CSci has no earning potential in the future....dont know why anyone would say that. Some people just make poor choices. Consider my case. I was accepted to a top 20 business school to enter the #1 ranked MIS program. It is literally the hardest program here to get into at any level, harder than our med school, law, dental. They were turning away 4.0s, and refused to process transfers without a 3.8. The average day one salary was $50K and rising by 5K per year, at least. I spurned Northwestern and Notre Dame to come here. The whole first two years, I was the envy of everyone. I told them I was in MIS, and the business school here, and without fail, they would say either "You are going to be so loaded" or "Wow, I wish I could get into that". I bought a nearly brand new sports car and was on top of the world. The future could have not been brighter for me. I was enjoying my classes and doing very well in them. My cousins accepted job offers of $70K plus during this time right out of state universities with lower reputations. I was ready to add a sixth digit to my W-2 by the time I was 25 and to have a steady job that I loved for life.
Two stories which stand out to me about the power of fate and choices:
My friend from high school was a basketball star, but not on the level of being recruited by anyone of note. He slid all the way through school, barely graduating. The kid handed in his chemistry final during junior year after ten minutes with "I don't care" written on it. He applied to my school with dreams of starting a dot-com with me during freshman year, but was rejected entirely from the university, and was never close to MIS. He was accepted at a school instate that took nearly anyone, and transferred after two years to another mediocre school. Where is he today, four years after we all graduated high school? Starting medical school in the fall.
The first week of school here, I started dating a girl who was in our General College, the probationary arm of the university. GC is basically high school for the athletes and those extreme fringe students. She had a 16 ACT in high school, and a sub-2.5 GPA. Her first two years here, she was below a 2.0, even in the low challenge environment of GC. I had to help her with her sciences, as a business major, so she could even make Cs in them. She was on academic probation and had to transfer home. People told me to give up on her, that we were headed in different directions and that I should aim higher. We broke up, mostly because of the distance though. After another transfer, where does she stand today? Graduating in nursing in May 2004. She already has job offers on the table at a great salary. Yes, they were right about us going in opposite directions.
Where am I today? I had a small handful of interviews this fall and spring, mostly for positions that the company chose to not fill at all. The MIS program currently can't even fill the seats with anyone, let alone be selective. Over 70% of my elite MIS class, of which I am in the top 10% of, will walk at graduation on Sunday without a job. I am one of them. My "offer" on graduation day was from TGI Friday's, as a waiter. I have virtually no chance of ever working a day in my field, ever. I will have to pursue an entirely new major or career if I ever want a chance at a decent life. Am I afraid that whatever I choose will evaporate like tech did? Absolutely. There will be a massive group of ex-techies applying to all professional schools in 1-3 years. This scares me to death, because I cannot fail. At this point, the stakes are approaching do or die, because of student debt.
It is extremely sad that a generation of bright people were sold a bill of goods on the whole tech boom. Perhaps at no time in American history has an industry or career path boomed so fast and met with such immediate obsolescence. There are tens of thousands of our nation's people graduating this month alone with virtually no hope for the future. Check out any message board, virtually all career changers into any field are people like me. Check out any unemployment board, see how many MIS/CIS/CSci people predominate. It is about 90%. It is an American crisis, and one that may never get better for years, until people stop trying to enter the field entirely.
