Python is everywhere – not just in Silicon Valley, but in classrooms and lecture halls across the world. By the time you reach university, there’s a good chance you’ll be using Python in your courses. Learning it now can give you a serious head start. Below, we’ll explore how universities (from Switzerland to the USA) are embracing Python across many subjects, why it’s replacing older languages like Java and MATLAB, how educators are encouraging teens to pick it up early, and some of the cool ways Python connects to music, art, and games you love.
Summary
TL;DR (Too Long; Don't Read)
Educators recommend learning Python before university, as it offers a significant advantage and is increasingly considered a key literacy for the 21st century. Here’why:
- Python is now widely taught across university disciplines, including science, engineering, business, economics, social sciences, and humanities.
- Many top universities have switched to Python as the first programming language for introductory courses.
- Python is used in creative fields like music technology, visual art, animation, and game development.
- Big companies like Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, and NASA also heavily rely on Python.
- Learning Python early can open up both academic and creative opportunities for students.
Python in University Courses – Global Trends
Many college students meet Python as soon as they step on campus. In fact, Python has become the go-to first programming language in higher education. As far back as 2014, a survey found that 8 of the top 10 computer science departments in the U.S. were using Python to teach introductory programming. Top universities like MIT and UC Berkeley even switched their beginner courses to Python around that time. And it’s not just in North America – universities across Europe are on board too.
Even if you don’t major in computer science, you’re likely to encounter Python. Engineering and science programs have been weaving Python into their core curricula. For example, at ETH Zurich (a top university in Switzerland), first-year students in fields ranging from Environmental Sciences to Food Science to Materials Science all use Python in their coursework. It’s noteworthy that at ETH, Biology and even Agricultural Sciences require Python in the first semesters. This trend is echoed elsewhere: many biology and life science degrees now include programming to analyze DNA data or lab results. As one coding academy blog put it, “Python is used in labs to analyse research data” in fields like biology and medicine.
Business and economics students are getting a taste of Python as well. Business schools have started treating coding as a basic skill, often choosing Python as the teaching tool. For instance, Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business recently introduced a required course called “Coding Fundamentals with Python” for all their business majors, ensuring every student can script and analyze data by sophomore year.
Closer to home here in Europe, Bocconi University also requires Python for all of its students Bocconi Python fundamentals with the rector stating that “Python conveys literacy in the digital age.” In Economics departments too, Python is often taught for data analysis alongside tools like R.
Social sciences and humanities are no exception. Psychology majors, for example, might learn Python to run experiments or crunch survey statistics. The University of Wisconsin–Madison offers a course in human behavioral data science where students “learn Python and best-practices for writing efficient and understandable code” to study human behavior. And in the humanities, a new breed of courses dubbed “Digital Humanities” teaches Python to analyze texts, history, or art. UC Berkeley even has a class where students learn Python, calling it “the leading programming language in Digital Humanities and data science”. The Universities in Lausanne (UNIL) and in Geneva (UNIGE) both have courses in their humanies departments called “Informatique pour les sciences humaines” Unige Informatique
This means if you’re into literature or history, you might use Python to map out stories or decode historical trends. How cool is that?
In creative tech fields like music technology and the arts, Python is making waves too. Some university music programs introduce coding for sound synthesis or digital composition. (More on fun music stuff in Python later!) The key point: whatever your future major – be it engineering, biology, economics, psychology, or design – there’s a good chance Python will pop up in your university journey. It has truly become a universal tool across disciplines.
Why Python? – The Big Curriculum Shift
You might be wondering, why did Python become so dominant in academia, often replacing languages like Java, C++, R, or MATLAB that were popular before? The shift didn’t happen overnight, but over the past decade educators have steadily gravitated toward Python for several reasons.
One major factor is Python’s simplicity. Python’s syntax (the way its code is written) is famously easy to read and write, which is a huge plus when you’re just learning to program. Professors noticed that beginners pick up Python faster than languages that have more complicated syntax.
Another reason is the explosion of data science and AI. Python has become the lingua franca of data science, machine learning, and scientific research. Universities want to prepare students for these booming areas. Compared to, say, R (traditionally used in statistics) or MATLAB (used in engineering), Python offers a one-size-fits-all ecosystem: you can do statistical analysis, build a web app, and train a machine learning model all with Python. Educators find this versatility very appealing.
There’s also the industry angle. Python skills are in high demand in the job market, so academia responded by teaching what employers use. An IEEE Spectrum study found that job opportunities requiring Python dramatically exceeded those for MATLAB by an order of magnitude. When companies from Google to NASA are using Python, universities don’t want to lag behind. This led to a wave of curriculum changes.
