I’m currently a student at Gavilan College and I would like to transfer to UC Davis for Computer Science but I’m terrible at math.
I love computers and technology so I can’t really see myself doing anything else. I don’t know what to do.
By the way, this is my first semester in college so there is always time to change my major.
First, usually people are terrible at math because they believe they are. The truth is that math is about understanding, and practice, practice practice. You can do it if you are willing to work at it and believe you can.
Second, many schools have CS majors that are not part of the engineering school and do not require so much math.
I’m guessing all reputable CS programs, Engineering or not, requires at minimum a year of Calculus, and Linear Algebra. Some advanced CS courses require Multivariate Calculus, Discrete Math, and probably a Calculus-based Stats class which If you tried hard enough you possibly could avoid at some schools.
Discrete math is typically required in CS majors of any quality.
There are plenty of majors beside CS that you could look into that deal with Computers and Technology. Information Systems would be the logical first one to explore.
Information systems, information technology, etc. Have way less math than Cs.
I think the first question is what do you mean when you say:
I agree with Much2learn. Math takes practice. Does your college have a math lab? If so, go introduce yourself to the people there. They can probably offer you some helpful suggestions.
Note that IS and MIS has a business school bend to it which a lot of employers are not necessarily looking for. But yes for the most part the curriculum looks a bit more like an Econ major than a CS major. Pure calculus wouldn’t be needed for Accounting, Finance and Econ but there’s still a lot of math involved.
What does this mean? Have you been learning computer languages and writing programs on your own?
IS may not be related to business at all - look at the following programs:
(can include co-ops) https://cech.uc.edu/content/dam/cech/images/sit/BSIT-OnCampus_6_7_2018.pdf
https://ist.psu.edu/students/undergrad/majors/cyaop
https://ist.psu.edu/students/undergrad/majors/istbs/isdev/plans
I feel like information systems and information technology relates more to your interest.
UC Davis does not offer an IS/IT major. UCSC has an IT and Management major. If you find you want to pursue the an IT/IS major, than target the Cal States.
@MYOS1634 wow, SMH, those curriculums look very “DeVry-like”… I stand corrected, I guess. What’s funny is that the Cincy one requires pre-Calc, then Discrete Math with nothing in between.
They’re not Computer Engineering, certainly.
If you mean that they look “light” compared to what you know (Berkeley, I assume 
)… as far as I know, the co-op students have no problem finding well-paid positions and graduates from the two programs (as well as the former version of the CYOP one) are much sought-after.
They’re somewhat light on pure math (I think some require 1 semester of Calc + Discrete Math) but have been built with professionals/businesses so I assume they cover what professionals want in terms of knowledge and skills in addition to general education.
What I want to know is why posters pose a question and then ghost out on the discussion.
@MYOS1634 well I went to a relatively middling school in DePaul in the early 80’s for CS and even there they required a year of Calc and a college-level Stats class. (Not sure if that’s the case anymore though). Back then it was easy to find programming jobs, but nowadays with demand more of an emphasis on solving problems rather than programming in many places, one would think that math should be very fundamental to computer science. But yes there’s a lot of computer related jobs out there that require very little math.
But those aren’t “CS” strictly speaking, they’re IT. Definitely not Business, definitely technical, yet not CSE nor strict “CS”. I think these programs were created because businesses/companies had a need and there was a realization among universities that there were enough job requiring CS skills that there could be many job definitions and thus paths to these jobs.
You don’t have to be the cream of the crop at math, you just need to be good enough and that comes with practice.
@eyemgh Usually it’s because they don’t like the answers 