Well, as an Assistant Professor of Computer Science (CS), of course I’m going to pick Computer Science… but that might not be the right choice for you, so in this video we look at a few different options.
These options include Computer Science (CS), Information Technology (IT), and Computer Engineering (CE), which are the three most common computer degree programs in the United States. We’ll also examine Computer Information Systems (CIS) and Software Engineering.
Computer Science
In computer science we look at solving computer problems via a software solution. While an undergrad degree will focus on software development in many ways, graduate programs more to solving novel problems involving everything from Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Computer Vision to Search and Sorting Algorithms. New programs working on Computer Ethics and Computer Security as well as the Internet of Things are also very popular.
Information Technology
Almost every company of any size has an IT department. Students who take an IT course will most likely find themselves there. They will study Networking, Server Management, Security, and other topics. Often this is taught in a Business school and may also have a lot of business courses such as accounting, management, and finance.
If you’ve ever worked on building and fixing computers, and want to do that at a corporate level along with user management and more, IT is probably the field for you.
Sometimes IT students will need to take some introductory CS courses to understand high level languages and/or scripting tools they will use. However, most IT people do not spend their day writing code.
Computer Engineering
Computer engineering is one of the fields I hear new students talking about the most, but when you ask them what they want to do with the CE degree, they usually specify something different than what it actually is.
A CE student will study to learn how to design and build processor and other types of chips and hardware that make up the computer. This is an important field that is how we get smaller, faster, and more efficient chips every few months.
It is focused on math and science and can be a very challenging field to get into. Sometimes CE students will take low lever programming courses from the CS department.
CS Questions – Which Degree should I choose? was originally found on Access 2 Learn
