Enroll at IT University

Utah-based Northface University is a new school that hopes to offer something unique. It's dispensing with liberal arts courses and focusing solely on a tech-centric curriculum. The goal is to produce software designers ready to jump into jobs, which in turn will please potential employers that their new hires require little or no training.

Tuition at Northface costs $60k for an intensive 28-month bachelor's degree in computer science. The school is backed by main sponsor IBM Corp., as well as Microsoft, Oracle and Unisys, all of which have donated software, tools and training regimens.

Already there are some critics to the program, who fear that removing the liberal arts courses may produce skilled IT personnel who will lack a more rounded knowledge base.

Whether that turns out to be true remains to be seen. We'll know for sure by May 2006 - when the first of the school's initial 130 enrollees make their way into the world. The school expects 1,200 graduates a year by 2007.