<p>Do you think any minor in particular would be helpful to complement an IT degree?</p>
<p>Instead of a minor, just take as many courses in your major and be the best that you can be in one thing.</p>
<p>If you want to do a minor, do it in something that you really love.</p>
<p>I’ve floated about the CC boards periodically since my pre-college days 5 years ago, but felt inspired enough to actually register when I came across your posts. It’s strange how the majority of your frustration and worry could have been expressed by myself during college. While I won’t bother detailing everything about my university situation, I was distraught on whether or not CS was the proper major for me. My grades mirrored yours. I felt the same way about programming. Classmates of mine had high school experience. Programming was completely foreign to me when I walked into my Intro course. I had such a love-hate relationship with it. Like you, I knew I would never be satisfied simply programming forever.</p>
<p>I can’t speak from extensive experience like the others who have posted. My graduation was only last May, but I’m happy that I had stuck it out with CS. The coding I’ve done post-college has been refreshing in comparison to half the work I did while at university. It sounds like you’re intrigued by the business aspect as well. You could build on your technical CS-degree foundation down the road with MIS or MBA. For what it is worth, this is how I intend to further my education. It’s the debate I’m currently having.</p>
<p>Since I am less than a year removed from classes, I have little insight but will answer whatever questions you have.</p>
<p>Thanks very much for responding jmgudal,</p>
<p>You said you would never be satisfied programming for a living, but you are doing it now and don’t mind it? Do you intend to find a job outside of programming down the road? What is the coding like in an actual career as opposed to college courses?</p>
<p>I know the CS degree is the more lucrative and rigorous of the two (CS and IT), but I don’t know if its worth dealing with all the hardship and frustration I will face in future courses if I am not interested in a career in programming. That’s the primary dilemma I am having right now. I also don’t want to feel like I am giving up on myself by switching to IT. I am mostly contemplating switching because I am interested in the technical field, but not with programming or software development.</p>
<p>BCEagle,</p>
<p>Thanks for your input. I will stick with the technical courses.</p>
<p>Also, you don’t have to be a coder if you get a CS degree. Plenty of people become Project Managers and do less coding and more interfacing between customers and the development team. So they’ll develop the spec and manage development, without doing a lot of coding themselves.</p>
<p>Also, is it normal to stress THIS much over this decision? I wasn’t even able to enjoy my spring break because it was constantly in the back of my head. Like I mentioned, I need to make a decision before the end of this semester. Just curious if its normal to stress THIS much. I feel like this is one of the biggest decisions of my life so far and it could drastically impact my life.</p>
<p>From one CS major to another (that had the same dilemma a few years back), stick with it. Stick with it and don’t think about it anymore. This is what you are doing, so do your best. Stick with it because a degree in computer science does NOT pigeonhole you into a specific career, and any job you’d get with an “IT” degree you could also get with a computer science degree. Your major doesn’t define you for life…it’s just something you studied in college. Computer science is a respected degree and even if you switch fields after graduation, it still earns you credibility. You’re almost at the finish line, so finish!</p>
<p>Programming is something I can’t see myself doing years far down the road. I just can’t sit in solitude at a computer on a daily basis as I chip away at code. Thankfully, things fell into place for me. My team recently had our PM move to a separate project in the office. The supervisor actually decided to have me absorb the PM responsibilities, despite only having been there for about four months. I’m doing the workload of two positions, but my balance between PM and developer tasks has been great. Most of my college coding courses had fairly small assignments and projects. Stepping into the project I’m on was intimidating for the first month or so from just the scope. I think coding is more exciting now since there are so many more factors in play. There’s significant business logic that’s factored in with what you’re working on. Your work is affecting some sort of customer, which brings an added responsibility compared to just striving for an A.</p>
<p>sumzup is exactly right. The CS background has been crucial in doing some of the PM work. Personality definitely plays a role into things. While I’ve worked with some developers who are ‘social butterflies’, most don’t seem to be. My daily enthusiasm and interfacing with everyone in the office (including those on teams that don’t interact with mine) likely helped in my adopting the PM responsibilities.</p>
<p>You should definitely look into some sort of hobby to mentally calm yourself down. I remember one brutal semester where I was getting buried in some CS and Mathematics courses. I actually purchased and taught myself the ukulele. It sounds ridiculous, but it’s one of the better choices I’ve made. This is a major decision, so stress should be expected. Just try not to let it consume you.</p>
<p>
+1. Words of encouragement.
