<p>I've been posting a lot of questions about CS to try and figure some things out but here's my overall situation and question.</p>
<p>So here's my background:
I'm currently an MCB major and I have plenty of lab experience that makes me a good candidate for jobs in the field. However, I've only recently realized that what I really enjoy is computer graphics. It's something I've always liked but I was so focused on MCB the past few years that I hadn't had the chance to explore it until now. Now I'm having regrets of my major choice and wish that I could double major in CS but it's just not possible with my current units so I'm considering a minor. </p>
<p>For those in the CS major who have looked for internships or jobs, do you think employers would consider someone who only has a minor in CS? Or am I wasting my time?</p>
<p>On the flip side, for people in biology, would a MCB major + CS minor be a good combination if I wanted to get into computational biology or bioinformatics? Or would an MCB degree with a few CS courses be enough? Or do those fields look more towards CS majors? </p>
<p>In a more general form, my bottom line question is:
What can I do with a MCB + CS minor that I wouldn't be able to do with just an MCB major? Whether it be in the MCB OR CS field or a field where they overlap.</p>
<p>I’m interested in hearing more responses to this question since I’m looking at going into a similar field. I don’t know much about what the industry requirements would be in terms of background coursework, but the impression I’ve gotten from reading past threads is that taking the 61 series by itself opens a lot of doors at least at the internship level, and according to the CS website you only need a minor to be able to apply the graduate program in CS at Berkeley. If you’re primarily interested in computer graphics then I would assume that CS 184 would also be of special interest you (requires linear algebra–which is not a requirement for the cs minor itself).</p>
<p>I’m sure that the minor program is great, but after thinking about it a lot myself I don’t think that I’m going to pursue it. It depends on how much space you have in your schedule and exactly what kind of compbio you want to go into, but reading the descriptions of different graduate programs has given me the impression that it might not be the most -efficient- program. I made a list of prereqs that showed up on numerous programs’ websites, and while the cs minor would cover a lot of those, it wouldn’t cover all of them by itself. This is the list I came up with of computational/mathematical skills that most schools expect you to have familiarity with:
- linear algebra/ differential equations
- probability
- discrete mathematics
- algorithms & database structures
So the minor program covers most of those, but you might want to supplement it with math 54 and some extra stats classe(s), if you haven’t taken those already. I’m probably going to decide against the minor program for myself because I don’t think that CS61C is particularly important for the compbio applications that I want to go into and I would rather use that time to take other classes, but it’s a tough choice.</p>
<p>If you want more ideas about what classes sound the most useful/interesting, this website has been pretty useful for me:
[Courses</a> Center for Computational Biology](<a href=“http://qb3.berkeley.edu/ccb/research-education/courses/]Courses”>http://qb3.berkeley.edu/ccb/research-education/courses/)</p>
<p>Check out the D.E. Shaw group, seems like something you would be interested in:
[D. E. Shaw</a> Research](<a href=“http://www.deshawresearch.com/]D. E. Shaw”>http://www.deshawresearch.com/)</p>
<p>bump old thread…(still wondering about this)</p>
<p>I admit that all I know is information I’ve gathered myself and some sort of adviser would probably give you better information, but if you’re interested in talking/swapping advice I can pm you my email</p>
<p>^sure I’ll take any bit of advice</p>