What company? Seems like a company who is foolishly failing to look at all potentially good candidates, if the goal is to hire people who know CS.
“What company? Seems like a company who is foolishly failing to look at all potentially good candidates, if the goal is to hire people who know CS.”
No, the goal is to hire people who have a relevant degree in CS. For someone who claims they know CS, getting BS in CS would not be a problem. As I mentioned before, this company, like a few others I worked for, does not discriminate based on school’s prestige and would equally accept BS from CSU, UC, even National University. Once again, this is my opinion and my example. If you would like to see more, open any job site, type in “software engineer” or whatever else you think you can do with L&S CS and see how many BA positions you can find. In rare cases “job ad writers” (they are actually called HR - recruiting) may write “Bachelor’s in CS” without specifying that it has to be B.S, simply because CS is a science, and not too many people know that a concept of “BA in CS” exists.
You have not refuted the fact that these BA CS degree people are in fact getting hired, and apparently at a very substantial average salary, although about 10% below the BS degree. Still, nearly 6 figures. As far as you saying:
This is a very weak and cheap statement. Do you have an iota of proof or even hint that they are falsifying data? It sure seems to me if they were doing so, they would claim a better rate of unemployment than 19% for the BS CS grads. Anyone can doubt anything anyone says. I can doubt you even have a job, but that would be irresponsible of me without any hint that it is true. Please provide even a smattering of a basis for your negative inference regarding UCB, beyond your opinion.
Besides, these things are audited by the Dept. of Ed. from time to time, and more so since the law school deceptions of a decade or so ago. And to say that any school carries no responsibility for their graduates’ future employment (get your grammar right, they had more than one graduate) is ludicrous. They cannot hire them all at UCB of course, nor can they force other companies to hire their graduates, but they have career centers, job fairs, I am confident that professors provide recommendations and contacts at times, and their reputation as a school depends in part on how they stack up to their peer schools in this regard. What is all this assistance in finding employment if not carrying some share of the responsibility?? This statement of yours asserting they have no responsibility strikes me as having no foundation whatsoever (hyphens are NOT used for that word, btw).
Maybe that is a good reason to hire BA CS majors. With more English courses, perhaps their communication skills are at a higher level. Seriously. I can only speculate but that is entirely possible as a reason to favor a BA candidate over a BS one. Employers have been complaining for years now that colleges are producing graduates, especially BS graduates, that have a hard time with communication, especially written communication.
That is probably the common case. That is similar to degrees with majors in software engineering, computer engineering, etc… There are also people working in technical jobs in computing who have mainly self-educated their CS knowledge (having either earned a degree in an unrelated field, including humanities, social studies, or arts, or not earned a degree at all).
Also, job ad “requirements” are often expectations or wish list items on the part of the recruiter rather than hard requirements.
@sallywin12 If you have any further questions, please feel free to PM me.
Commenting on moderation violates the Terms of Service. That portion of the above post was deleted.
Hmm. Would I be better off pursuing a BS in CS at WashU then? I’m missing like ~3 courses that are required for EECS transfer and I was thinking of the BA option.
Thanks everyone for your replies! I was surprised to see so many when I checked just now.
For Berkeley EECS versus L&S CS as a transfer:
- EECS is probably more difficult for admission.
- However, if you are admitted to EECS, you are in the major, while if you are admitted to L&S, you must complete the remaining prerequisites with a GPA of 3.30 to enter the L&S CS major. See http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/csugrad/#petitioning .
- EECS has additional physics, math, and EE requirements compared to L&S CS.
In either case, you may have to take most or all of CS 61A, 61B, 61C, 70 and EE 16A (and 16B for EECS) after transfer, unless some of the courses you take at WUStL are accepted as equivalent to them. This could result in needing an extra semester to graduate.
You can preview the Berkeley EE and CS courses at http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/classes-eecs.html .
http://admissions.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/docs/Transfer_Flier.pdf
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 9.8%
Computer Science, 14.6%
So it’s a ~5% difference. Personally I’m going with EECS because L&S requires IGETC which I won’t be able to fit in my schedule for 2 years, and EECS guarantees the major.
@ccckid L&S does not require IGETC. Most CS majors don’t complete IGETC, and fulfill the L&S requirements instead.
EECS is incredibly difficult to get into. If you want to apply, then go for it, but don’t choose EECS just because of the things you mentioned.
L&S accepts, but does not require, IGETC for California community college transfer students to fulfill the breadth requirements. Students transferring without IGETC must fulfill the L&S breadth requirements to graduate.
The CoE where EECS is does not accept IGETC to fulfill the breadth requirements. The CoE breadth requirements include two upper division humanities and/or social studies courses (out of six total). For students transferring from California community colleges, these must be taken after transfer since all California community college courses are lower division.
Admission rates in that transfer flier do not tell the full story, since the strength of applicant pools may be stronger or weaker for each major.
Moral of the story, if you can and want to, pursue the field that will allow you to become the most qualified. Get a degree that will not hold you back. No degree is worthless, however, an engineering degree holds weight over a BA. Would you rather hire an environmental studies major or an environmental engineering major?
I am biased, I am studying civil and environmental engineering at Cal. But being qualified and having no restraints is what pushed me to pursue engineering.