Wow, all those classes (assembly, compiler writing, 2-part data structures, C, etc) were at Cal State Chico when I was there too. It did successfully weed out many people. (btw, at that point in time, HP hired more sw grads from Chico than any other university…not sure if that is still true)

My current company has been able to find quite a few very sharp software grads over the last few years. These people are sharp and dedicated…they’re not coming from UCSD but from other universities from the most part. I’m not saying that UCSD doesn’t create sharp sw people now, just that we haven’t hired much from UCSD as of late.

Also agree that there is a sudden resurgence for people who know raw hardware level coding, thanks in large part to the move to handheld devices. Speedy, compact software is once again king, and that always drives one to write as close to the HW as possible.

Another reason UCSD (and maybe other universities) have moved wholesale behind Java is that the basic tools are cheap or free….costs the university very little to teach Java. Now if they want to add VxWorks or similar to their cirriculum, well now we’re talking more significant licensing fees.