[Haskell-cafe] OT: any haskell-friendly / functional programming friendly comp sci programs? (for a 30s guy who did his undergrad in liberal arts)

[minh thu]

2007/2/5, Thomas Hartman <tphyahoo at gmail.com>:
> haskellers, I'm contemplating returning to school after a decade as a
> worker bee, and almost that long as a worker bee doing computer
> consulting / miscelaneous tech stuff.
>
> Ideally I'd like to get a masters, but I don't know if that's feasible
> this late in the game. If it's not, I might settle for a lesser degree
> and worry about the masters later.
>
> Part of my desire to return to school is that after encountering
> functional programming over the past year or so (first through lisp,
> then haskell), I've found something that I'm really interested in, but
> that it feels the amount of learning I can do around a job just won't
> cut it to get to the level that I want. That's the personal reason;
> the practical reason is that I think it would be a good networking
> opportunity (hankering to start my own company, and not meeting the
> right kinds of people), and obviously increase my chance of getting
> better paying, but especially more *interesting* jobs. I have some
> savings, figure loans would cover the rest, and no wife or kids.
>
> So I'll make a rather open ended request for advice. Are there decent
> comp sci master's programs out there that will take someone who didn't
> do a hard science in undergrad, but has lots of work-related
> experience with programming? If not, what's the next best thing? Get a
> quick bachelor's? Spend six months cramming for the GREs and then try
> for a master's?
>
> Whether master's, bachelor's, or other, I am specifically interested
> in programs that are "functional" friendly. In other words, I don't
> want to just go and study algorithms in java for two years. Ideally,
> I'd like to go somewhere where I could really explore and get good at
> the functional languages, with haskell my current favorite but also
> open to others. (For what it's worth, most of my experience is in
> perl, but I take it seriously as a language and try not to write the
> kind of throwaway crap that mean people make fun of.)
>
> My background is that I have a liberal arts bachelors from an american
> ivy. Though I enjoyed the program very much, it probably wasn't the
> wisest financial decision, given the type of career I subsequently
> gravitated to. But hey, maybe that gives me a different kind of
> perspective that has its own kind of value. Since, then, there;s
> mainly work work work for me, with some time off bumming around
> europe. And, on my own time: learn learn learn. I'm now 31.
>
> I've been living in germany for a few years, mainly freelancing as a
> computer consultant, and am open to programs in europe -- probably
> either england or germany. Largely because programs out here seem to
> be significantly cheaper than programs in the states, and being a
> somewhat older student seems to be less unusual out here. However,
> truth be told, I have a hankering for my homeland, the good old USA.
> And if possible somewhere in california, where my extended family is
> based, or it not that new york, where I have a good network. (But open
> to other locations as well; cali and new york would just be my top
> choices.)
>
> Distance learning is okay if the program is really good, but doing the
> campus thing again, perhaps while working part or semi-full time,
> would be the ideal (though perhaps I'm pushing the age limit there?).
>
> This has gotten rather long, so I'll leave it at that.
>
> Sorry about going off topic, and thanks in advance for any advice.
>
> thomas

Hi, I'm student in comp sci in belgium...
Given the fact you're demanding on yourself, and I guess, sufficiently
smart to have learned a lot of stuff alone, I'm not sure you will
enjoy studies. As you fear, I think you will have a lot of boring java
(or other languages) stuff. But that's still programming and in a
complete cursus, there's a lot more than that... which is not computer
related.

Cheers,
thu