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Hey, what's up? I've received a lot of questions about two-year degrees in programming
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especially about getting an associate's degree in computer science rather than a four-year
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bachelor's degree. First, let's take a look at what it takes to get an associate's degree in
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computer science, and then we can compare it to the other options to figure out if it's worth it
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So here's the requirements for an associate's degree from a local university. First off
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you'll need to pass 62 credit hours of classes. 39 of those are generals. History, ethics, and
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values. You just won't need most of these to become a programmer. I mean, the most useful
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classes here are really going to be the writing classes and one lower division math class
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Then there's the corex. These are the classes that are specific to the field you're going into. Two
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of the seven are math classes. The other five are related to programming. That's just under a quarter
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of the classes being actual computer science courses. And those core classes are lower
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division classes, which means they're going to give you a broad introduction to programming
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concepts. You're also going to learn a little bit about web development, and it looks like even
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some assembly, some basic algorithm stuff, and that's at least going to be two programming
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languages right there. Don't get me wrong, these classes are going to help you in your career
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but you aren't going to be spending enough time on any one particular topic to really develop
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enough proficiency to have it make a huge impact. Much of the coursework is going to involve theory
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at the expense of hands-on experience. Compare that to someone who decides to go to a boot camp
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or to a specialized trade school, and they end up focusing on learning technologies and practical
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skills in areas that are in high demand, and they're getting a lot of hands-on experience
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and they're even going to come away from that experience with a portfolio that they can show
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to a potential employer. Consider this, by the time you finish your general courses
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someone else has already graduated from a boot camp. They might even already have an entry-level
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job long before you even get to your computer science classes. Here's the thing, if you are
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already willing to commit two years to an academic program, then you should just bite the bullet and
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go all the way and spend the four years and get a computer science degree. I know that's what I
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would do if I was starting over, and I wouldn't even worry about the specifics of the associate's
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degree requirements and trying to get that before getting the bachelor's degree. I just work straight
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on the bachelor's degree and get that done as soon as possible. And the reason for that is an
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associate's degree just is not going to carry the same weight as a bachelor's degree in computer
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science. If getting the four-year degree isn't an option, I would seriously consider going down the
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path of an intensive boot camp or trade school or even going down the self-taught route to becoming
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a programmer. If I were looking at two job applicants and one had an associate's degree
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in computer science and the other had six months at a boot camp and a year and a half experience
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I would likely go for the boot camp grad. This person would have more practical experience and
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would likely be able to just hit the ground running. There are definitely ways to become a successful programmer without getting a college degree, and some of those strategies are way
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better than others. In this video up here, I'm going to share the strategies that I personally used to become a self-taught software developer, and I'll see you in the next one. Leets
