<p>So I am currently leaning towards getting a BA in CS instead of a BS. I plan to go to grad school and get at least an MS in CS. I have a lot of research experience, TAing experience, etc.</p>
<p>Will having a BA rather than a BS give me a disadvantage in grad school admissions?</p>
<p>Sorry I do not know much about grad school, but if you get a BA in CS, you can still get an MS in CS? How do you get a masters in the sciences if you have a bachelors in the arts? Is that possible? Does it just require extra courses to go from a BA to a BS? </p>
<p>Anyway, I feel like if you want a MS, you should have a BS. That is just my opinion, and like I said, I am not well acquainted with grad school stuff. That just makes sense. As with anything else, though, it depends on the graduate school.</p>
<p>No.</p>
<p>It doesn’t matter what your degree says; what matters is the courses you’ve taken and whether or not you are prepared for the graduate program. If you have sufficient coursework in CS and other competitive things in your application, then you can still get into the program.</p>
<p>No, you don’t need a BS to get an MS - you can go from a BA to an MS. In fact, many colleges only offer a BA in computer science. Actually, [url=<a href=“http://www.brandeis.edu/programs/computerscience/masters/ma.html]some[/url”>http://www.brandeis.edu/programs/computerscience/masters/ma.html]some[/url</a>] programs only offer an MA in computer science. The “arts” refers to the “liberal arts,” and computer science is a liberal art.</p>
<p>@ juillet: Thanks for the clarification! </p>
<p>@ RiceIsTheBest: Sorry that I could not help!</p>
<p>I am a retired mechanical engineer. I am also a state certified mechanical contractor in the state of Florida. I have hired and managed a number of engineers and other disciplines. During my career I wrote a fair number of programs. The people who will be hiring you will know the difference between a B.S and a BA. When I was a chief engineer in some very large corporations the policies about hiring varied. One such company would not hire any engineers unless they had either a B.S in mechanical, chemical or electrical engineering. Again, the people who do the hiring know the difference. Where you get your degree also comes into play. The employer knows. which schools are harder than others. Where I went to school, the last ME to fail the EIT exam was 13 years previously. In some schools, the majority of those taking this exam fail. The employer is also aware of this distinction. Many people take their beginning courses at a junior college. When these people then transfer to a major institution, they find that they are way below the curve and have to truly struggle to catch up if there major is technically difficult. I have taught at two universities and the level of difficultly varied significantly between the two. I suggest that you talk to your schools councilor about which majors will be in the highest demand.</p>
<p>CS is not an engineering degree most places, it isn’t CE. CS departments are set up very differently depending on the university/college. Some are more closely associated with the math dept and are in the arts and sciences, some are in the engineering dept and more closely related to EE. Grad schools will take both degrees. </p>
<p>For computer science it should not matter. At some colleges, the CS degree is offered in both the engineering school and the School of Arts and Science and the core class work is the same, just the non core or distribution requirements differ. Or the one in the engineering school may have an introductory engineering course requirements and physics. But the CS stuff should not be materially different. So look at your own program to see if there is some substantial difference that grad schools or employers would notice you are missing. I do see that at my daughter’s college it is offered at the same department but the BA is 9 courses and the BS is 15. The difference after core requirements is that the BA requires 4 advanced courses while the BS requires 8 plus 2 additional of math. That probably explains why some students are in good position to do the additional one year for the MS. So that is going to be stronger position to come from but it shouldn’t be a deal breaker. And if you are going to get the MS it would be a non issue to employers.</p>
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<p>This would be true if 1) the school you are applying from sends a lot of students to this particular firm, ergo, the firm is familiar with the educational practices of the school and 2) there actually is a difference between the BS and the BA at that school. As mentioned, some colleges only offer a BA or a BS in computer science (but not both), so the student does not have the option to select one. That doesn’t mean that the BA from X University is lesser than the BS from Y; in fact, the curricula might be nearly identical.</p>
<p>If you DO have a choice - again, what you’ve actually done is more important than the letters on your transcript. Generally speaking at colleges that allow a choice, the BS requires more classes - generally more science classes. So a BS in computer science might require more cognate classes in math or physics, for example. Well, a student might choose a BA for more flexibility - maybe they are interested in computational applications in the biological sciences, and they opt to do a BA so they can take bioinformatics classes in the biology department, which don’t count towards the BS at their particular school. Or maybe they want to do quantitative and computer applications in the social sciences and so they take psych and sociology classes. Or maybe they’re just a double major. Or, even in some cases, maybe they take the exact same amount of math and physics classes as their BS peers - they just don’t take them in the right combination or fulfill the specific requirements.</p>
<p>So then of course “graduate program” is a nebulous thing. If you’re applying for a bioinformatics program and you chose a BA because you took more biology classes as opposed to math, I can’t see that counting against you in the process, for example. Even if you went straight CS, there are all kinds of people who have BAs and get MAs or MSs and PhDs in the field.</p>