The most valuable thing to me in the CS program was really being exposed to things I didn't know existed. It may not be as big an issue today with places like HN and Reddit to push you in unexpected directions, but I really benefited from being introduced to stuff I wouldn't have even thought to look at. Once the introduction was made, I was mostly self-taught because I'd dig into it out of pure interest, but that initial introduction was vital.
I agree. I only did a CS minor (10 courses), but even just doing that exposed me to things that I'd never really been exposed to, like operating systems and numerical computing.
