UC Riverside Computer Science vs SJSU Data Science

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  1. How difficult is it to change from data science to computer science at SJSU?

  2. How well-reputed is the data science course at SJSU as it is relatively new.

  3. Which would be better to pursue UCR CS vs SJSU DS?

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There are several useful conversations on the Reddit threads about CS vs. DS at SJSU.

They seem to boil down to this - DS and CS are related but different, some classes overlap but many do not. Choose the major you are interested in working in, data science jobs are not necessarily computer science jobs and vice versa. In light of that:

  1. Contact SJSU to confirm, but it appears that you could change from a DS to a CS major: https://www.sjsu.edu/cs/students/undergrad-students/bsds-change-of-major.php, but no option is given for the other way around (DS to CS).

  2. Hard to say as it is a new program - reputation requires time.

  3. It’s probably better to pursue the one you are more interested in, given the potential constraints involved in moving between them.

Perhaps others here can weigh in on the CS/DS issue from an employment perspective, but your interests, given the differences in the two, should be primary in your decision. Good luck!

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They are two different majors. As IT manager working in Silicon Valley, I would hire someone with CS or Com Eng degree for jobs involving programming, not someone with data science degree. Good luck.

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You should not go to SJSU expecting to switch into CS. The admissions thresholds are much higher for CS than for DS. If people could get into CS by scoring a DS admit and switching, people would be doing that in droves.

If you want to major in CS, go to Riverside. Riverside has DS also, so if you go there for CS and decide you prefer DS after all, you can probably switch. Or, if you prefer DS and SJSU, go to SJSU, but do not expect to have CS as an option.

Congrats on having (at least) two good options!

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Thanks for your reply. As both DS and CS fall under the same school of computing at SJSU, I wanted to check with the community if this is something possible before I start my freshman year.

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Yes, this makes perfect sense. Thanks

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I will check with SJSU if the major change is possible before I start my freshman year. Based on your feedback, I guess UCR would be a better choice.

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It is much easier to switch between the two at UCR. DS is combined major between the CS dept and the college of science.

if interested in research then UCR CS is pretty well ranked. But for a regular undergrad degree these rankings don’t mean a lot.

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Thanks for this tip. The main reasons for leaning towards SJSU are the good internship opportunities and strong ties with tech companies. I also understand that DS becomes a niche field as compared to CS.

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Sure. That is understandable. The landscape for internships and CS Jobs has changed a lot in the last year. So do due diligence and get more recent placement data from SJSU if possible.

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Sure will do, thanks

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too late to edit my post - as noted by @aquapt my response #1 should have read:

‘it appears that you could change from CS to DS’

but not the other way around.

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Changing major to CS at SJSU is described here:

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Thanks for your reply. I checked this out before I created the post and wanted to know if the transfer to CS was still possible before starting the freshman year. UC’s did provide this feature but I do not see this at SJSU.

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As a comment specific to UCR, it offers an excellent, and probably underrated, computer science program.

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Data science person here. I recommend computer science. For a bachelors, you want it to be relatively general so it can open up options for you. If you find you like data science later, you can just learn SQL. A CS degree is enough to get your foot in the door.

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Thanks for your reply, I heard that UCR CS is good for the MS program but I am not sure how good the BS CS program is.

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Thanks @coolguy40, I was thinking along the same lines too.

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Good to contact SJSU directly for an accurate answer. I recommend emailing to the contacts provided in the BSCS Change of Major Policy website

Questions? Contact College of Science Success Center