Hello,
I am currently a finance major at a top undergrad business program in the U.S. who is interested in learning more CS. I am doing a minor through my school along with a couple extra classes but I am interested learning more. I would do a dual degree but it would unfortunately require several pre-requisites which would add atleast 1.5 years to my undergrad (which is not doable because I am an out of state student). Also the computer science program at my school isn’t the best.
I was wondering what kind of stats I need (gpa, extra curriculars, cs coursework) to get accepted into a decent program. Also are there any programs which take people from non CS/STEM backgrounds. Any sources which I can do my own research would be helpful. I’m just not sure where to start.
One of my main concerns is that I have only taken finite and an intro to statistics class at my college since I tested out of Calculus by taking Calc AB in high school. I am planning to take discrete math next semester but that will be the last math class I take. Will this be an issue when applying?
A lot hinges on your definition of decent.
Sorry I just realized how vague that sounded. I’m honestly not sure what caliber of programs I should go for. Would top 20 or 30 be attainable?
Is the intention that you want to work as a software engineer? Alternately, is the intention that you want to understand software engineering much better, so that you can do a better job as a finance expert in a high tech company?
To me this seems like a very good idea either way. If the latter is the plan, then I am very impressed that you will take the time and effort to do this. However, your intended goal might have some impact on how you want to approach the Masters and where you would want to go.
Are there schools with strong computer science programs near where you live? If so, you might call them up and see if they can give you some guidance. I think that what you do and where you go going forward may depend a lot on how much CS and math you already have as an undergraduate.
There are definitely CS programs that are designed for non-CS/STEM people like the LEAP program at Boston University or the MCIT program at UPenn. There is also the MS in financial engineering program out of Berkeley that might be interesting to you.
But it depends on why you want a CS degree and the type of job you are envisioning for yourself. Not all CS jobs require a CS degree, and not everyone with a CS degree does a CS job.
I’d recommend you take as many CS classes as you can feasibly take, and build a good solid foundation for CS. For grad school applications you generally want to keep your undergrad GPA above a 3.3 at the very least, ideally 3.5+.
Thanks for the replies. As for my long term goal, I’m not really sure what I want to do although I know that I still want to be on the business side. Software engineering doesn’t seem boring to me but I don’t want to be programming all day.
The reason I want to do CS is because I’m seriously interested in learning more. The few cs classes I have taken in school have been extremely interesting to me and I have already completed several coursera classes online. I was considering staying at my college for longer to get a bachelor’s in CS but the program isn’t very good and it will cost me $50k more since I am an out of state student. Also by the time I finish college I will have taken 6 cs courses.