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Choosing Majors. Computer Science vs. Info Tech vs. Data Science
Goony1
3 replies1 threads New Member
I would really like to go to school on the east or west coast but know they are tremendously expensive. I'm a junior at a college prep school. 27 on ACT plan to take again, 3.5gpa involved in drug free club, speech, all conference wrestling, captain of ultimate Frisbee team,volunteering at computer store. My difficulty right now is AB Calc I have a C- in it, I think this is going to be a bit more of a struggle for me at the math concept of my major. Any type of advice is helpful. Thank You.
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Replies to: Choosing Majors. Computer Science vs. Info Tech vs. Data Science
One other question: When you say Info tech you mean CIS? The major that's generally under the business admin umbrella and called something like "information systems"?
And for Data science do you mean some kind of statistical analysis major?
Go in undeclared, take a couple of classes and see how you do...
With a 3.5/27 take a look at CSULB, CPP, Fullerton, Northridge and Chico - maybe UCR or UCM depending on your other qualifications.
Good luck.
My response with regards to CS specifically will depend on this question: What exactly is difficult about AP Calc? Generalizing more, what part of math is difficult for you?
CS tends to require a good amount of math, but once you're past the required lower-level classes, the math as most people think of it is slim to none. When I say "math as most people think of it", I mean computational questions: Arithmetic, word problems, plug some numbers into the formula and tell me what the result is...those kinds of problems. That's not the kind of math used in CS, at least not beyond telling a computer what to do so it can do those kinds of computations for you. Sure, you'll have the occasional plug-and-chug or fundamentally arithmetic-based question in some classes. But it's nothing like, say, your average calculus class.
More importantly, CS requires mathematical thinking. It requires the ability to take what you currently know and figure out how to work with it to get to whatever goal you may have. It requires being able to think incrementally about making it to that goal, and being able to identify which techniques to use to get closer to the end point. It requires being able to see sometimes-unclear conceptual connections to identify those techniques. And possibly most importantly, it requires the patience to handle hitting a brick wall and trying to figure out what to do to get around/over that wall.
So essentially, if you're good at the mathematical thought process but not in the number crunching aspect of lower level math, I wouldn't necessarily recommend against CS. You can just get through those number crunching classes and get on to the good stuff in that case if you really want to do it (and you will, if that's truly the case). But if the mathematical thought process is the problem, I strongly recommend against CS. I'd also recommend against it if you dislike math enough to not want to do any more math classes than necessary to get some computer-related degree.