BS in Data Science and Machine learning or BA in Computer Science? The BS includes a minor in Finance or Management (Strategy & Entrepreneurship)

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

Hi All,

I’m applying Yeshiva University and I have the following options:

  1. 3 year BA program: BA in Computer Science
  2. 4 year BS program: BS in Computer Science with concentration in Data Science & Machine Learning with a minor in Finance or Management (Strategy & Entrepreneurship)

**My main question: What would a Minor in Management paired with 4 year BS computer science concentration in Data Science and Machine Learning signal to employers VS. a Minor in Finance **
After completing either program do a Masters degree in Machine Learning or in Quantitative trading.
I’m interested in creating solutions software / apps that will help a large number of people and improve daily life and politics.
On the other hand, I realise that it might be hard to be a single person within a company and be able to make significant change. Also, I might want to be the one calling all of the shots about the direction of a product or service. Therefore, I might want to be a quantitative trader for eight years and then move on to work on making software. One thing that I know about myself is that I like coming up with ideas and directing how some problem should be solved. The execution part I don’t find as fun.
Should I strive to be a technical product lead, a quant trader, or a manager of a group of software engineers?

What do you think? What methodologies should I use to help make my decision?

2

My compliments for thinking through some various career paths and their educational requirements in advance. The question(s) you want to ask yourself are how much money do you want to make, how hard do you are willing to work and how much school you might want/be able to pay for. Getting a job as a quant trader is a very specialized (and very lucrative) niche that doesn’t really transfer to being a product lead or SWE manager. If you are committed to graduate school, a 3-year BA degree saves you a year of expenses and gets you on the job faster. If you want to work with an undergraduate degree, the BS might put you on a better career path especially if you want to work in machine learning, if that’s even possible with a BS degree.