<p>Can I assume it's always better to get a BS in a hard science than a BA? Or is that wrong thinking?</p>
<p>I see UCSD offers a BA as well as a BS in CS.</p>
<p>Feedback is appreciated.</p>
<p>I don’t think employers really care.</p>
<p>Degree title of a bachelor’s degree (BA versus BS) does not matter. Course and curricula content is what matters.</p>
<p>Some schools do offer both types of degrees with different course and curricula content, whose differences may or may not matter (depending on the school).</p>
<p>In many cases the BS is offered in the Engineering school, and the BA in the Arts and Sciences school. Often the Engineering school requires Physics and Chemistry of all students. IMHO that is of limited usefulness to the typical CS student, so I am not particularly of the opinion that it is automatically “better”. I’m an Engineer myself by the way.</p>
<p>There was just a thread on this topic:</p>
<p><a href=“Difference between BS and BA in Computer Science for Grad School and Jobs - Parents Forum - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parents-forum/1687807-difference-between-bs-and-ba-in-computer-science-for-grad-school-and-jobs.html</a></p>
<p>Does not matter. The BA usually requires a few more social science and humanities credits, the BS science credits. Therefore a BA in a science like I chose for my undergrad chemistry major means I met both reqs. Any bachelors degree will suffice.</p>
<p>As someone who makes hiring decisions, I don’t care. Having either degree is a definite plus. </p>
<p>Beyond that, I am more concerned with the skills you bring to the table than whether you took N hours more science courses than the next applicant.</p>
<p>I have two degrees in my field…the same field for both. One is a BS and the other an MA. </p>
<p>It doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>The BA allows your son to take more classes that he likes, liberal arts. The BS is a little more restrictive. Years ago, there was a slight discrimination toward BA with regards to BS. I don’t think it matters as much.
But my kid is doing BS and not BA.</p>
<p>I’m biased towards BS as well, but I guess with a BA the student could take some business-oriented courses which can be useful if he/she is going into corporate software development.</p>
<p>I think if the BA student has the needed math classes for the job, who cares. </p>
<p>When people used to ask, “what’s the difference between a BA and a BS,” the rule of thumb used to be…a BA didn’t require calculus. I don’t think that is the rule anymore…at least maybe not for a BA in CS. Maybe I’m wrong but I can’t imagine a CS degree w/o a few math courses. </p>
<p>It appears the degree at UCSD requires the same math for both degrees-math through Linear Algebra.</p>
<p>I appreciate the feedback. It seems that, for the most part, people are saying it doesn’t matter. It’s the skills you have that really dictates what potential jobs a student might have.</p>
<p>If your son has a deep desire to study something else besides CS than BA makes sense. Mine doesn’t. She prefers to take more CS classes.</p>
<p>Meh, we’re still just exploring majors at UCSD. None of them really match up with what my son wants besides music, but the music program there isn’t exactly what he wants. CS game design at UCI is a better fit, but UCSD is the local. Right now, his first choice is ME for a major, but I just looked at the BA CS and thought it might be good for him so he can do some other non-STEM classes.</p>
<p>Still searching…</p>
<p>For UCSD, both BA and BS majors in CS are described here:</p>
<p><a href=“Home | Computer Science”>Home | Computer Science;
<a href=“Home | Computer Science”>Home | Computer Science;
<p>The differences:</p>
<p>Lower division: Required courses are the same, except that the BS major requires a probability and statistics course in addition to the other required courses.
Upper division: Both require the same 40 units of core upper division CSE courses. BA requires 28 units of upper division electives. BS requires 36 units of upper division electives, including 12-16 units in a cluster. Both allow up to 8 of the upper division electives to be non-CSE technical electives.</p>
<p>Overall, the difference is 12 units (6.7% of the 180 units to graduate), or 3 courses (out of probably 45 to 48), though the BS major also requires the cluster within the upper division electives.</p>
<p>Thanks, ucb. I found those same links but didn’t look too closely at the differences. Still have some time before the app closes.</p>
<p><a href=“Capped Majors”>https://students.ucsd.edu/academics/advising/majors-minors/impacted-majors.html</a> describes how selection of major on the application at UCSD affects admission. It won’t affect admission to UCSD, but the student may or may not be admitted to the major. It may be difficult to change into an impacted major later after enrolling.</p>
<p>It’s not difficult. I called and asked them but the higher GPA one has the better chances.</p>
<p>His first choice for a major was engineering physics, but I think with that major, a student would need to go onto grad school to do anything with it. Am I right? He just wants to graduate and go to work, so I’m thinking ME or CS would be better. His alternate major is music. I thought the ICAM major looked kind of interesting but he didn’t think so.</p>
<p>Are we in the minority of parents on CC who really think it’s a fine idea not to go to grad school? Just seems unless you’re really into research (neither older son is) or want to be a professor (neither does), if you can get work after graduating, no reason to go to grad school. Thus, picking a major that can be employable upon graduation makes more sense.</p>
<p>Obviously, music might well require grad school or just pounding the pavement, so I realize it’s possible this son could end up needing more school, but the goal as it stands now is to get in and get out.</p>
<p>This is helpful to see how many students are enrolled in each major. Looks like CS is, by far, the most impacted major.</p>
<p><a href=“http://registrar.ucsd.edu/ver2/dservices/thirdweek/FA13/REGBDM03.FA13.PDF”>http://registrar.ucsd.edu/ver2/dservices/thirdweek/FA13/REGBDM03.FA13.PDF</a></p>
<p>I stand corrected. Looks like bio is, which makes total sense for UCSD.</p>