<p>Hey guys im enrolled to attend drexel in the fall and im majoring in CS. Ive looked extensively through thhe course options, BA BS or GMPD, to try and understand the differences. I get that the BS is math/science heavy, BA is well rounded and can potentially be just as math/science heavy as the BS if i elect to take certain courses, and that the GMPD is a game-career oriented major. But my real question lies in what opportunities i'll have after college depending on which degree i choose to pursue. I have the summer to decide. My goal after college is simply to get a career where i can make a living and be able to advance. Ideally id love to be able to be involved in the process of developing cutting edge games, but how likely and lucrative this could be is a complete mystery to me. So what are your guys thoughts? Should i concentrate in BS and just get a normal CS job, go for a BA and take supplement game classes on the side, or go straight for the GMPD degree? Are there major differences in the opportunities from the different degrees or are they the same? Ill be asking my counseler these questions as well once i get the opportunity. Thankyou.</p>
<p>The game major will likely be more limiting; game companies hire regular CS majors, but non-game employers that hire CS majors may be less likely to hire game majors. A regular CS major interested in games may want to take electives in graphics, artificial intelligence, art, and physics, in addition to the usual useful-for-industry-jobs courses in operating systems, algorithms and complexity, databases, networks, software engineering, and security.</p>
<p>Get the BS. Better for your career and your future in software.</p>
<p>Although many people will desagree the BS CS opens 5x more doors than a BA CS. This only doesn’t matter if you go to a very respectable ivy league otherwise your future employer would be like, “what the hell is a BA in CS?” LOL. Also a BA will leave completely unqualified for jobs that require deep computer science knowledge. I find it odd that a CS program would offer a BA…BTW some employers have never seen a BA CS</p>
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<p>Many graduates with BA degrees in CS from a state school got hired to well paying jobs:
<a href=“https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/CompSci.stm[/url]”>https://career.berkeley.edu/Major/CompSci.stm</a></p>
<p>Of course, at Drexel, the differences between BA and BS degree programs may not be the same as differences between BA and BS degree programs at other schools. The OP should check what actual differences are in course requirements for each degree and see which is best suited for his/her interests.
[Computer</a> Science < 2012-2013 Catalog | Drexel University](<a href=“http://catalog.drexel.edu/undergraduate/collegeofengineering/computerscience/]Computer”>http://catalog.drexel.edu/undergraduate/collegeofengineering/computerscience/)</p>
<p>Both the BA and BS degrees in CS at Drexel are ABET accredited, if that matters for patent law purposes.</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses! Very helpful! There aren’t many differences in the drexel ba & bs for cs, the ba has more free electives, but I see how a bs would make much more sense to an employer. Its also comforting to know that any game company would hire a regular cs major anyway, if I decide to go down that path. Feeling good about a BS! Thanks again!</p>
<p>I found the humanities and business electives in my BS CS (business option LOL) far more useful in getting a well-rounded education than the scores of math and stats classes my wife took at the same school following the scientific option. We took the exact same CS classes and non-calc math (discrete math, probability, stats, and operations research)</p>
<p>I’m not sure how one can get ‘deep CS knowledge’ with a 4 year degree. Most classes in a CS curriculum are at most 2 semesters deep, and in order to get the deep knowledge they’ll have to take either independent study, seminar, or dual listed undergrad/grad courses. </p>
<p>Deep knowledge comes with grad school and experience. Our curriculum required 18 CS courses and the only sequence that had more than two on the same subject was probably data base systems (I took 4 courses total, 2 the standard undergrad courses, one independent research and one seminar). Every other class we had was one semester deep, maybe two, period. </p>
<p>Deep knowledge also comes from hanging out with the right people :), reading the various blogs etc, and trying out code for the fun of it, not because it’s an assignment. </p>
<p>Having said this, I’d be taking some serious math/physics for game development…</p>
<p>Drexel BA is almost identical to the BS. I am referring to BA that remove a lot of CS/math classes for liberal art classes. why would anyone want to do that? but if the BA takes the same number of CS classes as a BS, it is ok. I would still go for the BS though, it looks better for jobs</p>
<p>You did NOT just imply Berkely is a typical state school!</p>
<p>Umm, I just referred to it as a state school (not “ivy league”) with a Bachelor of Arts degree program in computer science whose graduates often find well paying jobs (meaning that employers do not find them “completely unqualified”).</p>