Usefulness of a liberal arts degree in Computer Science

<p>Hello!</p>

<p>Even though this is my first post, I have been lurking around the college admission threads for a while. I recently enrolled at Smith College for Fall 2014. I am an international student and I applied as an undecided major however, I have been learning Python on my own (through online tutorials and a book) and I really like it. I have always been decent at Math and although I always thought I would major in something like English or History, I am finding CS very interesting.</p>

<p>My question is, what is the usefulness of a liberal arts degree in CS? Ideally, I would want to major in CS and minor/maybe even double major in English. In this scenario, will I be able to compete with students who have BS CS etc when looking for internships etc? I am concerned because the concept of a 'liberal arts' degree is completely alien in my country and I reckon that a 'Bachelor in Arts' is looked down upon when compared with a 'Bachelor in Science'. I am sure the US is quite different but I do wonder if CS is supposed to be a specialized field instead of something more 'liberal' like English? And will this hinder my employment opportunities in the US?</p>

<p>Alternately, will it be a better idea to major in the humanities and learn programming on my own to present as an additional skills set to employers?</p>

<p>Any input would be much appreciated :)</p>

<p>Smithie2018,
<a href=“Liberal arts education - Wikipedia”>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_arts_education&lt;/a&gt;
Here’s more information about liberal arts education. Basically even National Universities adopt liberal arts education, but the main difference between NUs and LACS is the professor / student ratio. Those who pursue a BS degree will undoubtedly have more knowledge than you do. So you’ll have to self-study a lot to compete with them, and fortunately you can always ask your professors if questions arise. LAC professors are friendly and like students who take the initiative.</p>

<p>I haven’t researched on job market, but here’s an interesting article on Google internship. It’s interesting to note that entrepreneurial spirit is among the most important factors. And a liberal arts college, where there’s a tight-knit community, is definitely a nice place to start your business.
<a href=“How To Actually Land An Internship At Google And Turn It Into A Job”>How To Actually Land An Internship At Google And Turn It Into A Job;

<p>Hope it helps.</p>

<p>Do not worry about the degree title (Bachelor of Arts versus Bachelor of Science) for a CS degree.</p>

<p>If you are concerned about employability, be sure to take the important advanced CS courses whose concepts are widely used in industry jobs and CS graduate study:</p>

<p>algorithms and complexity
operating systems
networks
databases
security and cryptography
software engineering or project course or other courses with projects</p>

<p>At Smith, you may want to consider taking some of these at UMass if they are not available during the semesters you want to take them. There is also a sharing arrangement in the UMass career center.</p>

<p>I think ucbalumnas hit the nail on the head. A BA v BS on paper will not be huge, but you will need to take more classes than required probably and/or self study. CS is less about the piece of paper and more about “What have you done / can you do?”. Skills will easily trump what’s on the paper, so just make sure to focus on learning as much as you can in the field.</p>

<p>Thank you, ursawarrior, ucbalumnus and Pengs Phils! Some of the courses mentioned by ucbalumnus are not offered by Smith so I will try to shuttle to UMass as often as I can. </p>

<p>You might compare your college’s CS major or minor requirements with UMass and fill in any gaps. I do think the major or minor is more useful than self study and you will not leave out important fundamental concepts by just learning programming.</p>

<p>fyi, Cornell, a school well reputed for CS, reports that recruiting for CS doesn’t differ between those who take a BS in the School of Engineering and those who take a BA in the School of Arts and Letters (the liberal arts school). They both “take courses covering algorithms, data structures, logic, programming languages, systems, and theory. Electives include artificial intelligence, computer graphics, computer vision, cryptography, databases, networks, and scientific computing.”</p>

<p>Thank you, BrownParent. The statistic about Cornell was very insightful. I have one more question: If take the core courses (as mentioned by ucbalumnus) and work towards a minor, how will that be any less beneficial than a major in CS? For example, if I major in English and minor in CS, and prove my CS skills to employers in other ways, will I be considered alongside CS majors?</p>

<p>Major v Minor is a big difference. In order to “prove your skills to employers in other ways”, you would need to develop those skills aka learn so much out of the classroom in addition to that minor that you might as well take all the courses to get the major. If you plan to go into CS, that’s what you should major in. While a BA v BS won’t vary too much, a minor versus a major has a significant difference in coursework.</p>

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<p>You won’t be as employable as a full CS major. I recommend just doing the other way around. English classes are not really useful at all after graduation so probably it is better to just do CS and take English classes as electives. CS is not just programming, it is a very challenging degree. A typical CS class might take 3-5x more work than the most difficult English class. CS is also more fun than liberal if you like solving problems and programming. </p>

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<p>Not sure about that. It would not be surprising if many CS majors found English classes to be quite a bit more difficult than CS classes (especially if one does not specifically choose the easier ones).</p>

<p>Thank you for your responses. I think PengsPhils is right in saying that if I want to put in the effort of learning all those skills outside of class, I might as well just take the relevant courses and work towards the CS major. </p>

<p>I also don’t think it’s as much about ‘difficulty’ as it is about interest. I agree with ucbalumnus - many CS majors might find English classes quite difficult and vice versa!</p>