So my original plan for school was a B.B.A. in Information Technology Management, with a minor in Computer Science. Now I’m 98% sure that I’m going to switch to a B.S. in CompSci, and a Minor in ITM.
An ITM degree is geared towards Operations: systems i/o, database management, web development and Networking. The hub of a information system. You get a little bit of everything to be able to manage multiple resources. The program offers a choice of 2 emphasis: dev & nett (Development or networking). The creative side of me is naturally interested in the DEV path.
My exposure to other professionals in the applications end at my job has also peaked my interest in this area. Either degree will get me where I want to be but from what I’ve read going the CS route will give me a bigger “tool belt”. Making critical decisions about the mangament of a large system or mainframe will be better made if one knows the parameters and the limitations of the applications involved. It will also open other doors for me. If I just want to start out as a coder (software engineer) I’ll be able to do that. The thought of being a developer for a smaller but “cutting edge” software company intrigues me.
Here’s some irony. Do you know what the difference is between a Math Major & CompSci Major is? Not a whole lot!!! Ironic considering I suffered through math when I was a kid. I’m taking some new approaches to this math thing and will begin conquering it this Fall.
2 Comments
June 30, 2008 at 4:03 pm
My experience was the same, although you seem to have done more up-front research. I dove in after having dropped out of a Theater major; I saw the Apple 1984 ad and just wanted to “do computers.”
When I saw that the curriculum was a Mathematics major with programming and upper division logic and digital circuitry electives, I was definitely scared, but I just gritted my teeth and hung on.
What made the difference for me was visiting my professors during their office hours, sometimes when I was stuck, sometimes just to talk over the subject matter. I had to shed the public school “teacher’s pet” labels, and I’m very glad I did.
The other thing that was vital was doing math problems every night. I ran into a friend from high school who shared his secret with me: He would copy solved problems over and over. It helped my pattern-recognition-oriented brain, especially in second-semester calculus. This technique also helped with programming.
I happened to fall into operational work because of the internship/co-op program at my school. The jobs were systems support and operations, and I was lucky enough to get on with a firm that had just bought its first UNIX machine and wanted to customize Informix via a C API… so I learned UNIX and C even though it wasn’t being taught at my school.
I completely agree with the irony, i.e., Computer Science is not science. When I was in high school, there was one advanced course for math geeks called Computer Math. I think that’s more appropriate: To me, the only science involved with computing is hacking code, either because I don’t have the manual or I’d rather do little experiments than to get the rules up front. To me, that’s math: The rules are established, and the work flows from the rules and the models.
Incidentally, music works either way: You can study theory and your chosen instrument, but most who do this end up playing music that others have written. You can “hack” music, e.g., bang on instruments and come up with music intuitively, and there are trade-offs here, too.
In general, the rules/model based approach yields more expertise, but you must have the facility to internalize these, otherwise you’ll be too busy thinking to be creative.
July 3, 2008 at 6:57 am
always appreciate advice and feedback…thanks!