All jobs that require an IT degree can be done by someone with a CS degree. The opposite is not true.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the recent replies.</p>
<p>Arcadefire,</p>
<p>Were you contemplating another major? Like I mentioned before, I didn’t do so well on my midterm for Object Oriented Design (65). I also failed my Program Design final exam last semester (still was able to pass the course). I wasn’t able to grasp linked lists and I had a very frustrating time in the second half of the course and I just wasn’t enjoying it. I mainly wonder if I can even complete the rest of the degree if I am having trouble. I still have 14 classes left to take. I feel like dealing with all this frustration won’t be entirely worth it if I don’t even want a job in programming.</p>
<p>I know the CS degree is worth more than the IT degree. I just wonder if its worth more if I have no interest in programming nor a career in it.</p>
<p>I do feel like I want to switch to IT, but I don’t want to feel like I am giving up on myself by taking the possibly easier route. I don’t think anyone in this thread encourages me to go for IT over CS which is hard to grasp. It seems as if I am making a HORRIBLE mistake that could change my life if I go the IT route as opposed to CS.</p>
<p>I just am curious if I am cut out for the rest of the CS curriculum. Its going to involve a lot more programming that will likely become much more rigorous. I think the decision would be a bit easier if I had more people saying the IT route is a good one to go down if I didn’t want to go into programming, but I don’t have that.</p>
<p>I want to graduate as soon as possible. I am slowly starting to get tired of school and just want to enter the work force. In order for me to graduate by summer of 2013 with a CS degree I would need to take Data Structures and Logic Design in the summer. I would also need to take 15 credits of pure CS courses for both Fall 2012 AND Spring 2013. I would also need 2 more CS courses for summer 2013. Is it possible to even graduate Summer 2013 with that course load (I have no gen ed electives left). It would definitely be possible with the IT degree as it would be less rigorous. I would hate to take a full semester of CS courses in the Fall and ultimately fail (due to course load) and be put ANOTHER semester behind.</p>
<p>I would not recommend taking more than three CS courses at a time, especially those with a large programming lab commitment.</p>
<p>My son tutored logic design for three years - a lot of CS students had problems with it because they weren’t expecting a hardware-oriented course. A lot of CS students think of CS as a software degree. Logic design is very low-level and requires some different thinking than that of the usual intro programming courses.</p>
<p>You might consider stretching things out a little.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>In my opinion, no, it is not worth it, because, as you have said, you have no interest in it. If you were being lazy, I could see why you might think that you’re taking the easier way out by switching to IT. However, you don’t seem lazy, just uninterested. There’s nothing wrong with that. I know plenty of people who did not like CS but were able to have careers in system administration, network administration, tech support, etc.</p>
<p>In theory, a CS degree gives you the background to learn how to do things that an IT worker would do. In practice, you are not likely to do these things as a part of the degree program. (You might choose to do them in your spare time.) So even if you decide to tough out a CS degree, you’d still have to spend extra time learning how to do things that sysadmins, netadmins, etc. do. Is that what you want?</p>
<p>Adam321, as to one of your other questions, in every job I’ve had where I’ve had to write software, I’ve had to apply principles and techniques covered in CS classes. I’ve had to implement and debug linked lists; I’ve had to use object-oriented paradigms; I’ve had to analyze time and space complexity of programs I worked with. This is what people do who work with software. You should expect to do these things as part of your career. This doesn’t mean that you will necessarily be sitting in a cube coding all day long, but you will be spending a good deal of your time applying what you learned in your CS classes. If the thought of this makes you unhappy, then you shouldn’t do it, unless you are one of those people who can function at a reasonably high level while you are unhappy. The reason I say this is because there is a lot of competition for good software jobs, and the jobs that aren’t good are either not likely to last long or are even less likely to be satisfying to someone who doesn’t like the field to begin with. In school, you’re usually dealing with ideal situations the professor has designed to teach principles and techniques. In the real world, you’re often dealing with software that isn’t debugged, or isn’t well documented, or works but the coding style makes it difficult to maintain. In a bad software job, the software is likely to be even more messy and buggy; not pleasant to deal with for people who enjoy working with good, clean code; even less pleasant for people who don’t want to work with code at all.</p>
<p>You need to seriously think about what you want for your future.</p>
