Three-Year Bachelor's Degrees Could Become the Standard—If Accreditors Allow It

[spohara]

I'd argue that a well rounded education in the only reason to get a college degree. Just thinking of CS - what is the value of a degree? You get the underlying theory of CS a little more (in some programs) than a bootcamp perhaps, but your day 1 usefulness on the job would be higher from a bootcamp vs a college degree. But in your degree program, you also are required to string two sentences together (English comp), required to think critically about the world around you (social science), you're required to learn the scientific method, you have a foundation in mathematics that will translate to more difficult problems, you may take some business courses that give you a baseline understanding of that aspect of software development, and finally for the softer side of things, art and aesthetics, just go back and watch Steve Jobs commencement speech where he talks about his class on calligraphy that he took just because, and it inspired him to create better typefaces for Apple computers.

I'm 100% for the idea of a 3 year degree to make things more affordable for students with significant work experience. But I'm glad I took acting 101, chemistry, calc, project management, western lit, and many others because I've borrowed concepts from all of them to form my mental models on how the world works. I hope a 3 year degree would still require coursework in those areas that wouldn't be covered by the work experience.