Difference between Information Systems and Computer Information Systems ?

<p>I am a little confused about the two, are they the same major with schools simply dropping the "computer" part to it ? Or are they different ? Thanks in advance !</p>

<p>My guess is they are the same thing. You’d have to look at the courses required to get a sense of whether there’s a major difference. Sometimes the difference is the hosting department (e.g. business vs. engineering vs. math)</p>

<p>They are probably about the same, which is a more business-flavored and less CS-flavored version of a CS degree. You could check by comparing the requirements to the majors, including the one-paragraph description of each class. I started getting a MS in Computer Information Systems and ended up getting it in Computer Information Technology (or vice versa?) just because the name changed in the college.</p>

<p>Many people believe that a CS major is a better choice, giving more flexibility in the job market and more useful knowledge.</p>

<p>There are basically three kinds of degrees in computers:</p>

<ol>
<li>Computer Hardware (Engineering)</li>
<li>Computer Internal Software </li>
<li>Computer Applications Software</li>
</ol>

<p>(Computer) Information Science degree normally deals with the #3 group, whether using your skills in the provider or user capacity.</p>

<p>For the above categorization, the degrees are usually (more-or-less, kinda)
1 - EE or CS/EE
2 - CS
3 - Software Engineering, IS, CIS, IT, Game Dev, etc.
4 - related - security, networks, etc.</p>

<p>I might put a slightly finer point on it:</p>

<p>computer science: theory of computation - tractability, algorithms, complexity, cryptology, with tangents along the lines of linguistics, intelligence, etc. </p>

<p>computer engineering: application of scientific principles to practical ends: the development of computer hardware systems, including information io, processing, storage, and transmission systems. </p>

<p>software engineering: implementation of scientific and management principles to practical ends: the development of computer software systems, including OS, application software, embedded systems, etc.</p>

<p>management information systems: management of data, information, and knowledge as capital resources in support of the organization’s overall strategy.</p>