@valpotx YOu went a lot more in depth than my explanation, but all is still true. FAANG k basically turned the industry upside down. Now I have to make sure I know every Leetcode question by heart. Have at least 3 internships, and 40 projects all before graduation. Oh, an I have to have at least 100 people added on linked in. Still a sophmore in standing, but the grind does not stop.
What I mainly have an issue with is people who think that AI is going to take over coding jobs. Im sorry, but when AI only knows how to copy code off of Stack Overflow or GfG and is marketed as an "Innovative Coding Mind" I have serious doubts that AI will ever be able to independently code. My former professor wrote the "For Dummies" books on CS and he claims all AI will ever be able to truley do is assist in coding. His best quote, "If you can be replaced by a bot, you probably aren't a good coder"
Yeah, I feel for the CS classes that have graduated in the last 2 years and in the upcoming years. I have so many that reach out to me about opportunities, as the companies with internships don't always end up offering a FTE job at the end. Especially heading into your Junior year, make sure that the next few internships you take have that opportunity, otherwise it becomes much more difficult to find that first post-grad job. Once you get a job under your belt after college, you'll never need to worry about a job again, however. You are correct on AI, in that our Devs are always talking about how basic the code is that these tools write at this time. It will take a long time, if ever, for the tools to truly replace any US-based Devs. On the other hand, AI might replace a good amount of the outsourcing that has happened in the last 10+ years, as there is always a lot of code correction that happens when you go into an outsourcing/offshoring model for any part of your work, which isn't that different from what you have to do with AI-generated code.
@valpotx Fortunately a lot of the internships in the region are FTE. I dont want to even try to get internships outside of Chicago and NWI because of how cutthroat everything is. I also know NiSource is a pretty good place to look because of their plans to revamp NIPSCO within the next 10 years. I also, unlike most people, will look for internships that arent purely SE, cuz that is also what kills a lot of people
I agree that AI may well not impact/replace Computer Science as fast as healthcare and the health-care adjacent sciences.
I am more in the healthcare world, and there is a lot of chatter about how tech/AI advances may well put certain healthcare professionals out of jobs. Obviously in a specialty like ER medicine you're always going to need pretty close human ER doc and ER nurse oversight in stressful situations and fast-paced decision-making.
But especially in regular run-of-the mill or elder care, hospital or nursing home management is looking to save money every opportunity they can if they don't actually have to staff human providers to go into the patient room. Why could you not have robots deliver the meds to rooms, just as Starship robots cars deliver food orders on many college campuses? (saw them at Notre Dame all over the place). And could it actually be safer to have AI rather than humans do sensitive calculations for anaesthesia delivery, or pain meds for hospice? In addition to saving money, the hospitals can make a case for avoiding human error.
I would highyl reccomend looking into some of the videos of amazon fulfillment centers and their issues with their robot workforce. Or how rides such as Runaway Railway and other disney magnet rides operate under a less than desirable downtime ratio. Robots cannot, and probably will never be able to fulfill medicinal deliveries to patients in nursing homes. Starship also has issues of people being less than kind to their bots and food orders being lost is common
Hot off the press. Comprehensive and insightful, IMO.
US College Enrollment Decline – 2024 Facts & Figures
April 22, 2024
Looking at that article and wondering if it takes into account the 7.2 million undocumented immigrants that have come into the US in the last 3 years. I have no idea if this could help to offset the birth rate decline or what percentage of these people will be of college age in the next 5 years, what is their inclination to attend college etc. etc.
Today is usually decision day for prospective students, a date when the expectation of fall enrollment begins to clarify. However, due to the FAFSA debacle at the Department of Education, the situation has become dire for many students, families, and universities. As of now, the number of students who have submitted federal financial aid forms is down 29% from normal at this time, which may be reflected in the shortfall of current enrollment numbers for fall semester at VU and everywhere else.
Like other universities, Valpo has extended its deadline from May 1 to June 1. However, I had coffee yesterday at the university with someone who said in Indiana the state financial aid deadline has already passed, which particularly impacts Valpo. Also, he commented that he feared current negative publicity, not necessarily about VU discontinuance news but also generally surrounding universities across the country, many higher tuition institutions, might cause families to hesitate and think twice about the elevated cost of higher education. This could further take away incentive from those who might make late decisions about submitting financial aid applications, perhaps diminishing overall enrollment.
More on the FASA from USAToday.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/05/01/fafsa-rollout-timeline-key-events/73492356007/
And according to the NYT, the demographic worst hit by this situation is families in the moderate to low income brackets who aspire to top-ranked colleges (usually private). That has to hurt Valpo.
Obviously, a family pulling in $500K a year can send their kid anywhere the kid can get into. But even there, it’s a major crapshoot, because the application rates to expensive, “desirable” institutions (i.e., IVY+, NESCAC, etc.) are blowing up. Middlebury College in Vermont — 700+ slots had over 13,000 applications; Duke in NC — over 54,000 applications for 1,750 slots.
Yikes!
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/college-admissions-applications.html
The FAFSA rollout has been one disaster after another. Beyond how this has created unnecessary challenges for prospective students, their families, and universities, another frustrating aspect of this is that no one in the US Dept of Education will lose their job over this.
Common App has really lead to lots of over applying to elite schools, which leads to more declines which leads to lower acceptance rates which is a marker of elite status which encourages more applying as well.
Also, why do I have to hear every time someone at Harvard or Yale does something stupid for ten weeks in the news but this has gotten so little national attention where maybe some outside news pressure could have really moved the needle earlier
More on the FASA from USAToday.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/graphics/2024/05/01/fafsa-rollout-timeline-key-events/73492356007/
And according to the NYT, the demographic worst hit by this situation is families in the moderate to low income brackets who aspire to top-ranked colleges (usually private). That has to hurt Valpo.
Obviously, a family pulling in $500K a year can send their kid anywhere the kid can get into. But even there, it’s a major crapshoot, because the application rates to expensive, “desirable” institutions (i.e., IVY+, NESCAC, etc.) are blowing up. Middlebury College in Vermont — 700+ slots had over 13,000 applications; Duke in NC — over 54,000 applications for 1,750 slots.
Yikes!https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/01/opinion/college-admissions-applications.html
wow, I didn't know that Middlebury was that selective/popular! My sister graduated from Middlebury in 2005, and played Volleyball for them, as well as participating on the Cheerleading team. I saw recently that she is still in the top 5 of several assist categories, after she moved from Defensive Specialist to Setter for her final 2 years.
(Broken record point: The US News rankings are driving so much of the applications trends. How ironic that a 4th Tier news magazine transformed itself into the leading influencer of college application decisions.)
@david81 Amen to this comment. I went through college selection with two daughters prior to going into academia and we looked seriously at these rankings. Then I went into academia and over time got visibility to how these rankings are created (not just USNWR, but most or all of the rankings). People responding to surveys who are not qualified to assess a wide range of universities. Excessive weighting on factors that have little applicability to or negatively impact undergraduates. Scoring methods that result in splitting hairs such that the 30th ranked school could be 0.2 points out of 100 possible points versus the 90th ranked school.
In many ways, universities and their Colleges have no choice but to work the rankings system. Still, you need to work to get your message out - not just a generalized "we're great as a University" message, but also (and equally or more so) why each College is great for the people interested in disciplines within that College.
