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I've been looking around for answers and I'm not getting anything clear. Some people will swear on their dead mother's grave that you are screwed for life if you get a BA instead of a BS and all employers will shun you and burn your applications for good measure, and others will just shrug and say "No, not really." (I'm obviously exaggerating, but that the gist of it.) I ask because I'm transferring to Rutgers next semester and I want to major in Comp. Sci. with a minor in English, but I don't know if it's worth cramping my schedule somewhat for the BS. The differences between the two amount to 2 physics(or chemistry) classes + labs and 2 extra CS electives. Will having a BA, as opposed to a BS, be a roadblock when looking for a job? How important will taking the two physical science courses be in the future?
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May 23, 2014 21:41
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Is this a Comp Sci BS vs. a Comp Sci BA? I've never heard of the latter, and I'd be suspicious if I saw it on a resume. Unless you're pursing an MS anyways, I'd probably try to get that BS.
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May 23, 2014 23:28
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For me the difference was one math class. A lot of my friends were getting the BA and I figured if I could get a leg up on them by taking 3 extra credit hours then it'd be worth it.
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May 24, 2014 00:05
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I'm a CS grad and until recently I wasn't really aware of the distinction. In any case you could probably get away with writing "Bachelor's in Computer Science, Big Butt University, 2016" on your resume.
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May 24, 2014 00:05
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Crumps Brother posted:For me the difference was one math class. A lot of my friends were getting the BA and I figured if I could get a leg up on them by taking 3 extra credit hours then it'd be worth it. Why would they even make the distinction in that case? That sounds bizarre. At least in my case its an extra semester. Since two of you three said you'd never known about a bs/ba difference, I take it that this is either a new or uncommon distinction? That just makes it even more confusing.
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May 24, 2014 19:06
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ViggyNash posted:Why would they even make the distinction in that case? That sounds bizarre. At least in my case its an extra semester. Universities are full of arcane rules, accreditation requirements, and academic traditions. There's usually one set of general requirements that a department has to meet to offer a "bachelor of science" in anything, and another set that they have to meet for a "bachelor of arts." Since CS degrees tend to be locked in to a course-based sequence, the general requirements don't matter all that much: you get a degree in "computer science" that says you've taken all the necessary computer science courses, and the "arts" or "sciences" bit speaks to the distribution of liberal arts and elective requirements. Different schools have different course structures and internal requirements, which changes the BA/BS distinction. Some institutions offer just the BS, some offer both a BS and BA, and I wouldn't be surprised to learn there's some well-regarded university out there that only offers a BA in comp sci. So, long story short, it's driven by bureaucratic necessity on the part of the university. BA/BS is unlikely to matter even a little bit in your first job search, and is guaranteed to be irrelevant after that (nobody gives a poo poo about your undergrad, unless maybe you went to MIT or some other ultra-prestige institution). If you graduate from a decent research institution with a CS degree, BS or BA, and can speak in complete sentences during an interview, you'll be able to get a job with good pay. If you want to be competitive for dream-job stuff, pursue good internships, put private and class projects on Github, get involved in leadership positions in on-campus organizations, network with your professors (even if you don't want to go into academia, research experience looks really good), and lean on alumni associations whenever you can. Doing even one of those things will matter far more than a BS vs. BA distinction, even if people care for some reason. Doing a majority of them will set you up very nicely for whatever you want to do.
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May 24, 2014 19:44
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ExcessBLarg! posted:Is this a Comp Sci BS vs. a Comp Sci BA? I've never heard of the latter, and I'd be suspicious if I saw it on a resume. I go to a rather good uni and we don't have any BS degrees whatsoever. Physicist? BA. Biologist? BA. Compsci? BA. It's a result of our arcane rules and academic tradition (see previous post).
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May 24, 2014 22:14
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I CANNOT EJACULATE WITHOUT SEEING NATIVE AMERICANS BRUTALISED!
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That's good to hear there isn't much of a distinction, but I'm guessing the thing to worry is about grades/transcript?
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May 24, 2014 22:18
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ViggyNash posted:I take it that this is either a new or uncommon distinction? If it's a couple of extra classes I'd go for the BS. If it's another semester, that's perhaps a different story. Honestly most folks won't notice, and if you put "Bachelor's in Computer Science" people wouldn't think much of it, so that's a good idea.
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May 24, 2014 22:26
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ViggyNash posted:Why would they even make the distinction in that case? That sounds bizarre. At least in my case its an extra semester. That's why I said it was for me. There was quite a difference between the two but by the time I looked it didn't really matter. At my school a BA had fewer total classes spread over a wide variety of subjects while the BS had four different areas and you had to specialize in one while still taking a few classes in the others. My whole undergrad was a bit weird because I spent two years in a completely unrelated major. That ultimately led to the, "gently caress it. Might as well get a BS."
