<p>I am entering university next year and intend to pursue a joint degree in Computer Science and either Business or Math. What I need to know is which joint degree I would profit from most as a Software Engineer: CS/Pure Mathematics, CS/Applied Mathematics, or CS/Statistics.</p>
<p>I am also curious as to what the advantages of each are for both entering the workforce after university and for pursing a Masters degree later on.</p>
<p>Will a CS/Math joint degree make programming easier? If so, does this outweigh what I could learn from a Business degree to, hopefully, start my own company one day?</p>
<p>After initially looking over the courses for each program it would appear to me that CS/Pure Mathematics would be the option for a Software Engineer. The course list includes Discrete Mathematics, I've heard that this is a programming oriented math course, past that I don't know.</p>
<p>EDIT: Assuming that these Math degrees vary in courses, what courses should I look at taking to give myself an advantage towards being a Software Engineer? I would like to do an internship at Google at least once while pursuing this degree so what would look best on the application? I need something that will make me stand out.</p>
<p>I know this isn’t the answer you’re looking for, but any of the fields you have mentioned - pure math, applied math, statistics, and business - all go great with CS. The question of which is best depends on what you want to do.</p>
<p>Pure math would be best if you want to study computing in academia (or perhaps some specialized research labs). It might also be the best for getting a sense of fulfillment, if you like pure math, because college is the only place you’ll probably get a chance to study it.</p>
<p>Applied math would be best if you want to work on scientific and engineering projects where lots of programming is required but there are other technical goals. This is a more industry-oriented option than pure math…</p>
<p>Statistics would be best if you, well, like statistics. I’m not too sure about this one, though… I’d imagine it is about the same as an applied math degree in employers’ eyes. There might be some overlap, at least.</p>
<p>Business would be best if you want to be a general-purpose software engineer with an eye on getting into management. The previous options are best assuming you want to stay on a strictly technical track. You mention wanting to start a business, and as such, this option is actually what I’m leaning towards. You’ll get math and statistics in CS anyway… to the practicing software engineer, some business training will be beneficial. A lot of Soft.E. theory overlaps with business stuff, anyway… at least it seems that way to me.</p>
<p>Math courses that would be good to have as a Soft.E? I would say the following, listed in descending order of importance:
- Discrete Math (introductory treatment)
- Probability and statistics (introductory treatment)
- Information theory (including coding, compression, and crypto)
- Combinatorics (graph theory, combinatorial designs, enumeration, etc)
- Algebra / number theory (of the abstract varieties)</p>
<p>If you take just the first two, you should be alright. The last three are more advanced versions of the first two, I guess… others, please chime in about good courses for a Soft.E.</p>
<p>Well I would like to get into a management position eventually. However, I want to stay on the tech track where I am actually doing the programming and have to keep up to date with languages and such for a few years before I seek promotion to management. I believe this will better allow me to watch over my team, provide more experience, earn me more respect, and I actually enjoy programming to begin with!</p>
<p>“If you take just the first two, you should be alright. The last three are more advanced versions of the first two, I guess… others, please chime in about good courses for a Soft.E.”</p>
<p>The courses AuburnMath listed were pretty much summed up the core of a combined CS/Math degree. My undergrad major was Computational Mathematics which is about as close to a joint Math/CS than actually getting both degrees.</p>
<p>Just about all of those courses AuburnMathTutor mentioned are electives for a Math degree except for Algebra (Ring Theory) and if you specify that you want to go the software route, the Math department would advise you to take those courses he mentioned. I guess you could add in Numerical Analysis or a few of those Numerical Solution of ODE/PDE/Matrices courses but those do not prepare you for software engineering in general, they are just focusing on a certain sub-area (scientific software).</p>
<p>JamesBrewer, thanks for creating this thread. I was actually about to post something like this, but, I have a side question. Does a joint degree in computer science and math look good for top engineering grad schools? </p>
<p>I will be at Michigan next year and I plan on dual majoring in math and computer science. But, to be completely honest, my main reason for dual majoring in math is because I feel it would help me get into some top graduate programs like MIT or Stanford. To me, pursuing a degree in math is more a “looks good” type of thing. Is that just a crazy or idea, or is there some truth to that thought?</p>
<p>Wolfpack,</p>
<p>In general, if you get high grades in either major, you would have no trouble getting into the top graduate programs. Probably the only thing that sometimes hurts you in only majoring in math is that if you wanted to get an M.S. in Engineering, some graduate schools prefer you to have an ABET undergraduate engineering degree.</p>
<p>As for (overall) how a math degree looks and helps for grad school?..I would say it helps a lot. A couple of top graduate programs like Illinois and Georgia Tech have so many cross-listed math/cs courses to the point that all 10 courses selected can either produce a MS in Math or CS degree.</p>
<p>Also, there are new majors out there like Computational Engineering or Stanford’s Computational & Mathematical engineering in which (when you look at the actual required coursework) ends up a joint math/CS degree.</p>
<p>Another option would be to take a wider variety of CS courses (electives) and grad courses. For dual-majors, you should probably take a look at your target school(s) and look at their suggestions for dual-majors. The other posters have already covered Math/CS.</p>
<p>Doing a business/CS would involve a lot more non-common courses so it could be difficult getting all of the credits. Business and CS are usually in different departments so there may be difficulty or administrative headaches there.</p>
<p>As far as the CS major going into software engineering and then into management goes: I think that a better mindset would be to do the work that you’re hired to do as well as you can and not focus too much on moving into management. If you do a good job, then the management opportunities will come. Focus also on enjoying what you are doing as then it won’t seem like work at all.</p>
<p>I see young engineers come in that want to be on the fast track and they play the games that they think will get them into management faster and get frustrated when they are passed over for others that are doing a good job at what they are assigned.</p>
<p>Thank you GlobalTraveler and BCEagle for your input. This is very much appreciated.</p>