It's always amazing to me how people are willing to enter into jobs or universities without taking the time to analyze whether the company or the college is right for them. I suppose it has to do with the buyer-seller relationship; in both cases, the individual is being accepted by management or admissions people and does not feel worthy to make judgments of such institutions. In some cases, of course, money and geography will determine what colleges are reasonably available to the student, but if there is an opportunity to compare colleges, I urge you to do so.
Here are some questions you might ask before making a decision:
Ask the college administration what computers are available for hands-on use. Make your own tour to ascertain that the answer is accurate.
Try to determine to what degree the data processing department is keeping up with the state of the art. Look for an abundance of technical manuals and trade journals. Chat with the teaching staff, and formulate some questions to lead them into a discussion of what continuing involvement they have with the field.
The fact that a data processing department at a university is filled with exotic equipment doesn't necessarily mean that you'll have unlimited access to it. Determine what restrictions are placed upon student use.
Talk with one of the guidance counselors and make sure that the scheduling of courses will not make it unduly difficult for you to take all those that you feel are necessary.
The back of virtually every college admissions brochure contains a list of faculty and their credentials.
While a healthy smattering of advanced-degree teachers is good, you might also pay particular attention to any professional and business credentials faculty members possess. Computer science taught from a purely academic perspective often falls short in preparing a student for the practical realities of a data-processing career.
Randy Pace and Warner Coffman, data-processing specialists in our St. Louis franchise, add another reason to seek out a school in which at least a good number of the professors are connected with industry. Not only does it promise a more up-to-date approach to teaching data processing, but it puts you in touch with people who have connections with businesses in your area. Get to know these professors; they could become a good source of job leads upon graduation.
- Ask other students any questions that will enable you to judge the reliability of the answers you've received from faculty members and staff. I don't mean to imply that university officials would be deliberately dishonest with a potential student. It's just that a faculty's perception of a university's facilities and procedures is often different from that of its student body.
- Ask graduates of the school whether they thought that the training they received and their degree from that particular school were helpful to them in entering the data-processing industry and in helping them achieve career growth in it.
Ask especially about the placement office at the university. Does its staff really make an attempt to place students in industry, or is it more of a counseling service that results in few actual placements? But remember, finding a good job will, in all probability, be your responsibility.
Finally, even though their education was good enough to get them a job, did it give them sufficient knowledge to succeed in their first job?
- Ask local industry how many graduates of the university you're considering attending have been hired. Try to get some candid evaluation of how local industry leaders view the training of graduates from that university.
But those four years provide the educational foundation for everything you will do in the future, and to enter into such a prolonged course of study without doing your homework is, at best, not very smart.