How is the Computer Science Major Like

By Master1
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Orien

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^what he said

ECE is a very good course. If I were you I'd probably transfer to UIUC, they're ranked 4th (after MIT,Stanford, Caltech). They're SAT score req. is around 1900-2100. I'll probably meet you next year there anyway :p.

Hey, Berkeley is up there too. :whistle:

Grand Master

_bobcat_ Veteran

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It really depends from place to place.

I'm doing CS at Kings College London, and the majority of the course is theoretical - based around logic, etc. 2 of 8 units this year are programming based, and of that, actual code is only worth 35% - so programming is only worth 8.75% of this year.

Although sometimes I do wish there was more programming involved, I'm fairly happy with the course and enjoy every minute of it (even if it is ridiculously hard :p).

I did like the theoretical stuff we did, but, meh, if it had been that much it would have driven me up the wall. I wonder how many UK CS courses are as theoretical. I always thought most were about 50% programming.

Grand Master

Jason S. Global Moderator

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here's my story, for what it's worth:

I went to school for "computer science & engineering technology." it was supposed to be geared towards the hardware aspect of computers rather than the software side. that meant i was only 2 classes away from an EE minor. we took tons of classes on chip design, etc. we only had a handful of coding classes. my programming skills are nil and thats fine b/c i hate it.

my degree (CSET) was really just an overview for computer hardware design. in the end, i learned nothing worthwhile - nothing i could use in the real world. what i did get out of it was a very thorough understanding of how computers work, binary this and that and electrical stuff.

so when i left college, i had zero experience and couldnt use my degree. my 1st job wasnt even in IT. i moved to another city and somehow weaseled my way into a junior admin job. it was a good building block, but i still didnt use anything i learned in college.

so, in the end, im much better off now (im currently at my 4th job out of college.) I've learned on the job, gaining experience over the years. college did basically nothing for me.

Moral of the story - research your college path thoroughly before you start! mine turned out to be pretty worthless!

Grand Master

ObiWanToby

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Keep in mind, you can get to hardware related stuff via other majors as well. Electrical Engineers and Chemical Engineers are employed heavily at Intel. As are they at Apple...etc. Someone needs to make smaller chips, faster storage, better energy storage...

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Lord Ba'al

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CS almost drove me insane, so I can only recommend you to do something else.

You'll very quickly learn to curse Java and all that theoretical rubbish - of which there is quite a lot, much more than actual programming (which is ok, as long as it's not Java.)

The maths stuff is about as fun as a root canal, on top of it.

So don't say I didn't warn you :no:

I'm really, really glad I switched to Japanese, which preserved my sanity - or what was left of it, at least :wacko:

While it's also hard work, at least it's fun (most of the time, at least).

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JonathanVP

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Thanks for the input Jonathan, im not too big of a gamer, so im not sure abt the game design part lol, i was thinking of maybe doing cs as a minor along with something better like you said, is that a more viable option ?

I am glad I can help. I did my CS (many moons ago) and I made my mistake of concentrating only on CS without a minor in something else. I initially was a EE major with a Physics minor but I noticed many EE graduates had no jobs during my time. I had to learn the BS of Cobol, C, Pascal, Fortran, and a lot of theory. My first job entailed doing nothing but Cobol crap. Now many years later, I got my MBA and now getting a law degree and found out that a business degree (along with CS) is much more viable since many organizations (Oracle, IBM, etc...) are looking for leaders who have a technical background but who understand the people side of technology. With only a CS degree (or any other technical degree for that matter) you are constrained to learning only the tech side of things. Believe me, the most stimulating and most difficult part of tech is not just the technology itself but of dealing with the people side of technology (egos, personalities, etc...). Anyone can design the next great app but it takes a special someone to convince people that your app is the greatest thing.

In other words, go for a CS major but I highly recommend going for a business minor (or physchology) and then later get an MBA to "round yourself out". A straight technology degree doesn't do it anymore in this marketplace. To remain competitive now, you must have the soft skills to complement the hard skills.

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Master1

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I am glad I can help. I did my CS (many moons ago) and I made my mistake of concentrating only on CS without a minor in something else. I initially was a EE major with a Physics minor but I noticed many EE graduates had no jobs during my time. I had to learn the BS of Cobol, C, Pascal, Fortran, and a lot of theory. My first job entailed doing nothing but Cobol crap. Now many years later, I got my MBA and now getting a law degree and found out that a business degree (along with CS) is much more viable since many organizations (Oracle, IBM, etc...) are looking for leaders who have a technical background but who understand the people side of technology. With only a CS degree (or any other technical degree for that matter) you are constrained to learning only the tech side of things. Believe me, the most stimulating and most difficult part of tech is not just the technology itself but of dealing with the people side of technology (egos, personalities, etc...). Anyone can design the next great app but it takes a special someone to convince people that your app is the greatest thing.

In other words, go for a CS major but I highly recommend going for a business minor (or physchology) and then later get an MBA to "round yourself out". A straight technology degree doesn't do it anymore in this marketplace. To remain competitive now, you must have the soft skills to complement the hard skills.

I'm thinking of maybe doing a minor or a specialization in computing, but maybe not a major. I've heard lots of not good news about CS. The thing that concerns me tho is the future of CS. I would like it if you guys would be able to provide feedback on this aspect along with all the other job aspects. What will the future of computing be. From the current trends, it seems as if the current ideas are getting "outdated." Am I right in this

Once again I would like to ask for everyone to provide feedback. Thanks to everyone who has been inputting feedback, but I would like more people to provide their feedback about getting a CS degree and the such

Grand Master

Xilo

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I'm really, really glad I switched to Japanese, which preserved my sanity - or what was left of it, at least :wacko:

While it's also hard work, at least it's fun (most of the time, at least).

