LOL, I must admit this:

1. I was a programmer long before I went to college, authoring shareware BBS tools in x86 assembly and C.
2. When I went to college I didn't *think* it helped me at all.
3. LATER, YEARS LATER, little things like exposure to areas I didn't naturally encounter I later became thankful for.

In other words, it helped me more than I realized - to 'round out' my education. Just knowing an algorithm exists, or OS fundamentals, ... just that exposure to things *different* is what helped.

As for learning particular language X, Y, or Z... nah, useless. My biggest is fear is Microsoft controlling too much of our universities with subsidies. I, for one, had far too little Linux or OS X exposure, for instance.. everything was Microsoft. Later, I got into embedded Linux, than 'regular' Linux more ... but never have gotten into OS X much. I wonder if the story would be different if Apple or Google subsidized the universities instead of Microsoft. Google may - these days. Apple may as well, as at that time they were near bankrupt.

+1 jgpaiva

EDIT: I never MEANT to get involved with this thread, I just took issue with the idea that C was akin to COBOL these days... that's just not the case. The 'chart of commits' from that random project hosting site that was cited showed almost no C commits, as if it were 'dead'. So, that's what I took issue with. It's far from dead, as you can see. Heck, *whatever you are reading this thread with* is written in C or C++. The browser and OS, no matter what platform. Now, if iOS, it *might* be Objective C, but for now let's just call C/C++/Objective C the same 'family'.

As I've said repeatedly, the most important thing is that you select the language that works best for your task, and for YOU. For instance, since I don't do much C#, I could probably create a native C++ GUI faster than a C# GUI, even though it is much easier to create GUI in C# with Visual Studio. So, for me, C++ is a great thing to use, even if that means I sometimes must work a little harder. It also does continue to offer to most superior performance to any other language, if that is an issue for YOUR application. Likewise, it is USELESS for Web 2.0 stuff, so obviously not even a choice there.

MANY languages have their syntax derived from C, and so by learning C, you not only learn C, but also can easily pick up lots of other languages. PHP, for instance, has a C like syntax... though also supports other syntaxes, which makes it super easy to pick up on, one of its advantages.

I also recommend all students study assembly language (x86, ARM, doesn't matter).. any assembly language, just so you understand how native code gets compiled and executed by the processor. Then, you can understand disassemblies. Assembly language, in contrast to its reputation, is actually more SIMPLE than any other language. That simplicity means it is harder to actually do things WITH though.

Ok, final edits made ;p. I updated the original pick to provide the proper source. Sorry about that guys, I just did a super fast google, and moved on. NOW, new post has methodology used, and latest chart.

My ONLY point, again, was that C/C++ is not somehow 'dead'. Whether they teach it in universities these days, I dunno - but I'd hope so. Microsoft subsidizes universities a lot, so I'm sure they do teach a lot of .NET. But, still, most of the popular Windows and Linux software is written in native (unmanaged) C/C++.

I *was* surprised that Objective C has become so popular so fast due to use on mobile platforms.