Thinking about learning a language in my free time... anyway to validate or get credited for that?

[mothergoose729]

Hello community. I am a struggling computer science student, currently in my sophomore year. I am starting to get far enough along that I am realizing a computer science degree is focused more so on math, algorithms, number theory ect and less on real world applicable knowledge for how to write real programs. I don't plan to drop out or anything, but I am starting to think about picking up some php or mysql books and teaching myself. I see a ton of job openings on the internet for these kind of positions and it would be nice to have that option when I graduate, ,or maybe even before I get my degree. I was wondering if there is some kind of test I could take or some kind of accreditation process I could go through to prove I have a certain degree of competency with a language. In particular, something an employer might be looking for on an application, in place of or in addition to a degree. If anyone can give me some insight into that I would be grateful. Also, suggestions on which languages to pick up would be nice too :).

(If this should belong better in another section let me know. This is the closes place I could find).

[Computergeek01]

You sound like a fellow American so I'll answer this based on that assumption. The "validation" for school credit varies from state to state, in most cases if you can get some kind of certification in the extra curricular skill from an acredited thrid party then you can go to what ever school you attend and get some equivilant credit for it. You may still have to pay for these credits though, that varies from campus to campus.

[3hM2Nwbp]

I went to college in New York, and they did offer testing in certain courses in order to get credit. Attempting such a test cost $249 if I recall, but you did get credit if the test was passed. I personally tested out of 2 courses this way.

I know that Oracle has certifications available for Java development, so you might consider looking into that. I haven't encountered any equivalent certification process for C++.