Bachelors of Arts or Science?

College Majors Science Majors
1

<p>Hello all!</p>

<p>I'm planning on majoring in Computer Science at Bethel University and was wondering what the differences between a BA and a BS are. I know that a BS has more rigorous course work, but when I'm getting hired by a company, will it matter? I'm not going for any high-profile jobs at NASA or anything, Boston Scientific or 3M would be the highest echelon that I would reach for (I live in MN and both are local companies). </p>

<p>The reason that I'd like to do BA instead is I would love to be a youth pastor, and perhaps even go on to Seminary if I feel the calling--a Computer Science degree is something that I would enjoy (although not as much) and ensure that I can provide for my family regardless of what my wife wants to do. I'm thinking the BA might prepare me for those possibilities more. Also, I am going in with 24 credits, and would like to graduate in three years, and a BA would likely make it easier, as there are more elective credits to fill.</p>

<p>Any input would be great!</p>

<p>Jesse</p>

2

<p>[Here</a> are Bethel’s CS courses and degree programs.](<a href=“Christian College | Bethel University”>Christian College | Bethel University)</p>

<p>If you choose the BA degree program, you may want to take all three of the “choose one of these courses” (313, 377, 386), since they all contain concepts commonly used in industry software development jobs.</p>

<p>Oddly, it does not appear that there is an algorithms and complexity theory course.</p>

<p>As far as what an employer may consider in terms of seeing a BS versus a BA degree, what matters more is the reputation of the school in CS. For example, one of the top schools in CS graduates a lot of students with BA degrees in CS.</p>

<p>However, the University of Minnesota may affect the attitudes of your local employers. It appears that at the University of Minnesota, the [BA</a> in CS](<a href=“https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogProgram.do?programID=127&strm=1109&campus=UMNTC]BA”>https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogProgram.do?programID=127&strm=1109&campus=UMNTC) requires 8 junior/senior level CS courses, while the [BS</a> in CS](<a href=“https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogProgram.do?programID=123&strm=1109&campus=UMNTC]BS”>https://webapps-prd.oit.umn.edu/programCatalog/viewCatalogProgram.do?programID=123&strm=1109&campus=UMNTC) requires 11-12 junior/senior level CS courses. However, even the 8 junior/senior level CS courses could still be a rigorous and useful program (of course, depending on what the courses and their contents are).</p>

3

<p>Well I could take all 3, and just put them towards Electives.</p>

<p>The BS at Bethel requires a minimum of 10 300/400 level classes, while the BA only requires 4. Will that be greatly detrimental when applying for a job?</p>

4

<p>It looks like the BA in CS at Bethel requires 6 300+ level CS courses: 301, 318, (313 or 377 or 386), and any 3 others. The BS in CS requires 9 300+ level CS courses.</p>

<p>If you take 301, 318, 313, 377, and 386, you should cover most of the common areas seen in industry, except for the omission of algorithm and complexity theory.</p>

<p>The lack of an algorithm and complexity theory course brings up the bigger question of whether the CS course content at Bethel matches up with that of Minnesota and other schools (e.g. Wisconsin, Michigan, Illinois). If the Bethel courses cover less material, then you may be at a disadvantage in job interviews or on the job compared to those from other schools.</p>

5

<p>Could you explain what algorithm and complexity theory courses are? One more “hard” question for me to ask :)</p>

6

<p>Basically computer theory courses on analyzing how much time and space a given algorithm or computer program will take in relation to the size of its input data. For example, sorting some objects using a comparison function between two such objects takes on the order of n**logn<a href=“written%20as%20O(%5Bi%5Dn%5B/i%5D*log%5Bi%5Dn%5B/i%5D)”>/i</a>, where n is the number of objects to be sorted, but a naive developer may write an O(n^2) sorting function, which is much slower as n gets large.</p>

7

<p>I received this back from a professor at Bethel–</p>

<p>"We have a course in the sophomore year (Data Structures and Algorithms) that does address algorithms in a non-trivial manner.</p>

<p>We do not have a full course in complexity theory but the topic does get covered somewhat in two courses (Discrete Mathematics, Data Structures and Algorithms). We certainly cover the topic at a level necessary for the kinds of jobs most people enter with a bachelor’s degree. You might want a bit more if you go to grad school, but that is often one of the beginning graduate level courses."</p>

<p>Does that sound right?</p>

8

<p>IMO, you should go for the BS. You might not think you’ll need it now, but you’ll regret it if you do ever actually need one. Some employers do require a BS instead of a BA, but they are few and far between.</p>

9

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<p>Meaning that they spread the content of what is commonly a standalone algorithms and complexity course into parts of other courses? It can be ok if they actually do teach the needed content, though it is not obvious from Bethel’s web site how much of what is taught in other universities’ standalone algorithms and complexity course is contained in Bethel’s other courses.</p>

<p>In most other universities, the algorithms and complexity material is in a standalone course that is generally assumed to have been taken by a CS graduate entering graduate school in CS.</p>

10

<p>Here’s something I just posted to someone who was asking something similar in the engineering forum (replace ‘math’ with ‘computer science’):</p>

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<p>I’d also recommend you look at this wiki article–explains the areas of CS well, esp. complexity theory (a subset of theoretical CS, which also encompasses automata theory and computability theory).</p>

<p><a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science[/url]”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;