What’s the difference between computer science in College of Engineering, and computer science in LSA?
They both have computer science.
Anyone knows? and what should I choose?
In broad terms, CS in LSA will have more of a software focus, while CS in engineering will have more of a hardware focus (connected to EE). Look at the specific requirements for each course on the UMich website and you’ll get an idea of the details.
There is a handy web page that answers your question as it is specific to the University of Michigan:
http://www.eecs.umich.edu/eecs/undergraduate/cs_lsa_vs_engr.html
I disagree with @insanedreamer - I think he/she confused Computer Engineering and Computer Science. Computer Engineering is offered ONLY in CoE while CS is offered in both LSA and CoE. If I am not mistaken, all the computer science course requirements are the same for both majors, with the exception of the first course- in which almost all CoE take Engin 101 while almost all LSA take EECS 183. Other than that, the main differences are in other degree requirements. For LSA, you need fulfill things like the World Language, First-year/Upper-level writing, and race/ethncity requirements among others, while for CoE you are required to have credit in Chemistry and Physics and take the Engineering technical writing/intro credit (Engin 100) among other requirements. Both the LSA major and the Engineering major for CS have access to the sought-after Engineering Career Resource Center. Someone please correct me if I am wrong on any counts.
Letters & Sciences requires you to take more electives and language based courses that may not necessarily correspond with the CS courses. If the intent is to go towards the creative/artistic/visual side, then this may be the way to go as it offers some flexibility towards what kind of Arts/Science courses you can take in it. This may be beneficial for someone going into web design/ UI etc where not a lot of math/logic based computation is required. Certainly, when applying for jobs, the general connotation with an L&S CS degree is that you’re leaning towards designing, UI, interfaces, GUI, Game development, Tool development etc. People can certainly take advanced technical courses being in an L&S degree to prove otherwise but the connotation still remains in the market. A lot of Game Design majors are known to take this route …
Engineering on the other hand requires a bunch of technical knowledge. Basic physics, chemistry, math, some intro to engineering courses etc are needed. Choice of electives is fewer in this if you want to branch out but usually, the number of electives that are required to be taken outside the major is sufficient. This is the more technical choice: compilers, AI, image processing, OS, networks etc is what people concentrate in this. Math requirement is a little bit more here too. Companies do tend to look at what are the basic courses you’ve taken and what general theme you have in your CS electives when making their choice (as I’ve observed), so this is the way to go for hardcore CS concentrations.
It may be easier to get into one with respect to the other … I’m not certain on how hard it is to transfer once admitted in a particular college, so will not be able to say much on that.
Thanks for explaining well
I heard that cs in engineer is more difficult to get in than LSA. Since their cs programs are almlst same, Can I apply for LSA and transfer LSA to engineering easily? Anyone knows??
Yes, it is possible, but transfer in to engineering school is very hard I am told. You need to be in the top of your class to be able to do that. This seems to be a consistent theme in all the good programs- EECS at Berkeley, at Michigan and CSE in Urbana Champaign.
My understanding that it is not all that hard transfer into engineering from LS&A. You need only take the pre-reqs and get a 3.0 +.
Also how would employers know what courses you took. Your Computer Science degree will read B.S. in Computer Science. How many employers will really look at a transcript and dissect which classes you took. I don’t think this happens extensively at all.
The main difference is actually the same as between LSA and CoE.
LSA CS will offer a broad spectrum of courses in culture, reading, writing, etc
Engineering CS or CE (computer science vs computer engineering) will focus more on math, proofs, physics, chemistry, etc.
They’re mostly the same. You take the same CS courses. However, I believe only the engineering one is ABET accredited. If you do it through LSA, you have to fulfill the LSA distribution requirements. If you do it through engineering, you have the engineering core courses, which are required for ABET accreditation.
Anyone know if there is a difference in starting salary/companies after graduation between the two colleges?
I don’t think so. If the company gives you an offer, the salary would be based on the position itself, not so much the name/title of your degree.
ABET accreditation only matters if you want to work for the government. Only than that, most companies don’t care for it.
@whatsupfam420 No, there’s no difference in salary compensation, at least not according to the CoE advisers I’ve talked with. Posters earlier in this thread were probably projecting Berkeley’s setup on Michigan’s (“Letters & Science”). Even in Berkeley’s case, EECS and CS-L&S majors make the same salary.
The differences are, of course, the electives, but also the fact that it’s easier to dual major within the same college. For example, my friend transferred from COE to LSA so he could dual major in math. I ended up staying in the COE, since I already had credits for the engineering prereqs. Anecdotally, cross campus transfers are pretty easy in both directions.
CS-ENG is ABET accredited. CS-LSA is not. But this doesn’t really matter. Accreditation isn’t valuable in software engineering. The only exception I can think of is patent law—other than that, government agencies don’t care. Many other top CS programs are unaccredited, such as Stanford’s and CMU’s.
Both CS-LSA and CS-ENG have excellent grad school placement statistics. I assumed CS-ENG would be better in this regard, but apparently the language requirement at LSA evens things out.