The only constant in this world is change.
If you asked last year, what major is the most popular? Computers will certainly be one of them. But in just over a year, ChatGPT was born, Silicon Valley was in turmoil into a "cold winter", and technology talent seemed to be hit hard.
If you want to ask now to study abroad, do you still choose a computer major? Perhaps quite a few people will put a question mark. After all, no one expected that the hat of "graduation is unemployment" might one day fall on the head of computer majors.
Has the computer major really fallen to the "altar"? Do you still want to choose to study abroad? We spoke with senior study abroad experts, job search tutors, and computer science students.
We discussed the current situation and future of the computer major, and also discussed the matter of "choosing a major" in the current change.
Full video link: https://m.kankanews.com/live/AZQYL9lexyd
Dialogue panelists
01
Transcoding and employment are two days of ice and fire
Recently, Princeton University released the latest data of current students, showing that more than 20% of undergraduate students, whether double major or major, choose computer.
At the same time, Carnegie Mellon University, which ranks first in the United States in computer science, has a lower acceptance rate for its computer school than Ivy League schools. Computers still seem to be a big hit in the study abroad circle.
Senior study abroad expert Yuan Zhengxiang introduced that in fact, computer science is not only equivalent to Computer Science.
Overseas computer majors include CE and CS.
CE refers to computer engineering (computer engineering), some hardware, and network, communication is closer, its research topics mainly include: network, multimedia computing, VLSI system, etc.
The more popular CS major is more software technology. There are many subdivisions under CS, which are also hot now: such as software engineering, databases, artificial intelligence, computer graphics, human-computer interaction, programming languages and information science, etc.
In addition, there are some software and hardware majors such as information systems, which are actually counted under the computer category.
Computer majors have both "prospects" and "money prospects", from the previous Internet fever to the current artificial intelligence fever, attracting countless outstanding talents to pour into it.
Therefore, "transcoding" has become a high-frequency word in many international students in recent years.
Transcoding
It refers to students with non-CS backgrounds who choose to change majors to pursue CS under the motivation of high-paying Package.
But while the students in the ivory tower were still rolling CS, the outside world was already changing.
Jerry, a senior international student job search mentor, told us that since last summer's vacation, there have been signs of success: it has become difficult for overseas technology giants to become positive and uncertainty has become high. Meta's summer intern quota was extended until after December.
"We understand that there are about 150,000 very senior engineers in the job market throughout Silicon Valley and the Bay Area waiting to be digested by the labor market. This phenomenon directly causes a lot of pressure on fresh graduates.
Then we see a very clear trend: a large proportion of the transcoding students are directly dissuaded. ”
In Jerry's view, the cold job market is only a phase, and ups and downs are actually normal. But for many "brainless transcoding" students, it may be a good thing.
Taking advantage of such an opportunity, what you should do is to calmly think about whether you want to transcode, not just blindly follow the trend because of high salary or good employment.
Cindy, who graduated from Tongji University with a bachelor's degree in software engineering, is an atypical "transcoding" classmate. She originally studied aerospace and mechanics in college, because they are both engineering subjects, and she will also take some programming classes. It was also in her programming class that she found herself more interested in this direction and decided to switch majors to software engineering.
After graduating, she chose to work as a programmer in a foreign company.
"When I was in school, getting the program running was done. But when you really enter the workplace, you will find that writing programs is only the most basic part, and you need to know too much. ”
It is precisely because of this work experience that she sees her future clearly: she hopes to be more than just a "code farmer". After working for a year, she decided to apply for graduate studies at overseas universities.
She has received graduate offers from CMU, Cornell Tech, UCLA, Columbia, UIUC, NYU and many other prestigious universities. The last place to go is Cornell Tech.
Cornell Tech is Cornell University's graduate school and research center, located on Roosevelt Island, Manhattan, New York City. It offers courses in technology, business, and design.
Jointly established by Cornell University and Technion, the school aims to lead industry change through technological innovation, incubating high-tech startups and cultivating related high-tech talents.
Cindy chose Connective Media, a two-year program that is computer plus some commercial content, hoping to not only improve technology, but also gain insight into the human and social factors behind technology. Cindy said that she is not a technology god, and she will not be very "technologically controlled" in the future, and she hopes to try more diversified possibilities.
From her body, we can see that she has a clear self-positioning, and has found a good balance between the two hot words of "transcoding" and "employment".
02
The IT industry depends on academic qualifications or abilities
CS Undergraduate/Graduate Application Advice
Some time ago, Musk said that Tesla is recruiting people with excellent programming skills for the society, and he also made it clear that Tesla does not care about the educational background of candidates: "Education does not matter."
