Computer science vs. BIT

College Majors Engineering Majors
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<p>Hello,</p>

<p>I attend Virginia Tech, and have a difficult decision major wise coming up. If you could, please keep all bias of the college out, this is a major question and I dont want people saying "well this other college is betting for this major" stuff please.</p>

<p>I am currently majoring in psychology, and I'm about 5 psych major classes away from being done, and I am entering my sophmore year at Tech. I knew from entering college that psych, while a beloved subject of mine, was not going to get me where i wanted to go job wise, but was a great supplement to any job i got into. I had my heart set on a double major and after going through thoughts of pre-law, pre-med, and others I am down to one thing: I still love computers</p>

<p>I took a basic CS class in high school, java programming, and while i understand CS is not about programming overall, I can say that programming to me is not boring, it's actually intersting knowing that what i write will make the computer (if i do it right that is ;) ) do what I tell it to do, or something to that effect.</p>

<p>I have a fascination with computer security, hacking, network security, but I must say that math wise for a while i was a bit-anti math. This past year i took some very basic pre-calc math courses which i blew by with mostly ease, putting little time into studying but getting A's anyway. While my algebra I and II teachers were terrible, and i had trouble there, now and days trig, math analysis, and early stages of calc (derivatives) are pretty easy. I get caught up in some of the theory, but when it comes to applying the knowledge i do a great job most of the time.</p>

<p>My question is such: Computer science is in the Engineering department of tech, and obviously will help me understand the basics of computers and computing languages so that i may jumpstart a career in computers anywhere I may want to go (and I have plans to definitely go to graduate school). Now, tech also offers a Business Information Technology major with a option of Decision Support Systems, teaching you some languages such as JAVA and C++, and teaching you a lot of database/networking stuff, as well as business applications of it. Im worried that the BIT major is just another one of those IT things that wont give me a firm enough base on computers to adapt easily to the ever changing computer sector. My father, who has a CS degree from George Mason (a hobby he did, sadly =P ) said CS wasn't very theoretical and the math wasn't too bad. Now I take his words with caution because he also got an EE degree as an almost hobby, to complement his 2 other degrees. As you can see, my dad is a bit of a genius in some ways, I am not.</p>

<p>So my final question is: Should I just tough it out with CS if I want to be a top notch computer person, and how theoretical/math intensive is it really? I've read a few threads on here about it all, but is anyone out there from Tech that can give me an insight, or can someone just put it straight forward without getting into a side discussion with another poster about something other than what Im looking for</p>

<p>thanks =)</p>

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<p>How theoretical CS majors are is really, really dependent on what college you're at, and what courses you take. To be honest, many CS majors really hate theory, and few colleges will force CS majors to take theory-intensive courseloads. However, you should not interpret this as meaning that there isn't any theory in CS! For instance, looking at the VT faculty list I can immediately tell Prof. Heath (<a href="http://people.cs.vt.edu/%7Eheath/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://people.cs.vt.edu/~heath/&lt;/a&gt;) is a hardcore theory guy. [Trust me on this one.]</p>

<p>If you're interested in a graduate degree, you should be prepared for much more theory. There are certainly non-theoretical CS graduate courses / theses, but they're not as overwhelmingly dominant as at the undergraduate level.</p>

<p>Based on your interests, it certainly sounds like you would be happy as a CS major. I'm not entirely sure what your concern is in the first place, though. (PM me if you need anything specific, or just reply here.)</p>

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<p>Theta(Log n)</p>

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<p>my worries typically surround two things: The Math and the Theory. With math, It takes me a bit more time to grasp how to get from point A to point B when it comes down to reducing this or that; many times it's just a matter of stuff i've forgotten from bad teaching in algerbra I and II. Mostly, though, Math theory is what gets me.. how should i say it? Frustrated. For example, I fully understand the concept of limits when applied to derivatives, but a few math books i've seen attempt to prove derivatives in highly theoritcal model's or model's that are dense. Before i try to understand it I generally get frustrated. now part of that is a flaw on my side that I'm attempting to work through, yet still I'm worried as to how much of this is involved in CS math. I could work out a relative graph of the second derivative of a function, or tell you what a graph of a function with a derivative of f(x) = x^3 * sin(x)^2 with a limit of x --> 2 would approximately look like (although I think i'm a bit rusty with the summer break ;) ). it's just the theory behind it all that i get bored with and frustrated with easily at times</p>

<p>Second, the theory in CS would bother me mainly because of whether i would find it uninteresting or unappliable. I am ADD, but so far that hasn't stopped me from much. If, however, a lot of CS theory is there that cannot be readily applied via writing code, i'll find it boring, and/or frustrating. I understand that coding is not even close to what CS is about, but I am a person who needs to apply what i've learned into a more constructive approach, and reciting computer theory is not that approach =P</p>

<p>I guess i'm a bit nervous about the decision I have to make, because it requires a large investment. At tech, to get into the CS degree I must qualify, and to qualify i must start taking CS/Engineering courses. This requires me to not only put my psych degree on hold for a year (not a big problem) but it requires me to invest in a tablet PC, engineering software packages, and naturally the aprehension of whether or not CS will destroy my GPA like it seems to do for other CS majors.</p>

<p>Just a bit jittery i guess, looking for all the information i can get.</p>

<p>Thanks for the reply, all other advice/replies are greatly welcomed.</p>