CS minor or major?

Parents Forum
21

My S is at Berkeley also with an Econ major and also got the “CS/coding bug” late in the game. Unlike your S he wont even walk away with a minor as too difficult to get into CS classes at Berkeley unless you are a declared major. He has taken the critical CS classes in addition to taking data science classes

2 things he is looking at now

  1. Data Science-getting a masters in Data science or Data Analytics. Data science is a "hot" field now that combines stats, math and CS skills. with his current curriculum including econ, stats, econometrics, undergraduate data science classes and undergraduate CS classes he feels prepared to get into some top masters programs. Check out various programs including Berkeleys online masters of data science . In the end a lot less money than getting an MBA and maybe come out with a better job. Most require either the GMAT and or GRE. Has your S taken either of these exams. worth taking as score holds for 5 yrs.
  2. Coding bootcamps- He is a rising senior and looking at graduating a semester early and using second semester senior yr to do a 12 week immersive coding bootcamp . He says the top coding bootcamps including Fullstack, Hack Reactor and App academy have good publishable job outcomes at top companies. although a lot of negative press on CC about bootcamps there is also a lot of positive reviews online. Some of the more competitive ones you don't even pay till you get a job.
22

I wouldn’t bother getting the CS major unless he’s planning on going into a CS job. And even in the field of CS, you don’t necessarily need a CS degree. Many people don’t have one. It depends on what he plans on doing.

My son has a dual degree in psych and CS. He does computer programming in a neuroscience lab right now. And even with his CS degree, he still has to look things up on the internet now and then to figure out how to solve issues that he’s not familiar with. For instance, his employer wants him to learn to program VR for future experiments, and he has no background in that at all (other than playing games on it). But he’ll use what he already knows and teach himself from online information, just as he’s done for other things.

As long as your son is good at picking up CS knowledge easily, he’ll probably be fine with the basics.

23

Again, thank YOU all for the stories/advice. They are VERY helpful; to me: but more importantly to him!
Hopefully more stories will appear.