to go in the program then you could switch to another school, such as the one at NJIT. I like Jeff's recommendation of getting an MS in CS, but that may also require more time and money. Another option is to finish a bachelor's degree (such as a BA in CS) relatively quickly from a place like TESC, making sure that you take all of the prerequisites for a grad program along the way, and follow that up with an MS in CS. While the undergrad degree may not be as strong as you'd like, once you get the MS you should be ahead of the game. That's what I chose to do, but you'd have to evaluate whether or not that would work for you. For me it turns out that I could get a BA followed by an MS in not much more time and money than it would have taken to just get a BS, but that might not be the case for you. There are some very good schools, such as the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, offering solid MS in CS programs online, if you can get accepted. Otherwise, there are still MS in CS programs available at places such as Nova Southeastern or Capitol College (where I'm enrolled). The U of I or Nova programs would probably fit your needs pretty well, and there are many other graduate CS programs out there. The key to that path would be figuring out how to finish a bachelor's degree quickly while also picking up the prerequisites that you'd need for grad school.
