<p>I plan to get my undergraduate degree in computer science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC) or North Carolina State University (NCSU). After attaining my degree, it is important to me that I get into the most prestigious graduate program in computer science that I can.</p>
<p>If I attend UNC for my undergraduate degree, I have the choice to pursue a B.A. or a B.S. In the eyes of future employers and graduate program admissions officers, does it matter at all which degree I attain? If so, to what extent?</p>
<p>First identify what area of CompSci you’d like to focus on, and that should cut down the list of prestigious places fairly quickly.</p>
<p>Second, the difference between a BS and BA may be that the BS has all the engineering or math emotional baggage attached (which looks good) while the BA may have the electives (liberal arts and the like) which may not look as good. So a BS will likely be more useful.</p>
<p>Of how much importance is this emotional baggage? In my situation, I will have two years worth of college credits by the time I graduate high school. If I go to UNC, a B.A. will likely take only four semesters to achieve, while the B.S. will probably take five due to a more complex prerequisite structure. Is getting a B.S. over a B.A. important enough that I should attend undergraduate school for an extra semester?</p>
<p>Nobody pays any attention to the difference between a B.A. and a B.S. because it’s not a good or consistent indicator of anything. Different universities have different criteria for the awarding of different degrees and there is no reliable rhyme or reason to which is which.</p>
<p>I have a BS in journalism - not because I took any more math or science classes, but because at my undergraduate school, a BA required two years of foreign language while a BS required a minor or double major. I didn’t want to take a foreign language, so I opted for a minor in American studies and earned a BS.</p>
<p>COMP 401 (foundation), 410 (data structures), 411 (computer organization)
MATH 231 (calculus 1), 381 (discrete math)
STOR 435 (probability)
Six upper level COMP or related courses including:
Programming languages course
Systems course
Applications course
College of Arts and Science breadth requirements</p>
<p>BS has but BA does not:</p>
<p>COMP 550 (algorithms and analysis)
MATH 232 (calculus 2), 233 (multivariable calculus), 547 (linear algebra)
Theory course (as one of the six upper level COMP courses)
PHYS 116 (mechanics)
Second science course</p>
<p>To prepare for graduate study in CS as an undergraduate at UNC, you probably want to select the upper level COMP courses in all of the areas specified by the BS degree program, plus whatever you are interested in specializing in for graduate study. You also probably want a stronger math background, including the math courses specified by the BS degree program and possibly additional courses in algebra and number theory if you want to go into theory or cryptography.</p>
<p>The extra physics and second science course specified by the BS program is unlikely to be noticed or cared about by graduate schools or employers (unless you are applying CS to that particular area of science).</p>
<p>For industry software jobs, you probably want to include the COMP 550, 431, 530, 523, 521, and 535 in your course selection.</p>
<p>There’s a distinction to make here: The classes you have taken certainly may be considered as part of graduate school admission, but BA/BS won’t be.</p>
<p>So if you pursue a BA program but take those upper-level CS/COMP classes as part of your course selection, there will be no disadvantage in your preparation.</p>
<p>A state university typically wants in-state students to graduate as quickly as possible, since each extra term means costing an in-state tuition subsidy.</p>
<p>Unless CompSci grad school has changed since my days math is not really used much (unless you apply to Cornell, brrr :-)) and hence the math portion of the emotional baggage is not a big deal - but Prestige U. may want to see it all the same. </p>
<p>The Theory of Computation classes are very entertaining and you need to have them. </p>
<p>The science parts, again, make you look a bit better but not very useful.</p>
<p>If you have no gaps in prerequisites and the like it won’t make a big difference. If you’re trying to finish quickly, keep in mind that having ‘college credits’ at high school graduation is one thing, being able to use them all is quite another. Only an Admissions Dude/Dudette from UNC et al will be able to tell you how the credits you have map out to UNC/ et al curriculum.</p>
<p>I did a second BS degree in CompSci after BS Civil Engineering and it was fairly painstaking to get thru the credit transfer etc process. You may want to have as much of it set in stone before committing to a specific school.</p>
<p>This is an indirect answer: get the BS because of the classes you will take on your way there. I have a BS CS and am working in the field. I wish I had taken more science classes, and then I might be programming scientific applications, not business applications.</p>
