"It was once pointed out to me that math major undergrads generally perform better than most computer science undergrad in many PhD programs."
There is a significant difference between computer science and archaeology, as academic disciplines. And it's not what you might think it is. A computer science student with out a Ph.D., with only an undergraduate degree, is (I hope[1]) fully competent to be gainfully employed in the field doing actual programming. An archaeology student without a Ph.D. is a shovel-bum, a ditch-digger, perhaps with some experience using surveying equipment, but certainly not qualified to do property title-related stuff.
[1] At most decent schools, anyway. The school whenceforth I came, for example, taught graphics and networking and compilers and data bases, along with basic data structures and algorithms, and a certain amount of actual programming. Someone coming out with an undergraduate degree certainly wouldn't be an ideal candidate to lead an important project, and certainly wouldn't have 5-years experience as a full-stack web developer in Elm and Clojure. But they would have the knowledge base to learn those things without big gaping holes in their understanding. You know, what used to be jokingly referred to as an "entry level" position: basic competence without expertise.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyatt_Regency_walkway_collapse
"It was once pointed out to me that math major undergrads generally perform better than most computer science undergrad in many PhD programs."
There is a significant difference between computer science and archaeology, as academic disciplines. And it's not what you might think it is. A computer science student with out a Ph.D., with only an undergraduate degree, is (I hope[1]) fully competent to be gainfully employed in the field doing actual programming. An archaeology student without a Ph.D. is a shovel-bum, a ditch-digger, perhaps with some experience using surveying equipment, but certainly not qualified to do property title-related stuff.
[1] At most decent schools, anyway. The school whenceforth I came, for example, taught graphics and networking and compilers and data bases, along with basic data structures and algorithms, and a certain amount of actual programming. Someone coming out with an undergraduate degree certainly wouldn't be an ideal candidate to lead an important project, and certainly wouldn't have 5-years experience as a full-stack web developer in Elm and Clojure. But they would have the knowledge base to learn those things without big gaping holes in their understanding. You know, what used to be jokingly referred to as an "entry level" position: basic competence without expertise.