CompSci vs Fast&Overpriced Degree

Imagine, if you will, a situation where I have two options to get a degree for a programming career: - BSc Computer Science at a highly respected technical university. - soykafty, disappointing vocational school that doesn't even have enough teachers to go around. Now imagine that the CS degree would cost only €2000 per year, for three years, so 6k total. Meanwhile, the soykafty vocational school's software engineering degree takes four years and costs me almost €8000 per year. Finally, imagine that everything written above is actually true and not a bizarre fever dream. How the hell did this scenario come about? Beats me, ask my europoor government. Rules are rules! Sounds like an easy choice, right? Not really. My father objects to the university option. I'm 29 and living under his roof, and he wants me to take the fast and fool-proof option, which is to go through with the vocational school. I've already sunk the cost for the first year, and classes are easy so far. I can reliably get a job via internship in the fourth year, get the hell out of this goddamn house by age 32 and then focus on other soykaf, maybe even get a girlfriend before I get wrinkles. Meanwhile, the CS degree would require actual intelligence, and my dad knows my math skills are horrible. In fact, my high school diploma does not meet the requirements of the technical university and I would have to get a certificate just to prove I can handle the math before even starting the first year. This means I have to spend a year doing math before enrolling for CS in 2018 at maybe the very last second, so I can finish my Bachelor's at age 33 at the soonest. My dad, however, fully expects me to soykaf the bed and not finish a CS degree until I'm 37, and to subsequently get laughed out of every job interview for the rest of my life. Mind you, the vast majority of job offers around here explicitly state that they are fine with seeing a (math-less) software engineering degree instead of a fancy CS degree. Honestly, they don't care. As long as you do actually have a degree. I hear it's a huge pain in the ass to get into difficult math and tech topics when you're not young anymore. Should I just live with the pain of the overpriced code monkey soykaf-school, and spend time on the side doing my own programming projects? Or do I bet everything on CS and spend my life savings on a private teacher instead? By the way, my dad refuses to spend another dime on my education so all of this really is coming out of my savings or a loan. Sorry for the blog post, but this mess is really keeping me up at night. Wasn't sure if it's appropriate for /λ/ so I'm posting it on /r/ instead.

> so all of this really is coming out of my savings or a loan. Then the choice is obvious: get the one that's cheaper, which is also the one you like, and the one that's better, and a year shorter. And yes you should bet on it because it's better in almost every way. So what if you have to get another degree before you get in there? I don't know about your math skills but you can do this if you devote enough time to it. If you're the one who will be paying, then why in the world listen to your father? Live your own life. Don't let the sunk cost hold you back. Drop it, try to get the life you want, if employers see no difference between one or the other, then that should have effectively zero weight on your decision. In the end, both choices have their own good and bad things. You're probably going ot struggle at doing either. Would you rather struggle in a soykafty institute or in one that you are likely to at least feel you're doing what you like and that you made your own choice instead of just doing what your father told you?

>>4052 What it boils down to, really, is that you do what you feel is right, not what they told you is right. Don't let other's expectations hold you back.

>>4052 Thank you for your advice, anon. I'll try to convince my dad that the vocational school is a rip-off, and that I should be able to spend my savings on a degree of my own choosing. I swear, only lainchan pushes me to be ambitious anymore.

>>4051 Where I am it's like this. If you do BSc in CS it will be extremely math heavy and not too too heavy on the programming. But if you do vocational software training it will be almost all programming and little math. That why the states have a profileration of the new 'code schools' b/c undergrads can tell the difference between kernel threads/green threads and P/NP but can barely use github. If your gonna be 34 when you get out and can't code out of a wet paper bag your gonna struggle for a job. I'd take a serious look at the courses in each option and see which looks like it would bring to most value to an average programming job. Chances are thats the one thats gonna be best for actually getting said job

>>4149 This is also a pretty valid point. I'd like to believe that the technical university in question isn't stupid enough to neglect the actual programming content but of course I need to confirm this. An older developer I know has already told me it should be okay: CS students from this tech uni would show up for internships and prove to be competent programmers. Maybe I can ask around and get more views, double-check this guy's story. Another option is to get an IT-related job that fits alongside the vocational school, which would reduce the pain of the costs and provide precious work experience. But this combination is only allowed when the job actually has something to do with programming. All your classes get crammed together on monday and you need to show evidence that you will spend the rest of the week working on code in a professional environment. Except I probably can't get this kind of job without a degree in the first place...