We’re also seeing Python edge out Java in many computer science departments. A decade or two ago, learning Java in CS101 was almost a rite of passage. But Python’s gentler learning curve and flexibility (you can do a quick script or a big project) have led many CS professors to prefer it for newbies. As early as 2014, Python overtook Java as the most common introductory programming language at top U.S. CS programs.
All these shifts mean that by the time you reach university, the odds are you’ll be taught Python in a variety of classes – even in courses that a generation ago might have used something else. Python has become the new normal in academia because it’s simple, powerful, and in sync with what’s happening in the real world.
Encouraging Young “Pythonistas” - Reaching Students Before University
Given that universities expect incoming students to pick up coding fast, many educators believe it’s smart to start learning Python (or programming in general) before college. There’s growing support for introducing coding in middle and high school, so that by the time you arrive on campus you’re already comfortable with tools like Python.
High school students getting hands-on with Python coding. Many programs and teachers encourage teens to learn Python early, as it’s seen as a “critical literacy” for the 21st century. Universities and professors are also reaching out to high schoolers with Python. Columbia University, for instance, helped run an “Early College” program where high school students took a mini data science course. In it, teens learned Python basics, algorithms, and even machine learning fundamentals – topics usually taught in college – with great success..
In short, the academic world is signaling: “Hey, future students, try some Python now – you’ll thank yourself later!” They see early exposure as beneficial, so that when you arrive at university you can hit the ground running.
Benefits of Learning Python Before Uni:
- Start uni ahead of the curve
- Unlock creative projects (games, music, art)
- Learn a language used by NASA and Netflix
- Prep for high-paying, future-ready careers
Beyond Academia - Python in Music, Art & Games
Okay, we’ve talked a lot about classes and careers – but learning Python isn’t only about crunching numbers or doing homework. One of the coolest things about Python is how it intersects with creative hobbies and pop culture. For a teen, this can be super motivating: you can use Python to make things, whether it’s a song, a piece of digital art, or a little video game. Let’s look at a few examples that show Python’s fun side:
Music and Audio: Did you know you can create music with code? Python has libraries and tools that let you generate tunes, beats, and sound effects. A great example is EarSketch, a platform developed at Georgia Tech that turns coding into a music studio. EarSketch has been recognized as an innovative way to engage students who might love music more than math.
Visual Art and Animation: Python is surprisingly common behind the scenes in animation studios and visual effects for movies. When you watch a Pixar or Marvel movie, a lot of the magic on screen was facilitated by Python scripts gluing everything together. For example, Disney’s animation studios use Python in many ways – from controlling lighting in scenes to managing the huge number of digital assets in film Python at Walt Disney Animations. Industrial Light & Magic (the studio behind Star Wars and Avengers) chose Python years ago to unify their special effects pipeline. They found that Python was easy to integrate with their existing C++ graphics tools, so they could use it to automate and coordinate complex animation tasks..
Video Games: Python in gaming? Absolutely! While most high-end games are written in C++ for speed, many games use Python as a scripting language for gameplay logic. For example, the classic game Battlefield 2 used Python scripts to handle a lot of game functionality and mods. The Sims 4 – a life-simulation game you might know – has its core gameplay coded in Python, and if you create mods or custom content for it, you’re writing Python.
Python is also widely used to build tools for games. If you want to make your own simple games, Python’s got you covered with libraries such as Pygame. Pygame is beginner-friendly and lets you write games in Python (2D ones like platformers, or arcade-style games). Many learners have fun making a Snake game or a Flappy Bird clone in Python as their first big project.
Cool Applications & Tech: Beyond creative arts, it’s worth mentioning some awesome real-world apps and tools that run on Python. For instance, Instagram – yes, the app you scroll through memes on – is largely powered by Python on its server side. Instagram’s engineers chose Python because “do the simple thing first” is part of their philosophy realpython.com. They needed to serve millions (now over a billion). YouTube is another service heavily scripted in Python (Google, which owns YouTube, is a big fan of Python and uses it in many internal systems realpython.com). So when you binge-watch videos, some Python code is helping recommend the next clip or transcode that video.
Netflix uses Python for its recommendation algorithms and managing streaming (their engineers love Python’s rich ecosystem of libraries for pretty much any problem) Even NASA uses Python for tasks like data analysis and automating operations – one oft-cited example is that a lot of code for the Mars rover and space telescopes’ data pipelines is written in Python.
In conclusion, learning Python now, while you’re 13–15, can be a fantastic investment in your future. Not only will it likely give you a leg up in college (where Python has basically become the default programming language in many courses), but it also opens up a world of creative and fun projects you can tackle right away.
So, if you haven’t already, give Python a try! Join us to learn Python in person or online !
