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Hi all,

I'm about to be a junior in college, planning on majoring in Computing and the Arts, which will be roughly half computer science and half music. I've programmed in my spare time for years, last year got into iPhone development, and now have a summer internship at a music software company writing for iPhone and iPad.

I was wondering if any of you (preferably professional software developers) have any advice on how to have a successful and productive career in development, probably somewhere in the music field? Specifically:

  • Would it be worthwhile to go to grad school, and if so, what types of programs and degrees should I consider?

  • Should I try to get a job at a software company for a while before going to grad school?

  • Should I continue my plan to get a B.A. in Computing and the Arts, which fits what I'm interested in, or grit my teeth and get a B.A. or B.S. in Computer Science? Will grad schools shy away from an applicant who doesn't have a degree in CS?

  • Am I learning anything valuable by writing simple apps for the iPhone and iPad in my spare time, or should I spend my time on something less immediately rewarding but that involves more difficult and educational programming? What languages should I dive into?

Don't worry, I'm not going to base my entire life path on what is said on an online forum - just thought I'd toss this out there and see if anything interesting is said.

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1 Answer

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My suggestion would be to know where in the music field do you want. For example, are you finding new ways to use synthesizers to create sounds, new encodings of music out there, or something else.

Grad school makes sense if you know what part of the field you'd want to research and use for thesis ideas. IMO, this can make a lot of sense for some people and be lousy for others as it depends a great deal on why you want to go to grad school.

As for getting a job before grad school, I would probably hold off as academia can be different from the real world enough that unless you want to try to do both, just stay in school.

I'm not sure how much the B.A. vs. B.S. really matters as there are GRE scores, recommendations from professors and other things that are more likely to be keys for getting into grad schools. I'd say go with your gut on this.

You may well be learning various points when it comes to writing simple apps though I'd suggest taking a look around what are you using and do you have a good formal structure for what you are doing. Do you have source control, bug tracking, and other basic things to help keep order amongst the chaos? Those rather than what languages you use are what I'd focus on to see if things are progressing well.

I'm not sure how relevant this is but the first dot-com where I worked was into digital sheet music and so there were various musical connections to be made in that work. Unfortunately, the company ultimately went under but I do remember a few things from it.

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