CSMathAsa1994

I am interested to see your scdedules for your major. One of my teachers double majored in math and comp sci and they were forced to take organic chem. Another teacher of mine was forced to take quantum physics. Did any of you guys have to take high level courses unrelated to your major? Also could you list your schedules from fresh- current grade?

whimsy

Many (most?) Math and CS departments provide sample schedules for their different degree programs (BA, BS, minor, and for various concentrations). If you can't find any on your own, post again and I'll provde a couple of links. Depending on AP credits, interests, and abilities, individual schedules will vary wildly. However, it sounds as if you are asking about requirements. The department-supplied sample schedules should be sufficient for this.

ucbalumnus

If CS is under an engineering division, then the requirements are more likely to include sciences (most commonly physics). Organic chemistry does not seem like it would be a requirement for math and CS majors -- possibly something that can fulfill a "choose one more science course" requirement, or something that a pre-med needs.

An introductory physics sequence may include material on quantum mechanics, but it is unlikely that a math or CS major would be required to take a junior or senior level course in that.

Go to each college's web site to find the requirements for each major, as well as the general education requirements.

GLOBALTRAVELER

Just like the above postings, go to each college's web site to find the requirements for each major, as well as the general education requirements and sample schedules.

Having said that, each school and even each college of the school can have their OWN SPECIFIED requirements.

Something like Organic Chemistry could be a "College of Arts & Sciences for the B.S. degree" requirement. I was a computational math major at Michigan State and I took Inorganic Chemistry (in addition Introductory Chemistry) because for the College of Natural Science (home of the Math department), the B.S.-version of the major required some chemistry credits. The B.A.-version of the major did NOT require the extra science BUT required a year of foreign language. I even checked my alma-mater's current requirements for the math major and at least one course in the biological sciences is required.

Now that was a lower 100/200 level course.

I also remember that math majors had to take a junior/senior course in an extra Physics or Computer Science or Engineering or Chemistry course. Usually they give you a choice out of like 10 courses, but all are junior/senior level. It was the College of Natural Science's requirement. So in essence, you degree requirements are like this:

- General Education requirements
- College of your major requirements
- Your major's departmental requirements

...and ALL vary by university.

akhbhaat

The most crucial thing you need to understand about CS is this: most programs are designed exclusively as launchpads for graduate students. They're designed to train budding computer scientists, NOT software developers; little consideration is given to the latter group, even though they clearly constitute the majority of enrollees at almost every school.

At my school, we had to take all of the following outside of the core CS curriculum:

Calc 1 (PLUS prerequisites like trig, precalc, and college algebra, if necessary)
Calc 2
Calc 3
Senior level Calc 2 based probability (complete overkill, in my opinion)

Note: Discrete 1 and 2 and Linear Algebra are technically relevant to the CS curriculum, so I've excluded them from the above list. Calc is mostly useless in CS. You'll see a little bit of integration in the unnecessary probability course, in the unnecessary physics courses, and in algorithms. It's nowhere near enough to warrant the ENTIRE three semester sequence, but I digress...

Physics sequence:
Mechanics
Electricity and Magnetism
Intro to Modern Physics (i.e. intro to quantum and relativity)

-OR-

Biochemistry sequence:
Gen Chem 1
Gen Chem 2
Organic Chem 1 or Biology for Majors 1

PLUS:
One additional natural science for majors (I took the physics sequence plus gen chem 1).

If your department's program is ABET accredited (like mine was), which won't benefit you at all in practice, you'll also be forced to take all sorts of engineering courses (like a THREE course computer architecture sequence) on top of the more typical CS stuff. Fair warning.

One final note: as I mentioned, you'll get virtually no exposure to actual software development processes, or any of the tools and frameworks that real developers use. You won't be required to take a single writing course (technical or otherwise). You will probably only learn ONE programming language, and only enough of it to do what they want you to do (which is to write data structures and algorithms and test or apply them within a very limited context). CS is really an applied mathematics degree. This is why internships are so crucial for successful post-graduation placement; if you come out of school with a mediocre GPA and no relevant experience, you're just somebody with a relatively basic understanding of CS concepts and no understanding of how to actually make usable software. Not very useful to a prospective employer.