<p>In some universities, computer science is offered in both the engineering department and the liberal arts (or letters and sciences or whatever) department. What is the difference between those programs?</p>
<p>The B.S. degree is the one that has more practical application and will get you jobs. The B.A. is the more theoretical one. Go with with the B.S. degree if you are smart.</p>
<p>It depends on the school. You need to check each school that offers BA and BS degree programs in CS to see what the differences are between the two degree programs.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Ditto. Nowadays, one needs to check (and compare) the curriculum of each CS program for that particular school.</p>
<p>Years ago, all colleges/universities USED to apply the same differences between B.A. vs. B.S. degrees. Now, the differences are skewed and depends on the school. Why?..because:</p>
<p>1) Some schools structures a B.A. program to have less required courses in the major</p>
<p>BUT…</p>
<p>2) Other schools structures a B.A. program to have the SAME required courses in the major as the B.S. degree but require more Arts/Humanities courses (and usually a foreign language) in lieu of more sciences…like Physics</p>
<p>SO it is best to look at each school nowadays.</p>
<p>BACS programs are typically more liberal and have more of an emphasis on the science of computer science. You will probably get more electives and take more math and science courses. These programs are typically not accredited by ABET, since they don’t usually adhere to a strictly standard curriculum. These sorts of programs may be ideal if your goal is to go to graduate school for some subfield of CS, as you might have more opportunities to hone certain skills, possibly to the exclusion of others.</p>
<p>BSCS programs are typically pre-professional programs aimed at producing graduates who are competent to begin work in industry. These programs are often ABET-accredited and follow a curriculum jointly suggested by the ACM and IEEE computer society, available online. There will be more focus on the crafting/engineering aspects of computer science and software development. Such programs will require more programming courses and projects, as well as other courses in things related to engineering and development. These sorts of programs may be ideal if your goal is seeking gainful employment with a BS or terminal MS degree.</p>
<p>@aegrisomnia</p>
<p>Exactly. It’s just as I said, the BS will get you the job, and the BA will basically only be good for transferring to grad school.</p>
<p>Again…</p>
<p>ABET acceditation means close to nothing in Computer Science. Now a school’s CS program can structure its program like the template on the ABET website but VERY FEW employers will care about one’s ABET CS accreditation.</p>
<p>Remember, there are schools do not even put CS in their engineering college and house the CS program in either the “school of science” or even within the Math department.</p>
<p>Only the very picky employers would attempt to evaluate CS programs based on ABET accreditation and furthermore there are not enough CS grads nor experienced software engineers for employers to be that anal.</p>
<p>A B.S. or B.A. will get your the job since it really depends on if one can answer those Linux, database, algorithms, network questions at the interview.</p>
<p>This poster right here:</p>
<p>1) B.S. degree in Mathematics (which by default is not ABET accredited)</p>
<p>2) Taken 80% of school’s CS program (skipped Computer Architecture, Digital Circuits and a couple others)</p>
<p>3) M.S. degree in Engineering…no engineering specialty on diploma. Did the M.S. strictly for resume decoration and to “check off the box” to get senior positions and rates.</p>
<p>4) On now year 24 of software engineering. Started as INGRES database developer, then onto SYBASE, then back as PowerBuilder developer, then MS SQL Server developer, then data warehousing (Oracle, SQL Server), then data architecture (independent of databases), then project management, then systems engineering, back to Oracle database engineering and now Big Data/cloud-computing.</p>
<p>FAR TOO much is made about following the academic guidelines to the letter. That is not the case in the hiring world. I have never been asked about:</p>
<ul>
<li>GPA</li>
<li>AP credits (I had none anyway)</li>
<li>ABET accreditation</li>
<li>Research (I had none)</li>
</ul>
<p>
Nope. 10char.</p>
<p>
I think that’s a bit of an oversimplification; a BS does not rule out graduate study, and a BA certainly doesn’t necessitate it.</p>
<p>
Also an oversimplification. If it means nothing, it seems clear that ABET wouldn’t do it. Even you admit it’s “close” to nothing. That means it’s worth something. I think it’s worth more than you give it credit for, <em>even</em> if employers don’t consider it. The company I work for is hiring; I am involved in the hiring process; and I consider it. Granted, demand is so far ahead of supply now that mostly it won’t make a difference, but when choosing between two candidates - or if supply and demand change - it could be the difference between getting your first choice or your second.</p>
<p>@yangmaster: A word of caution - whatever we say here, I recommend you consult actual sources for your information; then, make up your own mind about what to believe. Sources to consider checking:</p>
