Comment CS vs. MIS: it does matter (Score 1) 526
I have a C.E. degree from Texas A&M
There, CE is just CS with a EE minor. If I did it over again, I would have taken more CS courses instead of the extra EE.
CS - it's not just programming. I took maybe 5 courses where the point was to learn a specific language. Most of my courses were studying theory & concepts - with projects and labs that required you to write code to prove your understanding of the topic (write a simulator for a round-robin scheduler in my OS class, etc). You had to pick up a lot of skills on your own to complete the projects.
MIS, from what I observed, was geared much more towards spoon-feeding specific technologies, environments and languages.
I signed up for one MIS course when I was a senior, just to pick up some extra credits. The class was in a brand new business building - the prof had a grad student present just to operate the PowerPoint slides!! In most CS courses the prof writes on the whiteboard or uses slides generated from LaTEX, never PowerPoint!! A CS prof would never waste time putting together PP slides for a class.
And, despite what many people have said, I think it does make a difference when looking for a programming job. When we send our recruiter to do on-campus interviews, he fills up as many slots as possible with CS & CE degrees, then MIS. And if a MIS makes it to a site interview, we're going to ask them why they didn't just get a CS degree.
That being said, there are some excellent programmers with MIS degrees - we even have a few working for us. And there are plenty of CS grads who are idiots. But I think the critical thinking and problem solving skills required to be a great programmer are more likely to be developed in a CS grad.
There, CE is just CS with a EE minor. If I did it over again, I would have taken more CS courses instead of the extra EE.
CS - it's not just programming. I took maybe 5 courses where the point was to learn a specific language. Most of my courses were studying theory & concepts - with projects and labs that required you to write code to prove your understanding of the topic (write a simulator for a round-robin scheduler in my OS class, etc). You had to pick up a lot of skills on your own to complete the projects.
MIS, from what I observed, was geared much more towards spoon-feeding specific technologies, environments and languages.
I signed up for one MIS course when I was a senior, just to pick up some extra credits. The class was in a brand new business building - the prof had a grad student present just to operate the PowerPoint slides!! In most CS courses the prof writes on the whiteboard or uses slides generated from LaTEX, never PowerPoint!! A CS prof would never waste time putting together PP slides for a class.
And, despite what many people have said, I think it does make a difference when looking for a programming job. When we send our recruiter to do on-campus interviews, he fills up as many slots as possible with CS & CE degrees, then MIS. And if a MIS makes it to a site interview, we're going to ask them why they didn't just get a CS degree.
That being said, there are some excellent programmers with MIS degrees - we even have a few working for us. And there are plenty of CS grads who are idiots. But I think the critical thinking and problem solving skills required to be a great programmer are more likely to be developed in a CS grad.
