What Challenges in Accelerated Computer Science Degrees Should I Know?

Key Take­aways:

• Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams require com­plet­ing the same cur­ricu­lum in a short­er time­frame, lead­ing to a rig­or­ous and fast-paced sched­ule.
• Suc­cess in these pro­grams depends on cre­at­ing a rou­tine, tak­ing breaks, plan­ning ahead, and pri­or­i­tiz­ing tasks.
• The lack of breaks can make main­tain­ing a work-life bal­ance chal­leng­ing, neces­si­tat­ing care­ful sched­ul­ing and set­ting boundaries.
• Build­ing pro­fes­sion­al rela­tion­ships through school resources and lever­ag­ing the skills gained in accel­er­at­ed learn­ing can enhance job readi­ness and career success.

An accel­er­at­ed com­put­er sci­ence degree is a great way to earn the cre­den­tials you need in less time. This is a dis­tinct advan­tage because the demand for skilled work­ers in the com­put­er sci­ence field is extreme­ly high. In fact, the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics (BLS) pre­dicts that com­put­er-relat­ed occu­pa­tions will grow by 14 per­cent over the next decade. Some fields are expect­ed to grow even faster.

Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams aren’t with­out their chal­lenges. They are fast-paced, intense, and rig­or­ous. There are often few breaks, and it can be dif­fi­cult to man­age the demands on your time. But, with a few tips and tech­niques, you can find suc­cess! This guide walks you through some of the chal­lenges you’ll encounter in your degree and offers a few tips for nav­i­gat­ing those challenges.

Relat­ed:

• Top Bach­e­lor of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degree Programs
• Top Cheap­est Online Bach­e­lors of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degrees
• Top Online Schools for a Bachelor’s Degree in Com­put­er Science

Understanding the Pace and Workload

An accel­er­at­ed com­put­er sci­ence degree typ­i­cal­ly requires two years of stud­ies at the under­grad­u­ate lev­el. That’s half as long as a tra­di­tion­al bachelor’s degree. Grad­u­ate degrees usu­al­ly take two years to fin­ish; accel­er­at­ed options can be done in half that time.

Giv­en this short­ened time frame, your stud­ies in an accel­er­at­ed pro­gram are intense. Many pro­grams require you to take class­es year-round. You might also have to take a high­er course load each semes­ter than you would in a tra­di­tion­al program.

Stu­dents in accel­er­at­ed com­put­er sci­ence pro­grams will tell you that the fast pace can prove chal­leng­ing. Expect a fair amount of stress, mul­ti­ple simul­ta­ne­ous dead­lines, and reduced free time while you’re in the pro­gram. But, with a few key strate­gies, your time man­age­ment in accel­er­at­ed pro­grams can be much more effective:

• Cre­ate a rou­tine and stick to it. Have ded­i­cat­ed times dur­ing the day for study­ing, work­ing, and relax­ing. A good work-life bal­ance is essential.
• Take fre­quent breaks when doing school­work. Strive to study for about 50 min­utes, then take a 10-minute break to move around, get a snack, and clear your head.
• Plan ahead. Keep track of upcom­ing assign­ments, exams, and oth­er school­work; also keep track of job-relat­ed tasks and fam­i­ly oblig­a­tions so you can nav­i­gate hav­ing simul­ta­ne­ous respon­si­bil­i­ties more effectively.
• Pri­or­i­tize tasks based on dead­lines and/or impor­tance. Push less impor­tant tasks to lat­er in the day or week.
• Chunk tasks. Focus on one task at a time, and when you’re done, move to the next one. Keep a to-do list so you can track what you’ve accom­plished and what you have left to do.

Rigorous Academic Expectations

Tra­di­tion­al com­put­er sci­ence pro­grams are rig­or­ous. But in an accel­er­at­ed for­mat, they’re even more rig­or­ous. You have to study and mas­ter the same depth of top­ics, but often in half the time. 

Data struc­tures, pro­gram­ming lan­guages, algo­rithms, and oth­er com­put­er sci­ence top­ics require you to learn very quick­ly. It’s easy to be over­whelmed and fall behind. To avoid that fate and keep up with the aca­d­e­m­ic rig­or in com­put­er sci­ence, try the fol­low­ing strategies:

• Study groups in com­put­er sci­ence can be extreme­ly help­ful. You can bounce ques­tions or ideas off one anoth­er. The chances are good that if you’re con­fused by a top­ic, some­one else in the group will under­stand it. 
• Get help from your school’s aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess department.
• Ask your pro­fes­sors for guidance.
• Use online resources for com­put­er sci­ence stu­dents, like study guides and record­ed video lec­tures, to brush up on sub­jects you’re strug­gling with. You can also find MOOCs — Mas­sive Open Online Cours­es — that can walk you through top­ics you’re strug­gling with. Many MOOCs are com­plete­ly free.

Limited Breaks and Personal Time

Work-life bal­ance in acad­e­mia can be dif­fi­cult to achieve. This is espe­cial­ly true in an accel­er­at­ed pro­gram due to the reduced down­time; most pro­grams have few — if any — breaks between semesters.

