Best Minor with Computer Science??

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I just wanted everybody's opinion of the minor which goes the best with CS. I laid down a bunch of things I was considering and I wanted to know what would be the best career-wise, or whether your minor affects your career at all. Here are a list of options, in no particular order, and some of my personal comments on them:
1. Business Minor - might help because I want to do an MBA later on
2. Game Design - if the minor doesnt matter much, this sounds incredibly fun to do
3. Applied Math - Math is my passion and it works really well with CS so I think I'd do really well
4. Operations Research and Management Science - Seems to be a good combination of Business, Math and CS
5. Information Science - CS and info science have a lot of crosslisted courses and might work well together, I'd presume.
6. Electrical and Computer Engineering - I know most of you are gonna say, how weird is it to major in CS and minor in ECE; they both deal with the same thing, but the ECE minor focusses a lot on Circuit design, which is something I find extremely fascinating and was always that elusive thing you never understood as a high schooler.</p>

<p>This decision means a lot to me, so if there any well informed posters, I would appreciate a wise word.</p>

2

<p>If you was determined to pick one. I would do math since it is your passion and it would help keep your GPA up. And most schools CS majors are pretty close to a math minor already. So a math major may would be possible.</p>

<p>Not sure what career goals are to have much other say but a business minor does not exactly help in getting a MBA. A good MBA focus more on your work experiences than your degree. And you would most likely repeating your minor again if you did end up getting a MBA</p>

3

<p>I am the opposite. I am currently a CpE but want to move back to CS. If you are SEAS student, I think you should pick something fun as a minor, something that you may not be able to do by yourself.</p>

<p>I believe at SEAS you still have to take the computer science version of digital system (logics). </p>

<p>I think the ECE track can be quite interesting. Otherwise, I’d go with either Applied Math (something more relevant to your CS study), or Game Design. A minor takes up many hours, and can exhaust your attention.</p>

4

<p>An EE or CompE minor is a great pair with CS. Knowing more about hardware and circuits and the under-the-hood aspects of computing is a great boon. It would open up a lot more jobs for you. Other good pairs are math (more discrete math, and more linear algebra, vector analysis, statistics, whatever), and this may seem out of left-field but: physics.</p>

5

<p>I’m kind of in the same situation you are. The biggest question is, what kind of job are you wanting after you graduate? Me personally, I am working on my AA, and my AAS in Networking Administration. Then I’ll transfer to the university I want, and start my Bachelors. I actually plan on being a Network Administrator, and most companies that are hiring want someone who is A+ certified and experienced. That would be the electrical engineering part to a degree. </p>

<p>You need to lock down what kind of field you want to get into in Computers first. If you are more geared toward getting a job as a game designer, then you are looking at a completely different skill set than someone who is going for a job as a Systems Security Admin., or Network Admin.</p>

<p>Keep in mind too, that many companies are not just satisfied with a Bachelors or even Master’s degree. Depending on your actual job field, you are looking at numerous certifications. One company that was hiring Network Admins. for instance, wanted a Bachelors degree, CompTia A+, Network +, Blackberry, MCT, and MCNE certifications. some of your classes will actually prepare you for the certification exams, but you have a lot that you will have to do on your own. </p>

<p>With computers the bottom line is this, the more specializations and certifications you have, the better chances for a top notch job out of college. Otherwise you are looking at 3-5 years working in a related field while you are also getting additional certifications, before you can even be considered for top starting salary.</p>

<p>I’ve been researching this stuff for the past 2 years, and continue to do so almost on a weekly basis. Check out one of the job websites like Monster, look up your specific field you plan on entering and let it do a national search. It seems almost discouraging at times with what some people want, BUT, there are jobs out there that will trade education and certification over work experience.</p>

<p>Hope that helps you out a bit.</p>

6

<p>OP, I would minor in ‘developing a social life and being a person who thrives in groups.’ That skill would probably help you more in your career than math or business classes.</p>

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<p>Uhh, math courses get harder after calculus . . .</p>

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<p>Uhh, studying electrical engineering in college is a little more theoretical than what’s on the A+ exam . . .</p>

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<p>I’m not sure that certifications matter for people shooting for software engineering and development jobs. I think that they are more important for administrators. Am I wrong here?</p>

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<p>ackademik1,</p>

<p>If I were you, I would not narrow myself to just network administration knowledge only. It would be better to take the gamut of network-related COMPUTER SCIENCE courses to allow you be prepared for more opportunities like network design and network security which would AUTOMATICALLY give you the network administration skills. Having the more expanded knowledge of networks will open you up to more senior roles within an employer like Practice Manager, Chief Engineer, Engineering Program Manager, etc.</p>

8

<p>1, 3, and 4 are good minors. 5 is redundant thus useless (and should be part of a CS degree anyway) but should be easy enough to get. 2 is a passing fad which everyone who doesn’t know better will get so it makes your qualifications suspect. Do it if you just want something for fun, but the jobs in that field will go to those with experience and/or the full degree. Circuit design won’t help much with CS, so 6 should be a dual major if you really want some kind of career with that.<br>
Degrees are the ultimate certification, or should trump the myriad of proprietary ones, unfortunately the HR gatekeepers don’t see it that way.</p>

