Should I get my degree in web design or computer programming?

socialmediapro said:

Being able to code is a skill. Skills make you be able to get a job. A job will make you a slave. And I know you don't want that. Learn how to build businesses, learn how to market products, learn how to hire Programmers (or other people with skills) effectively to bring your products to the top. In short: Study Business/Marketing. Or if you wanna do it even more effectively just keep doing what you do and don't go to University but just do it on your own by reading books and studying successfull people.

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Skills assist you in doing whatever it is to make money. You are basically telling him to give money to someone when he can learn how to do it himself. Studying business/marketing can be a hobby compared to mastering several programming languages. The money he would make from coding a bot, coding a program, or writing scripts could be invested into his business/marketing plan.

TL; DR
There are better sources of knowledge that cost less than college.



I went to school to be a programmer. I was excited about this arcane language I was going to learn and eager to build programs to do all sorts of interesting things.

However I am not naturally gifted with coding. It is difficult for me to grasp and I had trouble keeping up. I was a good student, but programmers are poor teachers ( at least the ones I had were).

I fell through the cracks and dropped out. No degree. A bunch of school bills and completely frustrated. I started teaching myself from books and learned more in a month than I had at school.

I'm not a genius coder but I did teach myself some python script and php and the like. I'm just saying that just because you go to school for it and think you want to do it does not mean you will like it or even be good at it.

You mentioned design. If you're a more creatively inclined person then you will probably struggle with programming. Not saying you can't learn it but it will be more difficult. And it goes both ways.

Dabble in coding. Mess around with site design. Find the one that you struggle with the least. Then teach yourself more of it.

If all you want is knowledge don't waste money on school. Find a mentor. Buy some books. Go to the freaking library. Teach yourself.

If you wanted it for a job then you'd go to school for the degree, otherwise don't bother.

socialmediapro said:

Being able to code is a skill. Skills make you be able to get a job. A job will make you a slave. And I know you don't want that.

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Yes, I literally facepalmed myself after reading that load of crap.

Programming. Cause you can outsource web design part to some real cheap sources, but not programming.

I'm studiying BSIT Specialization with web and mobile applications I'll go for web design. Learn to create beautiful website then learn C#,VB.Net and C++ if you want to create bots. VB and C# are easy to learn. Web design is so hard to understand for me. I learned VB.net and C# programming on internet. Many people learn coding applications on video tutorials but I haven't seen any people who made good websites and become professionals without degree in web designing.

If I were you I'll go for web design and then learn programming on your part time = BIG TIME

Drop out. fu** college.

calltyrone said:

I recently decided to go back to school and I know I want to do something regarding computers but I would like to stick more with IM. Like creating websites, maybe some apps and all that jazz. I don't plan on using the degree for a "real" job per se, I just want the knowledge( but of course that could change).

so which one do you guys think should be my major?

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If you are serious about getting into the "I can build that for you" business, you need to be a master of both. Which one is going to have a paper saying you completed a set of courses is irrelevant.

Design you can just learn by your self.
Cause for design, in the end, is all about "creativity" and abstract mind.

For programming, you need intellectual mind, critical thinker, and more just creativity.

More harder, so better choose for programming.

And with programming, u can make million and billion if you got a great idea.

Thanks Everyone for your input. I think I'm going to go ahead and do the computer programming, it's only community college(2 years) if that makes a difference so if I really, really like it I'll go to a university and get my bachelors(4years).

I would like to go ahead and try and learn it like that but unfortunately I'm the kind of learner that needs something to push me or force me to do things, especially stuff like this.. But I do feel I will be able to learn the web design part by myself for some reason, that's weird.

But I have a teency weency bit of experience with html and css, I've built a sites (shitty) before. But I want know more!!!!!!

4 years? Isn't a BSc 3 years only? I know software engineering and computer science are 3 years long (bachelor's).

And you say you want to try it first? Then how about trying it for free here: http://www.codecademy.com/

My little brother (15) learnt a couple of programming languages from there. They teach:

HTML & CSS
Javascript
jQuery
Python
Ruby
PHP
APIs

Try it

If you're determined to go to college then stop and do some research. My bad experience was at a community college. I had planned on transferring to a university once I got my Associates degree. Community colleges, at least around here, don't have money for the best teachers and resources. See if yours has a good graduation/dropout rate.

See if you can find out how many former students are defaulting on their student loans, thus will give you and idea of how good their education is because students don't default if they have a job. I found out after that my school has one of the highest default rates in the country (assuming this is the US) and is actually close to being penalized by the government if they can't bring their rates down.

If you like designing then you can go for web designing. If you like thinking logically, then go with Programming.

or you can try both of them and then figure out what suits you. I cannot tell you what's better because both of them are good.