<p>I'm a junior, and I've started my college search, and I was pretty sure I wanted to go to a school that offered a degree in Computational Math or Computational and Applied Math because I felt as though it would be a good blend of computer science and math both of which I love; however, I do love math a lot more. </p>
<p>By the time I graduate high school, I will have 5 credits in both math and computer science, but I'm skeptical in majoring in computer science because I feel as though it will force me into a job of solely programming, but with majoring in computational math, I'm afraid I won't be able to get a job only with a bachelor's.</p>
<p>Would it be better to double major in math and computer science, major in computer science, or major in computational and applied math? I really do love math, but I don't want to be stuck without a job after graduation. Right now, I've complied the list of schools I plan to apply to based on if they have a computational math major, but if I do computer science major instead, it will change where I want to go.</p>
<p>I guess I just want to know which major seems more promising for a life after undergrad?</p>
<p>Here is the word that can be the answer to many threads on this site…DEPENDS.</p>
<p>It really depends what your goals an interests are. Computational Math (without any additional CS courses taken beyond the required CS courses) can qualify you for some entry-level software engineering positions…but as many as a pure CS major. Usually Comp Math majors do not take any computer architecture courses and rarely take advanced CS courses like compiler design, etc.</p>
<p>You don’t have to have the words “computational math” on your degree to actually emphasize computational math in your math program. The “usual suspects” for a computational math program are:</p>
<p>numerical analysis
numerical linear algebra
numerical differential equations
combinatorics (junior/senior-level course…much deeper than discrete structures of CS)
graph theory (junior/senior-level course…much deeper than discrete structures of CS)
optimization/operations research/linear programming</p>
<p>The CS courses will usually go as far as Algorithms and Data Structures ALTHOUGH I would suggest more CS courses.</p>
<p>To sum this up, I would at a MINIMUM take the above math courses and the CS courses of Algorithms, Data Structures, Operating Systems, Computer Networks and Database Systems. I would also add in Probability, Statistics and Statistical Computing.</p>
<p>You don’t need to double major (2 actual degrees), some of the courses will be part of BOTH the CS and Math departments, so let them “double count”.</p>
<p>Lots of people do double majors in CS and Math, since the kind of person who likes one will typically like the other. Of CS, Computational Math and Math, CS will have the best job prospects, followed by Computational Math, followed by plain Math.</p>
<p>What exposure have you had to CS while in high school? You say you like math “a lot more”… but what are you comparing it to? Programming in Java? Realistically, one of the better outcomes for CS <em>and</em> Math majors is to get “a job of solely programming,” Of course, very few jobs like that exist, and those shouldn’t be the jobs that anybody with higher education is going after.</p>
<p>It also bears mentioning that a large number of classes that can be classified as mostly or entirely mathematics are completely relevant to a straight CS major: algorithms, computability, complexity, syntax and semantics, logic, graph theory, cryptography, and the list goes on… Computational Math, as GLOBALTRAVELER points out, is really more about numerical analysis and methods, which, while useful if you want to get into modeling and simulation of natural and physical sciences, is sort of a separate animal entirely.</p>