<p>Adam321,</p>
<p>I was contemplating switching to applied math with an emphasis in computing. Decided to stick with CS and am very glad I did (things have only gotten better since). However, I wasn’t doing horribly…I was just really stressed out from all the work. Now, I can’t say you’ll have the same fate. What I can say is that I also struggled in the data structures/object oriented class and it was at that point that I considered switching my major. Let me bring up a few key points:</p>
<p>1) CS is NOT all programming, at least not at my university. Many CS classes, like algorithms or automata theory, require no programming at all. Are you sure that you still have so many programming classes left to take? Look at the upper division courses before making any decisions.</p>
<p>2) Do any topics in computer science interest you (security, networking, AI, databases, theory, etc.)? If so then it may be worth sticking to CS and exploring those interests in your upper divs. </p>
<p>3) Is it possible that the worst is already almost behind you? At my school, the hardest required CS classes are CS 32 (data structures/object oriented), CS 111 (Operating Systems), and CS 131 (Programming Languages). Outside of that, the classes aren’t all that programming intensive.</p>
<p>I will say that if you graduate with a CS degree, ALL jobs that IT majors could get are also open to you. With that said, if you’re really struggling and are not doing well in classes, it might be best to switch or lighten your workload.</p>
<p>My recommendation is to look at the required classes remaining for CS majors and for IT majors and see what interests you most. If switching to IT wouldn’t set you back too far, then it’s a viable option.</p>
<p>Thanks for all your input guys! I am taking it all in and taking it day by day. </p>
<p>I have one more question about pursuing the Information Technology degree.</p>
<p>It would require the same amount of classes (14 to be exact). I could definitely finish by summer 2013. The remainder of the courses would be online.</p>
<p>Do you think this could hurt my job prospects as opposed to if I actually got the same degree on campus (I would if they offered it on campus). I mean it is from a regular university and not an online based school like University of Phoenix or anything. I would hate for it to be less respected just because I took the remainder of the courses online.</p>
<p>I’m just curious if this could negatively impact me in the future if I did switch.</p>
<p>I would ask your school as to how it looks on the transcript. My son took an online course at his university and there’s no difference on the transcript. Note that this is only for your first job. After your first job, employers usually don’t care about your transcript - they are hiring for what you know and your experience. They look at your transcript because you don’t have anything else.</p>
<p>For son’s first professional job, they didn’t ask for the transcript in the interviews - they figured out what he knew by talking to him. They did require either a transcript or copy of the diploma after he was hired - I guess that they’re concerned about people faking their degrees (like the admin person at MIT).</p>
<p>Yeah, for CS jobs at least, employers seem to care a lot more about the interview. Almost feels like the transcript is mostly irrelevant.</p>
<p>A lot of CS employers are concerned about skills and a lot of the skills that they want aren’t learned in university courses.</p>
<p>Thanks guys!</p>
<p>I have another quick question (Sorry!)</p>
<p>If I switch to the IT major I will have to take the online courses, but switch my home campus to a branch campus. Do you think it will hurt job prospects if the degree is not only online, but also from a branch campus? USF has 4 campuses (Main one in Tampa, Polytechnic in Lakeland, Sarasota-Manatee, and St Petersberg). USF Polytechnic being the branch campus where the IT major is offered.</p>
<p>I am a little worried about getting a degree from a branch campus. Will this matter? I bet the Polytechnic logo will be on the degree, but so will University of South Florida. Would I just be able to put University of South Florida on resumes? I don’t want to feel like a second-rate student because I finished up the degree at a branch campus even though I did put in 2 years at the main campus.</p>
<p>I’m sure the campus wont give me a straight answer on this so I was hoping to get some insight from you guys about it.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>In general, you’d put the name of the school and where it is located and whether it’s the regular day school or continuing education. There are many universities where the program in continuing ed is of far worse quality than in the day school. At my son’s school, the day program doesn’t accept major credits from the evening (continuing ed) school.</p>
<p>Someone from another state may not know the distinction but someone in the state probably knows where the flagship and the relative rankings of the other schools.</p>
<p>I’d suggest looking at sample resumes from state schools. I think that that normally you list the university, location and the school that you graduated from as in School of Arts and Sciences or School of Continuing Education or Smithjones school of mumblefratz.</p>