<p>Get the BS. Don’t expect all your high school classes to transfer or count toward anything. Just because you have two years of college credits doesn’t mean it is in the right classes. Look at the list and see how what you have taken lines up with what is required. Don’t be shocked when you find out that 12 hour of humanities is required but you have 20. Guess where that extra 8 hours of credit goes. Accept the fact that it is going to take you 3 years to graduate - as it should.</p>
<p>Why is getting into the “most prestigious graduate program”…such a big focus for you? Ultimately you use your degree(s) to get a job. I bet 5 yrs after you join a company, most you work with won’t even be able to say where the others they work with went to college.</p>
<p>I think you should go for the BSCS unless you have a specific reason for going for the BACS. Generally speaking, the BSCS implies more technicically oriented courses but what it actually boils down to will vary with the particular college. At some colleges it can indicate the difference between doing CS in the School of Engineering vs. doing it in the college of Letters and Sciences along with a different curriculum and at some universities, I think like UCB for example if I remember correctly, it’s easier to be accepted to the BACS program than the BSCS program (BS in EECS there).</p>
<p>As an employer, it can make a difference to me if I think one candidate had a more rigorous suite of courses than another.</p>
<p>But if there’s something you like better about the BACS program at the particular U then go ahead and do that.</p>
<p>Do the BS if you want to get into a good graduate school. BS programs are often more rigorous than BA programs. Plus, a Bachelor of Arts in Computer Science sounds a little odd versus a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, don’t you think?</p>
<p>The specific courses you take in CS and math are more important for grad school admissions than whether the degree is labeled BA or BS; how programs are labeled is not very consistent across universities, so you can’t really make a blanket statement. At UNCH, based on the info in post #5, it is probably worthwhile getting the BS. If you were doing the BA so you could get a double major some liberal arts field that could be relevant to your grad work like perhaps math, physics, or linguistics, that would be very good, too.</p>
<p>Another important factor in admissions to an elite graduate program is demonstrated research potential. Whether you decide to do the BA or BS, try to get some undergraduate research experience.</p>
<p>Generalizations like this do not apply everywhere; one has to consider the specific school. Graduate schools look at what courses one took and how well one did in them much more than the arts/science title of the degree.</p>
<p>In the UNC case specifically, it would be a good idea to take most of the extra requirements in CS and math specified by the BS degree – but if the student chose to get a BA degree because s/he did not want to take one specific peripheral requirement like the second science course, that is unlikely to be of significance if s/he otherwise chose his/her CS and math courses with good depth and breadth in the field.</p>
<p>Since Berkeley was mentioned, it appears that employers of CS graduates do not seem to make much distinction between BA in CS versus BS in EECS graduates, based on the career survey (of course, those emphasizing EE would want to do the EECS major). Note that math and physics majors at Berkeley graduate with BA degrees (and history majors at MIT graduate with BS degrees).</p>
<p>^^ But if for CS one pursues the BA but takes all the additional technical/science/math courses required by the BS at that college (and this aspect varies by specific college), then why not just do the BS in the first place? At least then it’ll be more obvious to more employers on the surface.</p>
<p>Regarding the employment rate - from a place like UCB it wouldn’t surprise me that the BACS people are quite well employed afterwards but that doesn’t mean that generally there isn’t a distinction by employers.</p>
<p>One shouldn’t try to generalize about this. If a given school offers mutliple flavors of CS degrees, employers who recruit there will know what the difference is for that particular school. Or if they don’t, they are going to look at the courses and grades.</p>
<p>I will have almost two years worth of college credit by the time I finish high school (from a local institution at which I get free classes because my dad is a professor). Given that the BA has more general electives and less CS requirements as well as a shorter prerequisite structure, the BS would likely take a semester longer to achieve. Is the difference between these degrees enough that it would be worth the extra semester of time and money to achieve the BS? Or should I just pick up the BA and be on my way?</p>