I’m currently a 2nd year attending CPP as a Computer Science major with a Mathematics minor. However, I just got admitted to transfer to UCI for Data Science and although I’ve enjoyed my time at CPP the environment hasn’t been the most fulfilling. I’m wondering if UCI would overall be a better fit for me if I do transfer. If I’m being completely honest, I like coding but all the theoretical stuff in CS hasn’t been the most interesting to me and since math has always been my favorite subject I feel like Data Science might be a better fit for me. With that being said though I’ve heard that having a degree in Data Science would basically make it necessary to go to grad school for a high paying job which i’m not really sure if I want to do. I was wondering if people could give some pros and cons of staying at CPP and transferring to UCI.
CS theory (e.g. algorithms and complexity, theory of computation, cryptographic algorithms, combinatorics, graph theory) should be very much like math.
At CPP, these would be courses like CS 3110, 3310, 4500, 4600, 5300, 5310, 5370. At UCI, these would be courses like COMPSCI 161, 162, 163, 164, 165, 167, 169, 202, 260, 262, 263, 265, 266, 268.
Data science tends to be a combination of CS and statistics. The UCI data science major follows that pattern: http://catalogue.uci.edu/donaldbrenschoolofinformationandcomputersciences/departmentofstatistics/#majortext
Hey giles carlos - at the risk of over indexing on one data point. When in doubt, stick with CS.
Data science as a career trajectory is still pretty nascent and a “semi-permeable” membrane. I.e. CS kids become data scientists but it’s harder the other way around. If data science is really lighting your fire, I’d recommend Kaggle or other platforms.
A major selection and school change at this stage of the game wouldn’t be advisable. But please take it with two grains of salt as I don’t know your situation