That was a seriously bad move. Good luck trying to find a job when you graduate. I know some people that majored in Japanese and they don't have any worthwhile jobs. It may be a fun major but it's honestly pretty worthless.

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ShamRocker1

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Skip Computer Science. Computer Science is a joke. It's incredibly easy. However, you are much more limited in jobs.

Pick up Computer Engineering. Computer Engineering is very difficult, but it's worth it and you can do so much more than with just a Computer Science degree.

CS to start then CE would be the better option IMHO.

Let me add this question. What kind of jobs can you get with a CS degree

Help Desk, Security just to name a few. Depends on the requirements of the position.

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mitchartz

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I'm a Computer Science major with a second major in Business Administration. My emphasis for Computer Science is Information Systems, my major is very business oriented, I've taken a bunch of COBOL classes along with a basic Object Oriented Programming class which was in JAVA as well as a class in C++ and VB.net. Some class are difficult and some classes aren't. You'll have it in most any major, there will always be classes that you work on more than others.

It really comes down to how much time you want to put into it and how good you are at programming. You can tell when projects are due because the CS labs are full until 3 or 4 in the morning.

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Orien

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Let me add this question. What kind of jobs can you get with a CS degree

Software development tends to be a good place for CS people. However, these days you need to go beyond a bachelors in CS if you want to go down that route; otherwise you're going to find a bunch of jobs at that level being outsourced.

Grand Master

Xilo

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Software development tends to be a good place for CS people. However, these days you need to go beyond a bachelors in CS if you want to go down that route; otherwise you're going to find a bunch of jobs at that level being outsourced.

Depends on the company. If you try to get into generic programming shop, yeah it will be hard.

Big companies have a lot more opportunities.

I graduated one year ago and only have a Bachelors.

Mentor

Orien

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So let's say Microsoft. In order to get a job with them you would have to get a Masters or a PHD in computer science ?

Definitely not what I implied and I agree with Xilo. It really depends on what job level and company size you're going for.

Just IMO, as time goes on, it's going to get increasingly more difficult to get well-paying jobs with just a bachelors in CS.

Experienced

Master1

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Definitely not what I implied and I agree with Xilo. It really depends on what job level and company size you're going for.

Just IMO, as time goes on, it's going to get increasingly more difficult to get well-paying jobs with just a bachelors in CS.

So does that mean that CS jobs are getting less and less ?

Grand Master

Xilo

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So does that mean that CS jobs are getting less and less ?

Not necessarily. Almost any piece of technology needs programmers.

The problem is a lot of the jobs are getting outsourced. These jobs though are the typical entry-level code monkey jobs, so it can be tougher for a fresh graduate with no experience to get a job. This is where having a Masters or PHD will help a lot.

Your luck will also depend A LOT on your university. I went to Texas A&M and there's a HUGE engineering career fair held twice a year where hundreds of companies come to take resumes and give interviews. A majority of people end up with jobs provided your GPA is good. However, I've heard of people going to schools that don't have this type of thing and can't find a job at all.

The key is finding your niche and being good at it. The internship I got was because I had a lot of experience in networking, c, and perl and that's exactly what the project was using. I ended up being hired full time afterward.

Experienced

Master1

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Not necessarily. Almost any piece of technology needs programmers.

The problem is a lot of the jobs are getting outsourced. These jobs though are the typical entry-level code monkey jobs, so it can be tougher for a fresh graduate with no experience to get a job. This is where having a Masters or PHD will help a lot.

Your luck will also depend A LOT on your university. I went to Texas A&M and there's a HUGE engineering career fair held twice a year where hundreds of companies come to take resumes and give interviews. A majority of people end up with jobs provided your GPA is good. However, I've heard of people going to schools that don't have this type of thing and can't find a job at all.

The key is finding your niche and being good at it. The internship I got was because I had a lot of experience in networking, c, and perl and that's exactly what the project was using. I ended up being hired full time afterward.

Xilo, thanks for your input, yes @ UCLA, there is a quarterly tech fair, where all the big name hot shot players like Microsoft, Google, Intel, Apple, Adobe and such come to recruit students. But now that you mentioned it, I also have a different question. How is the job like, do the people just pretty much sit all day in their office and write code or how is it?

Grand Master

_bobcat_ Veteran

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People are mentioning the big names a lot in this thread.. But very large companies make up a fairly small percentage of available jobs and the jobs they do have attract much more competition. It's worth looking at and considering small business as well.

http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/smallbus.htmli

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_and_medium_enterprises

Also if possible I would like for more people to tell how hard the major is ?

That will vary from school to school. There seems to be a trend that harder coursers are better courses.

Personally I found the first year easy. In the second year the workload was crazy hard but most of it was not intellectually very challenging. In the final year I seemed to have less workload, though more than in the first.

Experienced

Master1

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People are mentioning the big names a lot in this thread.. But very large companies make up a fairly small percentage of available jobs and the jobs they do have attract much more competition. It's worth looking at and considering small business as well.

http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/smallbus.htmli

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_and_medium_enterprises

That will vary from school to school. There seems to be a trend that harder coursers are better courses.

Personally I found the first year easy. In the second year the workload was crazy hard but most of it was not intellectually very challenging. In the final year I seemed to have less workload, though more than in the first.

Thanks Laura :) but I was considering big name companies more for some reason

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