As such, you will have less time for per­son­al pur­suits like spend­ing time with friends and fam­i­ly. If you don’t pri­or­i­tize relax­ing from time to time, you may burn out and expe­ri­ence even high­er stress lev­els. To main­tain a bet­ter work-life bal­ance, you might:

• Devel­op a sched­ule for study­ing, work­ing, and relax­ing can help you ensure you ded­i­cate as much time to each as possible.
• Set bound­aries for each cat­e­go­ry, too. If 9:00–10:00 pm is when you take time off from study­ing to put your kids to bed, make sure that’s what you do!
• Make the most of your per­son­al time. Even if you only have half an hour, do some­thing fun — go for a walk with your dog, play with your kids in the back­yard, or go grab cof­fee with a friend.

Handling Stress and Pressure

As men­tioned ear­li­er, a work-life bal­ance that’s out of whack can great­ly increase your stress lev­els. This, in turn, can take a toll on your men­tal and emo­tion­al well-being.

In addi­tion to the work-life bal­ance sug­ges­tions above, you can help your­self by pri­or­i­tiz­ing stress man­age­ment for stu­dents like you. Man­ag­ing aca­d­e­m­ic pres­sure is eas­i­er if you:

• Take a breather. If you feel your stress lev­els rise, take a few min­utes away from study­ing to take a few breaths and recen­ter yourself.
• Prac­tice mind­ful­ness. The more you’re attuned to your feel­ings and emo­tions, the more capa­ble you’ll be of man­ag­ing them well.
• Eat right, sleep well, and exer­cise. Keep­ing your body in good shape will help you keep your mind in good shape, too.
• Talk to some­one. If you’re over­whelmed, talk to a trust­ed friend or fam­i­ly mem­ber. Your school will have coun­sel­ing ser­vices avail­able, too, and often for free.

Networking and Building Professional Relationships

Net­work­ing in com­put­er sci­ence is of the utmost impor­tance. It’s how you con­nect with oth­er pro­fes­sion­als in your indus­try and form good work­ing rela­tion­ships with oth­ers. Just as impor­tant­ly, net­work­ing is often how you find com­put­er sci­ence intern­ships and career oppor­tu­ni­ties in tech.

Again, the accel­er­at­ed for­mat of your pro­gram can make it tough to find the time to net­work in the indus­try. How­ev­er, you can make up for some of that time by tak­ing advan­tage of net­work­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties at your school:

• Attend on-cam­pus career events.
• Use your school’s career ser­vices depart­ment to help find intern­ships and job opportunities.
• Speak with your pro­fes­sors and class­mates about pos­si­ble intern­ships and job opportunities.
• Join clubs on cam­pus relat­ed to your com­put­er sci­ence major.

You should also devel­op your online pres­ence with pro­files on pop­u­lar sites like LinkedIn.

Financial Commitment and Implications

One of the ben­e­fits of accel­er­at­ed learn­ing is that it min­i­mizes your costs. After all, the less time you spend tak­ing class­es, the less mon­ey you have to pay for tuition, fees, and oth­er expenses!

How­ev­er, you can reduce the cost of your degree even fur­ther by seek­ing finan­cial aid for accel­er­at­ed degrees. Aid like schol­ar­ships and grants are wide­ly avail­able, and nei­ther one has to be repaid. Pur­sue vary­ing types of schol­ar­ships, too. Mer­it-based schol­ar­ships reward high-achiev­ing stu­dents. Need-based schol­ar­ships pro­vide assis­tance if you meet cer­tain finan­cial criteria.

It’s not enough to find ways to reduce the cost of your degree; bud­get man­age­ment plays a sig­nif­i­cant role. The fol­low­ing tips can help you devel­op a bud­get and stick to it:

• Use a bud­get man­age­ment app to help you estab­lish a bud­get and track expenses.
• Spread your income out among three pri­ma­ry cat­e­gories: needs, wants, and sav­ings. Tra­di­tion­al­ly, experts advise you to use 50 per­cent of your income to cov­er needs, 30 per­cent for wants, and 20 per­cent for savings.
• Avoid buy­ing things on a whim. Impulse buy­ing can get you in finan­cial trou­ble quickly.
• Pay your bills on time. Hav­ing a sol­id track record of respon­si­ble cred­it usage will help you build your cred­it score.

Job Readiness and Market Expectations

The whole point of col­lege is gain­ing the skills nec­es­sary for your desired career. The goal is to hit the ground run­ning and make pos­i­tive con­tri­bu­tions to your new employ­er from your first day of work.

How­ev­er, it’s nor­mal to feel a lit­tle unpre­pared. After all, your edu­ca­tion is fast-paced; mas­ter­ing pro­gram­ming lan­guages quick­ly is hard to do, too! You can lever­age your accel­er­at­ed edu­ca­tion for suc­cess in your career in a num­ber of ways, though.

• Use your expe­ri­ence man­ag­ing mul­ti­ple tasks simul­ta­ne­ous­ly in your degree pro­gram to find ear­ly suc­cess in your career.
• Lean on your abil­i­ty to com­plete tasks quick­ly to impress your superiors.
• Accel­er­at­ed learn­ers must be self-moti­vat­ed. This is a great trait to have in the work­place, too.
• Flex­i­bil­i­ty is a trait of accel­er­at­ed learn­ers. Being able to roll with the punch­es in your new career will help you be more successful.

When it comes down to it, job readi­ness in com­put­er sci­ence isn’t just about the hard and soft skills you pos­sess. It’s also about hav­ing the right atti­tude, being a team play­er, and hav­ing the con­fi­dence that you can con­tribute pos­i­tive­ly to the work environment.