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Alternatives to a CompSci degree?

W

wviperw

Senior member
Note: see this thread for background information.

Ok, I think I've decided that I'm going to transfer to another college next semester. My next major issue is what "field"/area-of-concentration I am going to focus on. Where I'm attending now, my majors are Applied Mathematics and Computer Science, simply because that is all they offer. What else is out there though?

I think I might interested in:
  • Software design
    AI
    Graphical programming (3d)
    Graphical design (2d,3d)
    Research (maybe?)
To the extent of a life-profession, I'm NOT interested in:
  • Computer Engineering
    IT/IS
    "Business" programming
    Teaching
Based on the above, should I be pursuing a "pure" Computer Science degree, or is there a more specific undergraduate degree that I should be looking for? Or would the best plan be to get a "vanilla" CompSci undergrad degree and then to get specific at the Grad level (if I decide to do that)?
 
Get a real degree in something unrelated, like Mechanical E, take some electives that deal with electrical stuff, do programming on the side. If you really like programming, you will learn it well. Who knows if you do good, when you graduate you can pick a career at game development, robotics, or work for a major car manufacturer designing engines. Now that's versatility.
 
For research you need grad school, preferably a Ph.D. A generic Comp Sci degree isn't bad, in your junior-senior year you can take classes in AI, graphics, and software engineering to see which interests you most.

Your professors should also be able to suggest papers to read outside of class or possibly as for-credit independent study. A good school library should also have the Association for Computing Machinery journals on AI, graphics, and software engineering.

The applied math courses are a good background for AI (especially neural nets) and graphics, besides providing some interesting applications of programming for approximating functions and searching for optimal values.
 
Biology
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studio art
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pornography
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Hmm... maybe a porn star who does biology/studio art on the side...? 😛

I'm not sure about the whole research thing. I mean, what all would it entail? I don't want to be some washed up professor on tenure (iow, in a teaching position), which is what I think of when I hear' research'. I'd be interested in working on--to be cliche--"the cutting edge" of technology, but 1) That means a lot of theory and 2) you've gotta be a genius for a lot of that stuff.
 
So it sounds like I should:

1) Go for a "normal" CompSci degree
2) Dabble in the topics I'm interested in (by taking upper level classes)
3) Possibly go to Grad school in the field I end up liking best

Anybody else?
 
How about a major where you might get laid once in a while. I found Criminal Justice to be condusive to that.
 
A variation, not necessarily a better choice, is Software Engineering. I know several schools in the nation are accredited software engineering programs that are starting to emerge. I got my degree in SoftE last spring from Clarkson, and we were the first of 4 accredited programs in the nation, and the only one to get the full 6-year accreditation. (yes, a feather in my cap)

What I mean as "Software Engineering" as opposed to CS comes from my own experience at one school, as some CS programs at other schools are the equivalent of what I would consider SoftE. At Clarkson, the difference was major, as the CS and Math depts were one dept, and SoftE was part of CompE and EE, although we took many CS courses. The courses specific to SoftE were what gave me an edge over our CS majors, as we were exposed to building large pieces of software, in a team environment. I'm talking a client-server-database-custom network protocol large client server app, and we'd build it in a matter fo a few weeks after going over how to design. Our CS students never had to build anywhere near the size and scale of apps we did, and when I took computer graphics at my last semester, I could easily write event-driven object oriented, fairly large programs with ease and focus my studies on the new material of computer graphics. The advantages I experienced were being able to visualize abstract designs of software, and know how to break things up so a team could suceed in building software very fast. Our CS people were only required to write small programs, by comparison, and rarely worked in teams.

Overall, I missed out on a few things that CS majors learned, like crypto and AI, but I gained a great deal of understanding reinforced from practical experience on how to design robust, modular and efficient software. But I am the type who can't sleep sometimes at night because I think too much about code and design.
 
Originally posted by: tkotitan2
A variation, not necessarily a better choice, is Software Engineering. I know several schools in the nation are accredited software engineering programs that are starting to emerge. I got my degree in SoftE last spring from Clarkson, and we were the first of 4 accredited programs in the nation, and the only one to get the full 6-year accreditation. (yes, a feather in my cap)

What I mean as "Software Engineering" as opposed to CS comes from my own experience at one school, as some CS programs at other schools are the equivalent of what I would consider SoftE. At Clarkson, the difference was major, as the CS and Math depts were one dept, and SoftE was part of CompE and EE, although we took many CS courses. The courses specific to SoftE were what gave me an edge over our CS majors, as we were exposed to building large pieces of software, in a team environment. I'm talking a client-server-database-custom network protocol large client server app, and we'd build it in a matter fo a few weeks after going over how to design. Our CS students never had to build anywhere near the size and scale of apps we did, and when I took computer graphics at my last semester, I could easily write event-driven object oriented, fairly large programs with ease and focus my studies on the new material of computer graphics. The advantages I experienced were being able to visualize abstract designs of software, and know how to break things up so a team could suceed in building software very fast. Our CS people were only required to write small programs, by comparison, and rarely worked in teams.

Overall, I missed out on a few things that CS majors learned, like crypto and AI, but I gained a great deal of understanding reinforced from practical experience on how to design robust, modular and efficient software. But I am the type who can't sleep sometimes at night because I think too much about code and design.
Click to expand...

So SoftE focuses more on the development process of REAL software then? Do you still focus on the theoretical side of things, or is it more team/project application oriented?
 
I believe SoftE focuses more on development and creating of software and systems, whereas CS focuses more on the theory behind it, though it is assumed that CS people should be able to do the same things that SoftE people do.
 
Originally posted by: wviperw
So it sounds like I should:

1) Go for a "normal" CompSci degree
2) Dabble in the topics I'm interested in (by taking upper level classes)
3) Possibly go to Grad school in the field I end up liking best

Anybody else?
Click to expand...

That sounds good. The problem is most places don't have "specialty degrees" at the bachelors level. Most of that stuff happens at the masters level. If you want to stay with the computer field, get a BS in Computer Science (and take all the AI and graphics electives you can get) and then specialize for your masters.

Dave
 
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