Hi All,
I am trying to find the course map for BA vs BS in Comp Sci at Oregon State. I want to see what the required and electives courses are for BA vs BS. Does anyone have this info or know where to find it? Thanks in advance!
Hard to tell on the website - email the dept of CS and ask the difference. The BS will have more in depth.
You might also ask career outcomes between the two - I’d assume the BS does better.
Computer Science Undergraduate Major (BA, BS, HBA, HBS) < Oregon State University
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According to this old blog post, the difference is what other requirements are there, not the CS major requirements
https://blogs.oregonstate.edu/liberalarts/2012/10/17/ba-vs-bs-that-is-the-question/
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If the difference is only in general education requirements, note that the difference affects whether the CS major at Oregon State is ABET accredited: https://amspub.abet.org/aps/name-search?searchType=institution&keyword=oregon%20state . The extra math and non-CS science general education required for the BS degree appears to be needed for ABET accreditation. (The BA degree requires foreign language.)
That said, ABET accreditation in CS per se is generally not important, unless one tries for the patent exam.
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Thank you so much!! This is exactly the info that I was looking for. It looks like declaration of BA involves taking 2 years of foreign language or need to demonstrate proficiency.
To complicate matters, Oregon State has an Applied Computer Science major and a Computer Systems major. Only BS in Computer Systems is ABET accredited. I do agree that ABET accreditation is not important for CS programs.
I read the blog - this is what it says - is it not saying that the BS requires more CS, science and math statistics than the BA while the BA requires not those courses but a language? Or am I missing something? To me the BS - based on this - is more rigorous.
Finally, let me break down the difference between the BS and BA. With a bachelor of science, you are required to take 3-4 credits in computer science, 3-4 credits in any course from the College of Science, and 8-12 credits in in math or statistics. With a bachelor of arts you have to either take two years of a foreign language or demonstrate proficiency at the second level in a language. If you have any questions about which of these options works best for you, call 541-737-0561 and schedule an appointment to talk with a CLA advisor.
Those sound like distribution requirements for each type of degree. A CS major is already required to take math and CS courses for the major (see the link you posted earlier), the difference would be one 3-4 credit science course. It sounds like the BA would end up having more required credit hours, as it would have additional language requirements, so you might say it is more “rigorous” in this particular case?
fair enough…
I just "assumed’ obviously incorrectly - that the BS would have more rigor. I wonder if the “perception” of the hiring managers would be - i.e. a CS major would normally be a BS so a BA would be lightweight?
But that’s why I said to ask about outcomes - I’m sure they can tell you by degree type is there a difference, I don’t know?
I don’t know that the perception of hiring managers would be different since many resumes just state it as “Bachelor’s” without specifying BA or BS. Also generally interview questions are most skill-based. My daughter is doing AP Spanish this year as a senior in high school. She has taken Spanish each year since 8th grade. So a min 3 on an AP is a realistic expectation. I was trying to see what qualified as “proficiency” for the language requirement? Some colleges state that 3 or more on an AP equals 4th semester proficiency. If OSU uses that standard (and I don’t know if they do), I guess she could skip the 2nd lang req then for a BA in CS?