DC looking at IT and CS. Enjoys hands on. Likes cybersecurity. Has a scholarship to maintain and cannot ever withdraw from a course or drop it (scholarship requirements).
IT is the easier route - less Calc, easier Physics, Bio, Chem courses. Calc and sciences are not his strong suits.
Is there a huge difference after college if you have pursued IT degree instead of CS? I know CS is ‘better’. But what do typical job differences and salaries look like after college for both? (Not talking FAANG type job opportunities). I guess wanting to ensure IT degree is still worth it.
After attending various college career fairs, I have learned that your major TRULY doesn’t matter when going into the CS field. As long as you have proficiency in CS languages, you will be totally fine. In fact, some major companies actually have OA to test your CS skills before even looking at your resume- it is because they acknowledge that you can be any major and still be perfect for the job.
So to answer your question- an IT degree is perfectly fine! As long as, they have a good knowledge of the field they want to go into.
There are major differences between a CS degree and an IT degree. If you do a Google search on “difference between IT and CS degree” you will see results like this one:
" The difference between Computer Science and Information Technology is that computer scientists design and develop the software programs that IT professionals use and maintain."
You can dive further into the academic differences between the two by checking the course requirements. You’ll see lots of differences.
It is true that competent “coders” can typically find employment in “coding” jobs, but if you’re looking to get involved leading edge development, a CS degree will far better prepare you. Many development roles now look exclusively for CS grads with MS and PhD degrees.
I’ve worked at a few large software development companies. Each had an IT department that ensured that the development environment (IDEs, compilers, linkers, etc) was up to date, they supported the internal networks, and comms systems, but the SW engineers were the ones developing the software.
In the case oy cyber security, do you want to develop cyber security applications, or do you want to deploy and maintain them in a corporate network? So, just know what you want to do…
IT majors find good jobs, especially if they have internships - in addition, they can easily find jobs on campus, develop a resume and experience. Ultimately, the jobs are different, but what good is a major that risks his scholarship, especially if Calculus and Physics are not his strong suit?
You have to assess carefully, but typically Cybersecurity is part of IT and definitely necessary.
Yes, this is the essential difference between CS and IT.
If you look at the curricula, IT majors are often more business-based, though the amount of business versus technical emphasis does vary from one school to another.
Note that CS majors at many colleges do not require non-CS science other than general education. However, CS majors in engineering divisions or which are ABET-accredited do require non-CS science.
But CS majors do typically require calculus, linear algebra, and discrete math. In addition, upper level CS theory courses are like math. However, the kinds of math more commonly found in CS are somewhat different from calculus.
I’m not as outcome obsessed as many on CC. Why? I’ve been hiring for big corporations for 35+ years, and the name of the major, the minor, etc. is nowhere near as important as most people think. So the answer to your question of CS vs. IT Major Outcomes is… it depends.
Kids ought to major in something they love and that they are good at. If your son’s scholarship doesn’t provide any wiggle room … that’s something he needs to figure out. Is it ok to be in a rigorous CS program and get a B in some of the harder classes? Of course it is! Most employers would rather see a transcript filled with rigor-- and some B’s- and the occasional C- than they would a transcript filled with safe choices dotted with A’s and A minuses.
But at the end of the day, CS and IT will have a moderate overlap in content- but then will diverge. If your son is fundamentally not interested in IT-- then majoring in it will be torture or at least nowhere near as fun as majoring in something he loves. If your son likes CS conceptually, but knows he doesn’t want to push himself in the areas where he’s not strong- then that’s his answer.
There are people who have had fine careers in IT who only peripherally care about the topics that keep CS folks up late at night- and vice versa. So studying something where your classmates are passionate about it- and you’re trying to phone it in- rarely leads to a good outcome!
Your son can major in IT, use his electives for hard core CS theory, and despite “majoring” in IT wind up with a great job in CS. And vice versa.
But I believe you only get one shot at an education, and it should involve something you really love. So if your son has looked at the CS curriculum and thinks it sounds dreary and a grind- but loves the courses for an IT major- that’s his answer!
4-year curriculum roadmap for an IT major, Cybersecurity, with 4 co-op terms University of Cincinnati
(students with Calculus credits don’t need to take any more math)