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May 24, 2014 22:27
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Where I went to college, the college of engineering offered a computer science degree while LAS offered a Mathematics (or Statistics) & Computer Science degree. They were both BS. The core curriculum was the same, the only difference were the electives and gen-ed requirements. I think employment opportunities were the same generally speaking.
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May 24, 2014 22:51
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I have a B.Sc. in Computer Science, and while I don't think it would make a huge difference in a job search or anything, I will say that I never regretted taking additional math/CS courses and getting more knowledge (sometimes about pretty obscure, but useful and interesting things). If you're planning to build a career in a CS related field, I would recommend taking the additional requirements anyway; the fact that you get a better-sounding degree is gravy. Remember that no one will give a poo poo about your English minor (or any minor, generally speaking) except you, so there's always the option of taking the courses that interest you afterward.
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May 25, 2014 23:55
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I have a BA in CS. I have been offered jobs at Google and Amazon. The difference between the two is nil after your first job out of college, and probably before that.
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May 26, 2014 00:22
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It doesn't matter in the slightest. Some schools are only accredited to offer a BA or a BS, while some are accredited to offer both. In the schools that offer both, there is usually some difference between the two programs, but since that difference varies considerably from school to school, the HR person reading over your resume won't know that your BS meant you took 3 more math classes than a BA grad because in other universities it will mean something completely different. Since CS jobs are more skill-based, your ability to demonstrate your skills is much more important than the letter after the B.
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May 26, 2014 02:51
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ExcessBLarg! posted:So here's the thing. I'd expect someone who majored in Computer Science to have a Bachelor of Science degree, not an arts degree. The exception is for schools where all science degrees are BAs. Otherwise I'd wonder if the BA-version is watered down compared to the BS in terms of the actual CS curriculum. My school had no meaningful difference. The gen-ed pre-reqs were different, and the BS required one more electrical engineering course and one fewer computer science theory course. Other science degrees you could get that were a BA were Physics, Chemistry, Math (including Statistics and Applied Math), and Biology. Degrees that were a BS were mostly things that fell under Engineering. I can't see why it would matter at all.
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May 26, 2014 03:56
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When I had to make the choice, I asked my academic adviser what the difference was. She told me that for my college, the BS had a few more certifications and fancy things attached to it that would make me slightly more appealing on a resume than a BA. I've got about 3 semesters left and haven't heard poo poo about those certifications since though.
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May 26, 2014 16:21
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ickbar posted:That's good to hear there isn't much of a distinction, but I'm guessing the thing to worry is about grades/transcript? Space Gopher posted:If you graduate from a decent research institution with a CS degree, BS or BA, and can speak in complete sentences during an interview, you'll be able to get a job with good pay. If you want to be competitive for dream-job stuff, pursue good internships, put private and class projects on Github, get involved in leadership positions in on-campus organizations, network with your professors (even if you don't want to go into academia, research experience looks really good), and lean on alumni associations whenever you can. Doing even one of those things will matter far more than a BS vs. BA distinction, even if people care for some reason. Doing a majority of them will set you up very nicely for whatever you want to do.
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May 26, 2014 16:50
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Honestly, the sole time the difference will matter is if you're trying to get a job straight out of school with no other experience of any kind to mention.
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May 26, 2014 18:13
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Come on now chaps, real universities only offer BAs to undergrads. Or did you go to some sort of 'university' founded after the 16th century?
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May 26, 2014 23:37
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Nermal posted:Come on now chaps, real universities only offer BAs to undergrads. Or did you go to some sort of 'university' founded after the 16th century? Sorry that the school down the river is better at the whole tech thing. 
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May 27, 2014 03:48
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Come on now chaps, real universities only offer BAs to undergrads. Or did you go to some sort of 'university' founded after the 13th century?
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May 27, 2014 18:22
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My school had as someone else noted (maybe the same school???) an extra electrical engineering course and maybe one or two more/different CS courses. Maybe slightly more rounded CS wise whereas the BA, having slightly fewer requirements, meant you could focus a bit more? Regardless, didn't make any appreciable difference, whereas acing the interview and having experience was far more important.
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May 27, 2014 20:10
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silvergoose posted:My school had as someone else noted (maybe the same school???) an extra electrical engineering course and maybe one or two more/different CS courses. Maybe slightly more rounded CS wise whereas the BA, having slightly fewer requirements, meant you could focus a bit more? It might be something related to ABET accreditation. Was the BA open to engineering students?
