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Well I had left the university because I was riddled with issues not to mention dissatisfaction with my business curriculum. But I am back on that route again. I changed my BSM (bachelor's in small business management) for a BSIT/IM (Bachelor's in Information technology with concentration on Information Management). The curriculum used to be called DBMS but it has been amended to fit more mainstream criteria in terms of this field of work commercially. Thus I will still have to take another algebra ( -_-) and another math that deals with charts and algorithms (which I am exited about).

This sets me back, however, because most of my prior classes will not roll over, mostly because they do not meet the curriculum requirement and thus it will take me another 18 months approximately to graduate.

Anyone else taking a similar course?

I am not exactly good with mathematical thinking (actually I SUCK at math) but I fell in love with the idea of database schemas and making co-relating connections between key items and sub-items etc. I am mostly a visual thinker, but I think I can tackle this Major.

However the math still worries me a great deal.

I'm a senior software developer, and to me that sounds like a good program you're wandering into. Databases run a lot of modern information technology, and experts with them can do a lot of good for organizations; particularly at the early stages when core systems are first being designed and developed.

Networking is also interesting, but in my opinion it's a little blander since there's a lot of cable running and stuff. It's kinda like HVAC vs engineering or architecture. If you want to maintain stuff, focus on IT but recognize that you probably won't be highly valued. If you want to create stuff, focus on the DB/programming/business-analysis path.

In fact, you might consider a dual major of some kind. A database and IT expert with a minor or dual major in business or business management might be capable of really helping an organization evaluate their technical needs.

But your mileage will HEAVILY vary, and in all likelihood you may be working on a pier in twenty years or something; life changes.

I wouldn't worry too much about offshoring, though, incidentally. Companies have had serious difficulty offshoring core systems. Remote maintenance crap like basic IT support and call center stuff, no problem. But high level core systems are simply too critical to be trusted to dudes who don't even grok our basic culture, never mind intricate business practices. Plus, the odds for most companies of finding the 5% of awesome indian developers is basically 0. It's extremely difficult to find and vet them even in the US, doing it across an ocean is frankly impossible.

Regarding math, please review this post I just wrote:

CLICK HERE: http://www.wrongplanet.net/postp5109792.html

I will go check out your post. I still have paperwork to go through at school but it should be no problem. I can't wait to get started. I am not really into hardware and the most attractive core of the program to me is the design and application of schemas; I understand not everyone likes this or is proficient in them. Being a very visual person I can make a great deal of co-relations between objects and thus I think I will have a blast. I love the idea of DBMS. I am terrified of the math (I have not had a good math score since the second grade, im surpriced they did not think i had a learning dissability, then again I come from Puerto Rico and we are all pretty broke and behind in heathcare and education anyways, hence how they LOST my diagnosis papers after I hit middle school).

And I have heard a lot of horror stories about having to tackle user wants/needs versus the actual viable methods to store and process the databases.

As for having a business background my AA was in business entirely and was about to graduate from a Bachelor's in management when I changed majors to databases. Gonna go check out your link now!

Although I wonder will visual thinkers actually be good at graph theory part of math as it is not all one subject.

Math to me is like one big puzzle, piecing together one part helps you understand other parts better. With that being said, I think algebra is the one part of the puzzle that really opens the door. All of the graph work I've done borrowed heavily from what I learned in algebra.