Work/Study Abroad Programs for Computer Science Majors? 9
Sheeplet asks: "I'm a computer science major almost finishing my second year in college. I've been hit by the travel bug, and am extremely jealous of language, religion, history, business, and just about every other major because it seems as though major efforts are made on the part of school to offer them study abroad programs. However, I've never seen any type of Computer Science study abroad program, and I'm wondering: do people in other countries just not learn about computers?"
"I don't think this is true, so I don't understand why there aren't opportunities for Computer Science students (from the US, well where I am anyway) to study abroad? Does anyone have any good resources they could offer me on this subject so that I can get some traveling and experience done while still in school?"
Study Abroad (Score:1)
I'm actually studying a CS course abroad myself and i found it relativly easy to do so. I am european though (irish) which makes it easier as the EU have already put in place the ERASMUS program. A system which helps uni's, college's and students transfer and interact.
The college i study at is based in the south of france and is called the 'IUP of Avignon' www.iup.univ-avignon.fr. And is one of the fore fronters in voice recognition and natrual language research in the world
In regard to your slanderous comment (QUOTE 'I'm wondering: do people in other countries just not learn about computers?") Yes computers do actually exist in other countries and yes we do learn about them.
In france for example the level at my university is so high that in the SECOND year of the course the students are required to write their own MINI OS.(fork's,sig's,IPC,f-sys,buffer cache) and all topped off with a nice little shell.
If you want to travel abroad and find another uni to study (CS) at you will have to do a lot of communication work and a lot of HARD HARD ground work. Learning CS can be difficult enough at times but when it's through another language and nobody around you wants to talk one word of english the difficuilty factor is raised by another degree.
At Notre Dame... (Score:1)
Instead, the College of Engineering offers a summer study abroad program in London which consists of two general engineering courses. One class is an economics class, and the other is an ethics class. Both are in the context of engineering in general. While both have very little to do with my major, it is part of my "well-rounded education".
So, I would check out your engineering office and see what they have to offer. If worse comes to worse, take the summer off, get a couple buds, and travel for a month.
Try the Geek Corps (Score:3)
The geekcorps [geekcorps.org]: currently their doing work in Ghana.
Geekcorps is a non-profit (501c3) organization committed to expanding the Internet revolution internationally by pairing skilled volunteers from the high-tech world with small businesses in emerging nations.
at my school (Score:2)
we have a program where you get a year of instruction in germany, in english, during the junior year
when you come back, you are still on track to graduation, and assuming you survive your senior year, you graduate with both a bs from this school, and a useless* degree from the german university
* it is useless because its a 4 year degree, and most german employers demand a 5 year degree, but it looks good to us employers i suppose
if you want to know more, email me, and i'll tell you what school i go to (i don't want to blatently advertise for them on
Lots of them (Score:1)
I recommend going in to your college's study abroad office and talking to someone about what you are looking to get out of an abroad program. There's tons of options, and they probably know of some that aren't publicized within your school very much.
Also try doing a google [google.com] search for "computer science study abroad" or "computer science exchange program". Should give you some ideas of what schools abroad to look at.
I made my own (Score:2)
Nonetheless, it was my intent upon entrance to SDSU to graduate and return to Japan (where I lived in High School, when my Dad got a job at the Navy base in Yokosuka - just south of Tokyo). A major problem I faced with the exchange programs that were offered, though, were that they were all geared toward culture or business.
There were only two exchange programs that put the student going to Japan in with mainstream Japanese students. Two people had decided to go to one, so I wanted to go to the other. But on one condition, that I could take classes involving Computer Science.
After several talks with the exchange program councelors, who then contacted Yokohama National University to see if what I wanted was possible, it was arranged. I was "officially" assigned to the Kyoiku-gakubu ("College of Education"), but when I signed up for classes, with the exception of one class, I took all available 2nd through 4th year computer related classes in the Ko-gakubu ("College of Engineering").
Let me tell you. I was completly baffled the first few weeks of classes. None of the teachers wrote anything even resembling the Kanji that I knew. Even when they said what they were writing, which were things I knew I could read, the characters on the board didn't look anything like those I'd learned. Well, I learned how to read cursive really quick. (It's little things like this that aren't covered in foreign language study, but are quite necessary should one become immerced in a foreign culture.)
Before that year, I could get by in Japan. And I had long before taught myself how to read a lot of technical (computer related) articles (Japanese computer magazines, books, and manuals - thanks to my Kanji-English dictionary). I had to be self taught since even the Japanese language courses focused only on business and culture. But I really learned how to start communicating in Japanese that year. Regardless of what kinds of marks I got in class, I learned more of what I needed to fulfill my goal that year than in the previous three.
Of note, the classes weren't all that difficult in content. It was the language that was the biggest challenge. So, in a way, it helped consolidate all that I'd learned up until then in English about programming. Having to think about all of those first and second year concepts again in a different language (not programming language - but I find that it helps as well) did a great deal to help me come to grips with them.
Another thing that should be noted, Japanese universities struck me as odd in that they're very difficult to get into, but fairly easy to graduate from. It kind of seemed to me that it was a short vacation after working so hard to get into the university that kids got to have before entering the rat race. The U.S. educational system seems to be the opposite. Easy to get up to and into college, but not so easy to graduate.
The administration at Yokohama wanted to give me something special, as I was the first person to go on that program that actually attended all of his (or her) classes. It seems that in the past, all of the other participants found part time jobs to spend all of their time at. One wonders what their goal$ were.
My school has a study abroad program for CS (Score:2)
"Homo sum: humani nil a me alienum puto"
(I am a man: nothing human is alien to me)
Foreign exchange (Score:1)
I'm into CS Ed, something that's not really paid a lot of attention yet here in the Philippines. I've been eyeing Monash University in Australia (activity, degree program, and proximity to Australasian educational conferences), Uppsala University in Sweden, and UCBerkeley.
I want to do this now! <laugh> I'm also finishing my second year of college, and I want to get started on research and things like that. We don't really have a lot of research opportunities in the Philippines, and my teachers are working on different things. I guess I'll put aside my CS ed interests first and work on networks or programmming, but I'd really love international collaboration, maybe a foreign exchange program or two.
Hope you find the program of your dreams. Maybe you can make one. =)
Go for the experience, not for the CS (Score:2)
While yes, they do teach computer science (or the local equivalent) in every country, I don't think that's what you should focus on. You've said that you have the travel bug, so that's the itch to scratch. You can always take some summer make-up classes or whatever you need to do. Having lived in another country is far more valuable for you as a person, as an employee, as a friend, as a manager, as a spouse, as a parent, in almost any role you'll take on later in life, than having taken one more CS course.
Also bear in mind that you do not need to go on organized exchange programs that litters your international center with brochures and videotapes. You just have to find a school in a place that interests you, and convince your school to take their credits.
Most schools will take almost any halfway-decent student from almost any halfway-decent school for a semester, so don't sweat the admissions too much.
My advice to you would be to steer far clear of western Europe, especially UK, France & Italy - the countries where all the "I want to say I went overseas but I'm scared shitless of anything foreign" people go (you know the ones: They disappear for three months and come back with an accent to prove how cosmopolitan they've become). Head to Ecuador, to Korea, to Malaysia, to Kazakhstan, to Senegal, to Syria. Go somewhere interesting where you'll really learn something about yourself, and about the ways that life can be different from how it is at home.