Junior & Senior CS Curriculum Plan for UIUC - Realistic?

anom217
Mon, 07 May 2012 11:50:11 +0000

“database systems, networks, computer security/information assurance, computer graphics, parallel processing algorithms, data mining”

While these courses are useful (and usually required) at an undergrad level, taking many of them at the MS level is often a complete waste of time. Unless you’re a network engineer, you’re not going to need to know anymore than what you learned from your undergrad networking course. Same thing with computer graphics, infosec, data mining, etc. You really won’t use them 99% of the time, unless your job is specifically focused on that subject matter.

However, no matter what you do, you will have to use software engineering principles and methods in your work. And since many companies either lack a formal approach to building software or are simply misguided in their practices, being skilled in this field is very useful. You may end up in places that practice SE competently and learn a lot, but there is also a significant chance you will be following inept SE methods at certain employers and continue to take along these flawed practices. And it can be real ugly when it’s bad.