He's not just talking about it, which is reflected in the current employees employed by SpaceX and Tesla. Not long ago, 14-year-old genius Kairan Quazi joined SpaceX as a software engineer.
He went straight to Santa Clara University at age 11 with a degree in computer science engineering and graduated at age 14 as the youngest graduate ever from Santa Clara University.
Although this case seems a bit "extreme", it can also show that the computer industry still attaches great importance to ability, which has nothing to do with age or education.
Jerry shared that there are many technology giants in the United States that have junior internship programs, which are open to freshmen, sophomores, and even high school students.
So if you want to read CS, how should you plan your further education route?
Yuan Zhengxiang said that if he wants to study CS, he does not recommend applying directly to American universities. Most of the CS majors in American universities are set up under the School of Engineering or Computer Science, and the application adopts the "comprehensive review" system, which will require students to show strong hard verification of CS, which is very demanding for students and is very difficult to apply.
If Meiben wants to read CS, he recommends changing majors later. However, this brings that the professional foundation may not be solid enough, and it is necessary to improve professional strength through internship work or follow-up postgraduate study.
In contrast, CS majors in British universities assess students' basic subject ability, which is easier for high school students to "reach" professionally.
But in the past two years, the competition for CS majors has been in full swing, and the application ratio of Imperial College has reached about 24:1. Students should think about whether they are really strong, enthusiastic and talented enough before applying.
At the same time, Uncle Da and Jerry both agreed that CS is a very "practical" major. Especially if you want to apply for graduate school, it is a big plus for students like Cindy who have work experience.
Indeed, Cindy's graduate application confirms this. In addition to getting offers from many computer schools, she also received scholarships. When asked about the application secret, she shared: Be sure to be clear about what kind of students the school wants.
For example, her graduate program at Cornell Tech requires students to have skills, leadership, and creativity. She accurately shows these three points in the document↓
Creativity→ Participated in the Daiso project during his undergraduate years
Leadership→ experience as a project manager during the job
Technical ability → combined with the above two points
Teacher Yuan especially reminded that if the application for graduate students in the CS direction in the past two years does not have a few paragraphs of experience in the materials, and there is no technical content and dry content, the result will be very "tragic".
03
When ChatGPT may replace programmers
Where is the future of CS majors
Harvard recently announced a blockbuster decision: starting in September, the Ivy League school's flagship program, Introduction to Computer Science (CS50), will use a tool similar to ChatGPT, the "robot mentor", to assist human professors and students in the classroom to achieve a 1:1 student-to-faculty ratio.
Many famous computer majors in the United States have recently taken new actions, such as USC opened the "Computer Science Frontier Program" and established an advanced computer college; UCB opens a new School of Computer Science, etc.
It can be seen that when ChatGPT begins to replace programmers, the discipline of computer science must also need some changes, and it is no longer enough to teach students how to program and write code.
One obvious change is that we can see CS begin to intersect with more and more disciplines. For example, the now very popular Data Science (data science) and data engineering data engineering are actually comprehensive applications of data, computers, statistical tools and some mathematics.
In the future, the prefix computational will be added to various disciplines.
Cindy also said that there are specialties such as health technology and urban technology in Cornell Tech. It is to use AI computer technology to solve some urban and health problems, so that the discipline of computer can be applied to more fields and more landed.
From an employment perspective, the emergence of ChatGPT is both a crisis and an opportunity. While it replaces some modular positions, it also spawns some emerging professions, such as Prompt Engineer, and more tests your ability to command AI.
This also warns students in the CS direction that the world is undergoing a new transformation, from the era of professionals to the era of generalists.
Today's more sought-after computer talent is not just technical nerds in plaid shirts. In the future, the society needs more compound talents with strong comprehensive ability.
At the same time, Jerry also reminded students in the CS direction that under the impact of ChatGPT, the employment direction can open up ideas: computer major employment ≠ into Internet technology companies.
Computer science students have logical thinking ability, not only suitable for the position of software engineers, but also in the field of finance and business.
At the same time, it is not only technology companies that have software engineer positions, all walks of life are IT, and many consulting companies and investment banks are actually expanding the recruitment of AI talents.
Curiosity, vision, and observation of the industry are more important than computer skills alone.
The computer profession has not fallen to the "altar", it is just constantly evolving. But in the face of such a popular major, please do not leave obsession, there is no evergreen major, let alone eternal "golden rice bowl" skills.
The road to learning is long, and the establishment of ability, methodology and way of thinking will be useful for life compared to choosing a popular major. There are endless possibilities ahead, and you and I still have to work hard.