Does a BS in Informatics have good job prospects? Or is it a crap degree?

College Majors Engineering Majors
1

<p>I'm kind of set on getting a BA in Comp Sci with a minor in Biology, but I also saw that my school (IUB) has a BS in Informatics with a cognate of your choice.</p>

<p>Here is the curriculum for the BS in Informatics, I just want people to look at it and tell me if it's a crap degree or not:</p>

<p><a href="http://www.indiana.edu/%7Ebulletin/iub/soic-ugrad/2011-2012/soic-ugrad-pdf.pdf#zoom=100%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.indiana.edu/~bulletin/iub/soic-ugrad/2011-2012/soic-ugrad-pdf.pdf#zoom=100&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Now, since I'm interested in going into Bioinformatics, would it make sense for me to get the Informatics BS with a Biology cognate? </p>

<p>Are there job opportunities with just an informatics degree? Internship opportunities for SOIC? </p>

<p>If I wanted to, could I get into an MPH or MPA program in the future if I wanted to switch fields?</p>

2

<p>I don’t know much about this, my uninformed preconception is that it’s an academic career path, not an industry one. But what does me know?</p>

3

<p>Here in San Diego, there is a large bio-tech industry centered around UCSD. There are plenty of opportunities for bioinformatics people here. I know a few guys who majored in computer science with the bioinformatics specialization.</p>

<p>That said, the impression I’ve gotten from people who’ve gone through the program and have worked in bio-tech isn’t that positive. It definitely seems like their is a clear hierarchy in bio-tech, and the top is occupied by the life-science phds. The bioinformatics guys are just glorified lab technicians, and that must be a bitter pill to swallow for smart guys and gals who went through such a rigorous major. </p>

<p>I want to qualify my opinion by reminding you that I’m not a bioinformatics person myself, so my opinions are entirely based on what I’ve heard from friends and former classmates who did the bioinformatics specialization (which is admittedly a small sample size). Also, it’s possible that things are different for bioinformatics phds.</p>

4

<p>I actually met with a recruiter for the SOIC at IUB and she told me that IU’s Informatics majors were just as in-demand as their CS majors. She pulled up some employment stats and I don’t remember exactly but something like 85% of them were employed in a related field or in grad school a year out of college, and the mean starting salary for informatics majors was around $50k. </p>

<p>Now keep in mind, these numbers were produced by a person trying to convince me to go to IU and major in Informatics. So take them with a grain of salt. But I wouldn’t call it a “crap degree.”</p>

5

<p>As with any field, you tend to hear more from the crybabies then from the happy people, though. Maybe payscale.com has something on this degree, worth a look.</p>

6

<p>I’m sorry, but none of those answers actually helped…</p>

<p>I heard with CS you either like it/are good at it or you don’t like it/aren’t good at it.</p>

<p>Would it be better for me to major in informatics and do a cognate in my areas of interest such as business and biology? </p>

<p>What can I do with the degree?</p>

7

<p>[News</a> for Career Center - Bioinformatics.Org](<a href=“http://www.bioinformatics.org/jobs/]News”>News for Career Center - Bioinformatics.org) has some bioinformatics job listings.</p>

<p>It does appear that CS backgrounds are strongly favored for the non-PhD jobs (and even for some of the PhD jobs).</p>

8

<p>You will be better off with BS in CS with Biology Minor. Pick electives in Genomics, BioInformatics, Computational Biology etc. However if you don’t love Math, it will be a tough field for you.</p>

9

<p>If good solid info on this degree is hard to find, even in the age of the internet, maybe that means something…</p>

10

<p>Spouse is a professor in a related field and really involved in industry. H thinks this is THE next big thing and he is constantly asked for possible leads on students (even though they don’t offer this major per se). He’s very keen to start such a program because the demand is so obviously high.</p>