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<p>@Silence_Kit: I dunno about me, but you need a minor in manners if anything at all. The rest of us fortunate enough to have parents who taught us that.</p>

<p>Ideally, I’m looking for a career in software engineering for a few years after my Bachelors, and then for an MBA in entrepreneurship so I could set up a start up company.
I had no clue certifications mattered in my stream. Can you give me some figures when you say top salary? The average salary for CS at my college post Bachelors is $80k.</p>

<p>From all your comments, I’ve concluded:

  1. Business isn’t worth it because I’ll be studying the same thing in my MBA
  2. Game Design is a passing fad.
  3. Information Science is redundant</p>

<p>That leaves with me 3 more:

  1. ORMS - no one’s said much about this
  2. Applied Math - general consensus is that this goes well with CS
  3. ECE - varying opinions - some of you are saying it’s pointless unless i dual major, and some of you are saying it’s an interesting twist.</p>

<p>Any opinions about these 3?</p>

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<p>btw, I’m pretty confident that if I do Math, I’ll be able to maintain a high GPA. I’m not sure about ECE or ORMS. I don’t know how much time studying any of those subjects takes.</p>

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<p>I seen top salaries reported as high as 125k. But I am sure those are rare and I am not even sure if they was a CS major that actually went a CS related field. Also, most major salary surveys are self reported. So the number could of been exaggerated. If your school average is 80k, I would say a mid 90k job is very feasible if you’re a good student.</p>

<p>And just to add on, ORMS seems like another business degree. Usually see degrees that are very similiar in b-schools.</p>

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MBA will not teach you how to be a successful entrepreneur. A start up founder does not need MBA. If your business is successful, unless you have strong leadership skill, you are better off leaving the management, and financial decision to another person. </p>

<p>Are you a Harvard student? </p>

<p>You need ideas. An idea that you can take on and sell to people. It is easier to found a startup in the IT industry because the cost is very low. You can start your business at home with a laptop. A mobile app can turn into a multi million dollars worth business: a tour app. </p>

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ECE will take you a while. </p>

<p>What year are you in?</p>

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<p>@youknowme:
I don’t know where you’ve seen salaries of $125k but I have a compiled list of top salaries from top CS schools and only 4-5 of the top 10 report starting salaries post a CS degree above $100k, and that too only one or two people. In fact, the highest starting salary last year for CS in any of the top 10 colleges was $115. Maybe I’m mistaken. </p>

<p>And I didn’t get your point about ORMS. I think it’s an effective combination of business and computer science, which is partly why I’m interested. What do you think?</p>

<p>@jwxie:
Oh, I know that an MBA can’t teach you how to be an entrepreneur. It’s just one of those ‘dreams’. I might not pursue an MBA if I don’t find a feasible idea by the time I graduate. I have a few nice ideas already that I want to work on, none which I’m too keen on revealing just yet, which might be profitable. However, having an MBA degree would help. If the idea doesn’t work out as planned, the MBA degree might not be in entrepreneurship but in management, because a job at any IT MNC will require that after a point. Otherwise, depending on my frame of mind, I might just do an MBA and go to Wall Street or settle for an M. Eng. You can’t really tell this far ahead, but that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna put myself in a position which will allow me pursue any of these 4 career paths by the time i graduate.</p>

<p>No, I’m not a Harvard student, but I’m in one of the best colleges for my stream, and I believe I’m in that academic tier if you know what I mean. </p>

<p>I’m in the class of 2015.</p>

<p>And what do you mean by ECE will take you a while. All minors have the same credit requirements. What’s your final advice regarding the minor?</p>

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<p>At some schools, ORMS is like a business / industrial engineering / operations research major with lots of math (unlike a typical business major program where math ends after freshman “calculus for business and social studies majors”). Highly quantitative aspects of finance and business appear to be the target job and career for students in such a major.</p>

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<p>That last post makes me really want to do ORMS, seems like it does have the best combination of Math and Business. </p>

<p>Any thoughts of how interesting it is or how much it overlaps with a CS degree because my seniors tell me it’s boring and essentially CS all over again.</p>

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<p>I agree that OR is a good combination of math and business but don’t think there is necessarily much overlap with CS. A better overlap would be something focused more in the data mining or analytics area. I don’t think OR is boring, however it is probably too specialized unfortunately. I have only ever met one person who worked in that field and that was in industrial automation/controls business (he had a PhD in math). It probably pays well but there may not be as much demand for it as you might think.</p>

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<p>It’s good advice. Tacking on a minor in a subject won’t help you in your career much. No one will look at your resume and go ‘oh wow he took on a minor in college I better hire this guy’.</p>

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<p>hello , you have missed out COMPUTER NETWORKS DUDE… am a network nut i like the field and have passion for it and intend to pursue my masters in computer science in networks but what i dont know is the factor of job safety and salary which is an unavoidable factor for me despite of my passion for my field…</p>