Hey everyone! I have seven questions. I recently got accepted to UC Davis for undergrad Computer Science in the College of Letters and Science. And though I am very happy about it, I now doubt it again (Ik it’s an old question) : (ques 1) is CS at L&S is better or CSE at COE? (ques 2) And if CSE is the better choice, will I be able to change to that course in my first year at Davis?
I read on a page on UC Davis’ website (link: http://www.cs.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/overview/ ) that in terms of job prospects, both the courses are nearly equal (and that skills/insight/expertise matter more), but it doesn’t tell whether the CS at L&S is a BS or BA degree, as that would matter a lot when companies hire graduates. At UC Berkeley, the L&S CS is a BA. (ques 3) Is Davis L&S CS also a BA? (ques 4) And will it be so even if I don’t double major (which I won’t) ?
(ques 5) Even if the course is BS, will the fact that my CS is done at L&S and not at College of ENGINEERING make it look BA-ish to job interviewers and such people?
The page also states “The CS degree, with its large number of unrestricted electives… By contrast, the CSE degree has so few unrestricted electives…”. (ques 6) So does that mean that CS doesn’t have a unit cap (because I read on one CC thread that students from L&S become restricted once they get past 200-ish units.)??
The main difference between CS and CSE is that CS doesn’t have electronics/EE. (ques 7) So I wonder: do standard CS programs (i.e.CS as it is; no variations or double majors) at most colleges (esp. prestigious ones) NECESSARILY include electronics/EE elements?
Just to brief you about myself, I am an international applicant who took a gap year (for reasons), and aspire to be a software engineer in the future.
Please leave some other imp. info, if any, about these two programs. Thanks a lot.
Eighth question: which one is more popular?
I think you answered yourself at the end of your post. You want to be a software engineer so you need CS. Circuits won’t help you there. Companies won’t distinguish between CS in L&S and Engineering. It’s still a computer science degree. Ucla has pure CS and CSE and pretty much both majors get software jobs. A little circuits in CSE isn’t enough for an EE job anyways.
Thanks a lot. Well, the reason why I also considered CSE an option is because I have heard that software designers have to be familiar with hardware and vice versa, but I think that might be covered in CS as well.
And is CS BS or BA (like in Berkeley)?
High schoolers get caught up in the whole bs and ba thing. It’s the major that matters not degree type. CS is still CS. Different schools will call it different things. Cal calls it a ba because they let you take more humanities classes and cut some of the more technical ones that aren’t related to CS. Since cal CS in engineering is really in the eecs Dept so they share pre reqs with EE.
Looks like it is a BS degree. http://catalog.ucdavis.edu/majors.html
To get the technical questions out of the way first, you are correct, the job prospects are identical between the L&S CS and CoE CSE degrees. They are both BS degrees but that is much less important than the computer science part of the degree.
To switch to CSE from CS, you’ll have to transfer into the college of engineering which is a little bit of an involved process (http://engineering.ucdavis.edu/undergraduate/advising-q-a/#a1) and not something you’ll be able to do right away anyways.
CS does have a unit cap, CSE does not because engineering majors don’t have a unit cap. Assuming you don’t wander too far off the CS path, you won’t hit the unit cap. Its not an important enough consideration when weighing CS/CSE.
Popularity between the two programs is kind of irrelevant to you since you’ve already been accepted and will no longer impact your situation.
On to the more subjective answers to your questions. Given that biggest difference between the two majors is the requirements, it is really up to you how you want to do this. A computer science degree translating into a job is more about the projects/assignments you do and how well you do at coding interviews. So even if you are a CS major you’ll be sitting in the same classes as a CSE major and doing the same projects/assignments. The CS degree just tends to be a little more flexible than CSE in terms of requirements.
I had a bunch of friends who switched between the two majors, some multiple times throughout their 4 years. Though I had more friends who went CSE → CS than CS → CSE.
My advice would be to revisit this around this time next year when you’ve got a couple quarters worth of CS classes and other classes under your belt. Make sure you are taking math 21 classes so that if you do decide to switch majors, you won’t have to take extra classes to meet the engineering requirements.