thinking of going back to school, C#


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Thread: thinking of going back to school, C#

  1. #1
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    thinking of going back to school, C#

    I am considering going back to school and I am interested in the Visual C# program at Penn Foster. Take in mind I have 0 programming experience.
    The program consists of http://www.pennfoster.edu/visualc/index.html and it is a diploma program and not a certificate program. So how hard is it gonna be and what exactly am I getting into? any preresiquites?

    possibly using http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/c...00F3:0000289F: with Sabayon 5.2
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  2. #2
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    Things to investigate:

    http://penn-foster-career-school.pissedconsumer.com/

    You can find positive reviews as well.

    I would think taking courses at a local community college would be better.

    Are you taking this course to prepare for some sort of certification exam?

    I don't know how one goes from 0 programming to a job in programming this way. Have you researched that?

    I would think you would want to be a Microsoft Certified Developer, in terms of job opportunities.

  3. #3
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    penn

    My wife went to Penn Foster and got 2 diploma's and without any trouble what so ever, ofcourse she went for medical not it.

    I was thinking along the lines of a C# diploma as C# is a great programming language, aswell, I am at a dead end job and ready for a career.
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  4. #4
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    I briefly looked through Monster.com's listings for someone with C# knowledge and "some college courses" qualifications, but I couldn't find anything that didn't require 2+ years prior experience. I don't know how people such as yourself normally get started in this field. Have you spoken to the career counselors there about what opportunities are available? Do graduates typically get internships? I have no knowledge of the field.

  5. #5
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    I write in c# for my career, its is wonderful and awesome. Not sure how easy it would be from scratch, most of programming is design decisions which you may not know how to make. Most beginners write awful code which only works in one situation so try not to fall into those habits. Give it a go keep at it and good luck.

  6. #6
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    Learning to code properly >>>> the language you learn in (giving that the language is not a small subset scripting language). As being able to pickup a new language with just google and a book is a better skill than direct experience in any one language.

    C# may be great now, maybe a few years from now no one will use it except a few fringe businesses (look at Pascal ). In college I learned Assembly on Intel 8088 and PIC Microcontrollers for low level languages and C / Visual C as high level languages. My current job, I code in Visual Basic and FoxPro (companies decision, not mine). I'm looking to move NW in a year or so, who knows I might be told to work in Java or some other language I've never used?

    The point I'm making is learn why you do something instead of memorizing a procedure/syntax so that you know what to look for in a new language. Also, learn to comment and make distinctive variable names ASAP. Going to line 130,312 in your code base and seeing the below is NOT FUN!

    Code:
    if(c==a)
         return d;
    else
         {
         b = a * 2;
         return b;
         }
    Get accustomed to programing in modules. If you make your module generic enough then you can keep it in a library and reuse it on other projects. You should only have to write code to do a function once (well minus the debugging of course)!

    As for pre-req, depends on what you want to do with coding. Code covers everything from a simple VBA macro in Microsoft Excel for adding some cells together to running a cluster to solve physics problems. A good foundation though, is to brush up on your Algebra and Boolean math. How much past Algebra you actually need depends on the field, though at a University you can expect Trig and Calc.
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  7. #7
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    I dunno... I don't think C# is going to go anywhere any time soon. It's actually a good language with a VERY robust set of classes to do almost anything you need, albeit in a Windows environment.

    I'm not trying to play devil's advocate here, but as long as Windows is the majority platform in business, then it's going to do you a lot of good to learn Microsoft technologies. In the web space, there's a good mix of ASP.NET and PHP, but it just depends on your region.

    I can say here where I live, .NET is HUGE. There are opportunities for less experienced coders, and there are even more once you get experience under your belt. Just make sure the classes you take just don't teach you how to do C#, but they actually teach you how to PROGRAM. There's a big difference.
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    Try doing a forum search or a google search before asking a question. And please don't use HELP! in the topic of your post... it's so lame... Please don't PM me for help-- post a question in the forum instead.

  8. #8
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    C#

    Quote Originally Posted by gemmakaru View Post
    I write in c# for my career, its is wonderful and awesome. Not sure how easy it would be from scratch, most of programming is design decisions which you may not know how to make. Most beginners write awful code which only works in one situation so try not to fall into those habits. Give it a go keep at it and good luck.
    Started the class, just got done with "Intro to Programming" the 3rd exam, so far and so far so good, not happy thats its all MICROSOFT based but I couldnt exspect a school to teams linux over MS, could you suggest any good C# compliers/progams once I get done with the course?

    The software they have sent me is Visual Studio 2008 Pro "Student Edition"

    Microsoft: what a waste of time.
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  9. #9
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    Can't really help much but I did a night school in C@$@^%!%^&*() ****it sharp and the main problem I had was the .NET thing. It is fantastically complicated and more difficult than the Csharp language. I'm not saying it is not a good idea to use an IDE, it's just they take some getting used to.

    The tutor - who used to work for Inmos: a very advanced UK parallel processing computer company, which was closed down by the American master race because they wanted control of computing, you lot wonder why you are hated - told me I was going to fail. So I studied C++ for a week, got the general idea without an IDE, and scraped through.

    Unless you are sort of gifted you are likely, perhaps, to struggle a bit. Suggest you get some practice before hand especially with IDEs.

    Csharp is made by Microsoft, it is supposed to be the logical conclusion of the C languages, it is obligate and heavily object orientated.
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  10. #10
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    hmm

    well C# is the class I signed up for so like it or not im gonna ride it out and get my certs/diploma.

    I wonder if I could run VMware with a XP enviornment and run the Visual Studio 2008 Student Ed?!

    gonna download VMware and see where that takes me.
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