<p>I plan to double major in CS and BIT at VT. Can anyone tell me the pros and cons of double majoring</p>
<p>Pros: You get two degrees</p>
<p>Cons: You don’t get the depth of someone who has one degree. </p>
<p>May I ask why you want to do CS and BIT? At a glance CS and BIT look similar, but they’re actually quite different.</p>
<p>Im kinda in the same boat. Im looking to possible do a double majorin mech enge and cs. Or possibly major in mech enge and minor in cs. Any thoughts</p>
<p>Cloudy I am really interested in Programming so I thought I would get a CS degree, but Im also interested in the IT part, like networking/security and database structures so thats why I chose BIT. I thought they would both be pretty similar, how is it different??</p>
<p>Going off CloudyCloud’s comment, there’s actually an option where you can double major (primary major and second major, your actually degree is in your primary major) or dual degree, where you have to complete around 30 extra credits depending on the majors but you get a diploma for each major you have.</p>
<p>My old roommate is a BIT major, so part of the College of Business and was choosing between BIT or CS during his freshman year. </p>
<p>The first two years of BIT were mostly the business core classes - so math, 2 BIT courses, econ, accounting, finance, marketing, and management. With BIT, you also take the intro java class from CS. The first year of CS are the intro engineering courses, one CS course, Calc I & II, Linear Algebra, Vector Geometry, Chem, and Physics. So, just within the first year the two majors are hugely different in their requirements. It seems like it’s mostly just because they’re in two different colleges.</p>
<p>rbhalla, a CS degree will prepare you for anything IT related. But an IT degree will not prepare you for everything CS related. </p>
<p>I think what it really comes down to is what do you want to do after college? Computer Science isn’t about programming - it’s actually the science of computation and the tools you use are programming languages. It’s difficult to explain, but you’re really pushed to become a problem solver. In Computer Science, you’ll be taking a ton of math (the CS program actually requires the most math out of all the majors in the college of engineering) and your core CS courses are geared towards algorithms, computer systems, and CS theory. You’re taught data structures and you’re taught why one algorithm is better than another. There are a million different ways to approach a problem, but some approaches are cleaner and more efficient - learning those approaches is another goal of the program. </p>
<p>BIT is basically an IT program with a business focus. You aren’t taught algorithms, how operating systems work, or how to mathematically prove one algorithm is more efficient than another. You’re just taught how to use technologies for a more business focus. </p>
<p>Going back to my original question, what do you want to do? Do you want Google, Microsoft, or Amazon? Or do you want to do IT work for a Bank or Hedge Fund? </p>
<p>If you need more information about the jobs afterwards, look at the latest career report: [Virginia</a> Tech Post Graduation Report: Employers, job titles and locations of employed graduates](<a href=“http://www.career.vt.edu/PostGraduationReport/EmployersJobTitlesLocationsList.asp?College=00&Major=ALL&Cohort=2012-2013&SortBy=M]Virginia”>http://www.career.vt.edu/PostGraduationReport/EmployersJobTitlesLocationsList.asp?College=00&Major=ALL&Cohort=2012-2013&SortBy=M)</p>
<p>I’m a junior in Computer Science and Math, so if you have any questions just let me know.</p>
<p>Thank you so much Cloudy that really cleared my mind. I’m more interested in working for Google, Amazon, and etc. So I think I will go for Computer Science. I just didn’t know what BIT really was composed of till now. Also another question Cloudy, since you are also majoring in Math, do a lot of the courses overlap and does majoring in math help with CS. I’m just wondering.</p>
<p>No problem. Happy to help. </p>
<p>There are several different options in the math program. The one I’m doing focuses on math that is relevant to CS. Because of this, my first two years of math are identical to the math required for CS. </p>
<p>Junior year you’ll get some differences but some of the required math can be substituted for math required for CS. I think you’re looking at an extra 18 - 21 credits of math in order to get the degree. </p>
<p>So to answer you question, yes, there is quite a bit of overlap.</p>