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May 28, 2014 03:10
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I hire people. If it's your first job, a BA is going to make me double-take, and probably look a little more critically at your resume. Second job, I could hardly care less about college. Unfortunately, though, I think the day has passed where you can get a great job with only a Bachelor's degree. PS: I know a guy who went to Rutgers and the only skill he seems to have over the guys who went to state schools is that he's better at blowing sunshine up people's asses. Please don't accrue too much debt just to go to a name brand college. Second job, nobody cares. Unless your career plan involves the Good Old Boys Network, I guess. E: haha, Rutgers *is* a state school. Shows what I know. Carry on, then. cruft fucked around with this message at 04:35 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 04:28
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It doesn't matter. And don't insinuate that because you hire people, you know your poo poo about CS degrees. And don't claim that you can't get a job with only a bachelors in Computer Science.
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May 28, 2014 05:18
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Having a master's in CS will actually cause many people to look at you with suspicion, relative to having a bachelor's. Although this is mostly only a serious problem if your bachelor's is non-CS/EE.
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May 28, 2014 05:51
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ntan1 posted:It doesn't matter. Haha, what? I hire people, here, at the place I work. My group hasn't hired lower than MS since about 1998, but other groups have, and I'm sometimes privy to their hiring decisions. I kind of figured folks would assume I was referring only to the people I hire when I said "I hire people". cruft fucked around with this message at 18:31 on May 28, 2014 |
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May 28, 2014 18:28
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cruft posted:Haha, what? I hire people, here, at the place I work. My group hasn't hired lower than MS since about 1998, but other groups have, and I'm sometimes privy to their hiring decisions. I kind of figured folks would assume I was referring only to the people I hire when I said "I hire people".
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May 29, 2014 03:08
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Cicero posted:And this has to do with CS degrees...how? And if it doesn't, why did you post it, in a thread specifically about CS degrees? I'm not sure what you're saying here. MS means Master of Science. You get an MS in something, like an MS in CS. They're not mutually exclusive.
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May 29, 2014 21:12
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cruft posted:I'm not sure what you're saying here. MS means Master of Science. You get an MS in something, like an MS in CS. They're not mutually exclusive.  Yes, ok, I know how degrees work. Are you specifically hiring people with CS degrees, or specifically for software engineering positions? It would be very unusual to not hire 'under' a master's for software engineers unless you're doing some kind of research work.
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May 29, 2014 22:00
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Cicero posted:It would be very unusual to not hire 'under' a master's for software engineers unless you're doing some kind of research work. I am, in fact, in a research group, but the researchers are all PhDs. I'm the only full-time software engineer with only a bachelor's degree (obtained in the late 90s). We are usually looking for a CS degree, every other position we want math. The other group I mentioned is more engineering, they hire CS grads exclusively. The place I work is admittedly pretty far removed from industry, and apparently I'd gotten the wrong idea about what kinds of jobs you can get with a bachelor's degree. Thanks for helping me get a more realistic perspective! I still stand by the assertion that hardly anyone will care about BA vs. BS. though  E: Since this may actually be of interest to the OP, if I were to see on your resume that you did have a Master's degree, I wouldn't even bother to look if you had a BA or BS. Or even what your Bachelor's degree was in. cruft fucked around with this message at 22:43 on May 29, 2014 |
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May 29, 2014 22:35
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At my university it was actually pretty simple: The Computer Science BA was conferred by the letters and arts college and the BS degree conferred by the engineering college. The BA was less intensive credits-wise and allowed people to pursue minors or double major in other things like math or physics. In fact a buddy of mine went that route with a double major in math and comp sci. It would not have been possible to do that pursuing the BS degree in less than 5 years. He works for Facebook now.
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May 30, 2014 19:20
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I cant picture there being very many CS majors on these forums to help you
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May 30, 2014 19:57
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At my university a BA in CS is basically less requirements than a BS. So that is why people consider it 'less' of a degree or some bullshit. They're both from the same school of engineering at my university, but I think they just do the BA so they can get more people actually graduating and not burning out or something. Bachelors are basically all bullshit now, and just a hoop to jump through to get your foot in the door, so unless the person who is hiring basically has only this one sticking point to choose you over another applicant then it doesn't really matter. That being said, robo-scanners or HR folks who don't give a poo poo may just throw out anything that is not "BACHELORS OF SCIENCE" or something, since every job gets like 10x more applicants these days than people they will actually interview and thus need easy reasons to throw away applications. Plus any of those sticklers who would call you on having a BA probably don't even have a degree in it themselves but they REQUIRE IT for anyone new they are hiring. So yeah, just do whatever. Shoot for the BS, but if you are forced to do a whole extra year of school just for the extra requirements, do the BA.
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May 30, 2014 20:58
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jeeves posted:Bachelors are basically all bullshit now Speaking of which, I don't get the hard on the EU has for making every undergrad degree an accredited job creator friendly three year bachelors through Bologna. Even German businesses have started complaining about how people with BScs are basically glorified high school kids you can't put in a position of responsibility unlike Diplom graduates (the standard German undergraduate degree, basically everyone going to university had to get a Masters or drop out).
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May 30, 2014 23:53
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