I’m about to complete my undergrad at NYU in economics but my passion has always been computer science since the very beginning. I was taking a few computer science classes my sophomore year but was told I wouldn’t be able to graduate on time so I continued pursuing an economics major because I had already taken most of the classes.
I’m about to graduate now and don’t have the technical skills to go to graduate school for computer science. Luckily my mom has been very supportive of me pursuing my dreams. Computer science and the skills that come along with it is something I am really motivated to study but I don’t know if it’s a good thing to spend maybe 2-3 more years at undergrad.
Question is…should I delay my graduation and stick it out at NYU for a couple more years, should I graduate and finish my bachelors at stony brook or should I not graduate and transfer to stony brook?
NYU is so expensive though. Maybe you should consider finding a program at another school where it’d be cheaper and not necessarily an undergrad thing?
I am very confused that you are at NYU and then talking about graduating and finishing at Stony brook? If you are near graduation then probably you should graduate. I don’t think it is worth having six years for your undergrad degree. Switching up sophomore year would likely have been easier than now, because of sequential classes and all. My dd had the same issue but was able to complete a math-cs joint degree. You can look into taking some PG classes to prepare for a MS. It might be a good idea to talk to someone in the cs dept before you graduate. Even you can try to work in a related area while you take your pg classes, or you can see if you can spend one year doing that.
Here is what your own institution looks for, you can loot at Stony Brook to see what they want for MS prereqs and also there are programs for student who do not have CS undergrad, particularly at Penn, U Chicago, DePaul for starters.:
The minimum prerequisite background for admission to the MS program consists of:
Languages: Deep working knowledge of C and familiarity with object-oriented concepts and work with some object-oriented language such as Java or C++.
Data structures and mathematics: Understanding and working knowledge of pointers, lists, stacks, queues, trees, arrays and recursion; induction, order of magnitude growth, probability and elementary combinatorics, set notation.
Working familiarity with windows and Unix.
Knowledge of assembly language (e.g. Intel or Motorola) sufficient to understand self-modifying code.
Promising students who do not have this background will be conditionally admitted with the provision that they complete the one year preparatory course (PAC). Students without adequate mathematical training should take Discrete Mathematics, which is offered in the summer only.
I recommend that you plan to graduate as an economics major. Not knowing how quantitative your coursework has been, I’ll assume that like many Econ majors you have a deep quantitative background. Look for a job that leverages that quantitative background. If necessary become proficient in database technology (from a user point of view). There is a strong demand for economics/finance graduates with strong quantitative/ analytic skills. Get one of those positions and focus as much as you can on the analytic side. Take extended education courses (offered by many universities) in computer science basics – I.e. fill those gaps. In 2-3 years you should be able to translate your work experience and your coursework into a more technical position – perhaps one that is considered a computer science position.