<p>i want to do geography, specifically geographic information systems, for my undegrad and plan on doing compsci for grad school. is this possible, or do i have to do computer science for my undergrad in order to do computer science in grad school?</p>
<p>I am wondering this as well, If I were you, I would get a BA in CompSci. A lot of the Master’s programs I’m looking at have heavy CompSci prerequisites. I have a degree in Mathematics. I originally did Math wanted to be a teacher, but I ended up hating it. Now I’m considering getting another degree because this Math degree gives me no direct job skills …yea I’m a great problem solver, bla bla bla, but that doesn’t give me real world experience and knowledge that I need for a job in the technology field. Does anyone know of colleges that have Master’s programs that are independent, or do those kinds of programs not exist?</p>
<p>I think the combination of GIS for undergrad and compsci for a masters program would make you very marketable. GIS is a pretty hot field and with CS experience, you’d have an understanding of the technical underpinnings of the software. Perhaps minor in CS to show grad school committees that you have a foundation in the field.</p>
<p>Husband’s undergrad major was math (UCLA); Master’s was Computer Science (Berkeley). Natural sequence, actually.
Just the fact that you want to study systems will be helpful.
:)</p>
<p>I did a bit of research on this last year. I got the impression that most CS graduate programs do not require a full-blown CS major, but they are looking for a solid foundation, comparable to what you might learn in a CS minor. (intro, data structures, programming languages, discrete math, algorithms or theory of computation, one or two systems classes) There’s also a number of programs targeted specifically at students with little or no undergraduate background in computer science; many of those go more towards information technology than computer science.</p>
<p>To go to graduate school in ANY field, you don’t necessarily have to be a major; however, many programs will require a major in at least a “related field,” something that can be construed broadly depending on how you present it in your SOP. </p>
<p>As b@r!um points out, you do need to fulfill certain prerequisites to show that you know the basics of the field. It will be awfully difficult to convince an admissions committee to accept you if you have taken only one or two courses in it and have no experience in related research/work. An English major can get into a graduate program in CS if he takes the appropriate courses in math and CS as electives or if he spends time after graduation making up the deficiencies. Work and research in the field become critical.</p>