<p>ABET: [ABET</a> -](<a href=“http://www.abet.org/]ABET”>http://www.abet.org/)
Bureau of labor statistics occupational outlook handbook: [Home</a> : Occupational Outlook Handbook : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics](<a href=“http://www.bls.gov/ooh/]Home”>Home : Occupational Outlook Handbook: : U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics)
Curriculum guidelines: [Curricula</a> Recommendations ? Association for Computing Machinery](<a href=“http://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations]Curricula”>http://www.acm.org/education/curricula-recommendations)
- any information on programs you’re considering and students’ outcomes</p>
<p>Ok so maybe the B.A. will still get you a job. The BS is still better though, and will still give you more job related skills.</p>
<p>
Depends on the school. A B.A. versus a B.S. at UC Berkeley, for example, doesn’t seem to matter too much. I’m sure that’s true at other top CS schools as well.</p>
<p>ABET accreditation in CS is mainly important for the patent exam.</p>
<p>It can also be an indicator that the CS major at the school meets a decent minimum standard, so the range of quality for an ABET accredited CS major is decent to excellent, as opposed to the range of quality of poor to excellent for a CS major that is not ABET accredited. In the latter case, one may want to more carefully evaluate the CS major individually.</p>
<p>Why does ABET matter? </p>
<p>Stanford CS isn’t even ABET. </p>
<p>Isn’t it only useful if you want to work for the government? I thought ABET only matters to Engineering, primarily for safety reasons. For example, if you’re a MechE and you design a car that has a faulty break or a civil engineer who builds a tower that could collapse then you’re going to have problems. But really what’s the worst case that could happen to someone in CS? code doesn’t compile? The only thing I can think of where lives are at stake is medical mapping devices to detect diseases such cancer where there would be false positives and false negatives. Then yeah sounds like that’s a case where you need ABET. But I’m sure the proportion and importance of CS jobs that need ABET is much less than that needed for engineering like MechE/Civil</p>
<p>In over 30 years of working in the field, I’ve never seen the issue of CS accreditation come up in a hiring decision. I didn’t even know CS programs had an accreditation process until last year.</p>
<p>Of the American CS programs in the ARWU top CS programs, most weren’t accredited.</p>
<p>I’d say a BS sounds marginally better to an employer, but that’s because programmers like to think of themselves as science-y types. But only the shallowest manager, the type you wouldn’t want to work for, would toss a resume because it said BA rather than BS.</p>
<ul>
<li>Edit - Here’s the list of accredited US CS programs in the ARWU top CS programs.</li>
</ul>
<p>Of the US universities in the ARWU top 50, 13 are accredited, and 18 are not accredited.</p>
<p>Of the US universities ranked between 101-200, there were 11 accredited and 11 not accredited.</p>
<p>1) Stanford - no
2) MIT - yes
3) UC Berkeley- yes
4) Princeton - no
5) Harvard - no
6) Carnegie-Mellon - no
7) Cornell - no
8) Texas - no
9) UCLA - yes
10) USC - yes
11) UC San Diego - yes
13) Caltech - no
14) Illinois - yes
15) Maryland - no
16) Michigan - yes
19) Purdue - no
20) Rutgers - no
21) Columbia - no
21) Georgia Tech - yes
25) Washington - no
29) UC Davis - yes
31) Ohio State - yes
31) UMass Amherst - no
33) Yale - no
39) UC Irvine- yes
41) UC Santa Barbara - yes
44) Duke- no
48) NYU - no
48) North Carolina - no
41) Virginia - yes
50) Boston U - no</p>
<p>51-75
Brown - no
Colorado - yes
Penn - yes
Arizona State - yes
Northwestern - no
Rice - no
UC Santa Cruz - no
Florida - no
Houston - yes
Minnesota- no
Notre Dame - yes
Utah - no
Wisconsin - no
New Jersey Institute of Technology - yes</p>
<p>76-100
Michigan State - yes</p>
<p>North Carolina State - yes
Northeastern - yes
Penn State - no
SUNY Stony Brook - yes
Illinois Chicago - yes
Pitt - no</p>
<p>101-150
Clemson - yes
Colorado State - no
Iowa State - yes
Rensselaer- no
Texas A&M - yes
Johns Hopkins - yes
Arizona - no
Rochester - no
Vanderbilt - no</p>
<p>151-200
Dartmouth - no
Drexel - yes
Indiana - no
Indiana - Purdue Indianapolis - no
Oregon State - yes
SUNY Buffalo - no
Temple - no
Central Florida - yes
Chicago - no
Nebraska - yes
Tennessee - yes
Wisconsin Milwaukee - yes
Virginia Poly - yes</p>
<p>The great majority of people in computer science I’ve talked to say that employers don’t care at all about your degree as long as you can program. Many successful programmers don’t even major in Computer Science at all.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>True – many people are self-educated in CS.</p>
<p>However, if you are going to school to study CS, you might as well choose a school that will have the full set of CS course offerings, rather than one with a limited selection and infrequent offering of each course.</p>
<p>What does that have to do with whether you’re getting a BA or BS? (In fact, I’d wager that schools with a larger and more reliable pool of CS courses are more likely to offer both degrees.)</p>
<p>It doesn’t. Yes, many of the schools with both BA and BS degree programs in CS do have larger selections of frequently offered CS courses.</p>