My son will be an incoming freshman this fall. He was accepted into Engineering - Computer Science program (knowing that in the College of Engineering you don't formally enter your major until your junior year). He is thinking about changing his major to a BA in Computing as that allows you to jump into coding classes right away rather than follow the core engineering coursework. Anyone here face that same deliberation and mind sharing what path you chose and why? He prefers the BA, Computing path, but is somewhat concerned that not having a BS in CS could have some unexpected negative impact on his post-grad and/or career options. Thanks in advance to anyone that has any advice. Gig'em

FYI, I also posted this on the computing forum, wasn't sure which forum was best for this.

From a jobs perspective, I think the BSCS is going to be the far more marketable degree.

At the end of the day, if he has the coding chops it'll be fine either way. Texas A&M on the resume won't get it thrown in the trash, but a BSCS is still more likely to open doors that a BA Computing won't.

Thank you TecRecAg!

I would think most engineering courses require some "coding" so he should get plenty of that. I worked the computer help desk in Zachry back in the day, it is seems most "homework" involved some form of coding.

Also, coding can be kind of a dead-end job. There are a lot of folks all around the globe willing to do it for much, much less than what I would consider decent pay here in the US.

This is going to sound crazy, but at some point I realized that most of the "interesting" code has already been written. Back in the day I actually got to work on the code behind browsers, databases and even Unix/Linux. Now, most coding is simply getting something out of the database, displaying it in a browser and --if your lucky --putting it back in the database. Maybe major in some form of engineering or science where there is esoteric mathematics that have not yet been encoded into libraries available to every computer language already. When I graduated it that field was non-Euclidian geometry. Today, maybe AI, but even that is largely "written" already.

When I was majoring in CS at A&M, I thought I was a pretty hotshot coder. One of my professors told me that most coders write good code, but great coders don't write much code ...they find unique ways to use code that others have already written.

There is a huge shortage of software developers. The engineering track will be harder but will look better to companies.

Just avoid the electrical track and tell him to go heavy on CS electives.

Ultimately, his soft skills and leadership skills will be what allows him to advance his career rapidly.

Software engineering, as a career, is a bizarre one; it is simultaneously one of the highest paying entry level jobs and also one of the communities that doesn't really care about your academic background (to a degree). Placing into a software engineering role at a "FAANG" company (short for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google - but really just a euphemism for high-paying, high-prestige tech companies) - typically requires nothing more than an ability to navigate their bizarre interview process, which looks like this:

1. Get noticed by their resume/cover-letter algorithm, or know someone on the inside who can refer you
2. Successfully navigate their coding challenge games (see https://leetcode.com/ for a taste)
3. Be able to describe computing systems on a white-board
4. Be able to talk intelligently about theoretical systems face-to-face with another human
5. Be patient, have humility, and be willing to repeat 1-4 OVER AND OVER AND OVER

If you can do 1-5, regardless of your academic background, you can be successful in software engineering. (By the way, you should by this book for your son as a gift: https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-Questions/dp/0984782850)

That's software engineering. It doesn't matter what degree is has as long as he can do 1-5. Period.

Now, the question is: does he want to do software engineering? We are about to enter into a cool new world where fundamental computing systems are about to get much more bizarre; Moore's law is essentially tapped out for simple architecture CPU's, so we're moving to complex compute architectures for specific applications: chips designed for AI; neromorphic processors, complex system-on-chips sponsored by DARPA... it's getting interesting. Also, we have a political push to bring back manufacturing domestically, to wrestle the grip that China has on our supply chain. There is about to be a huge demand in this area, specifically in the USA. If any of _that_ sounds interesting, then I think getting into computing may be more of a payoff than computer science.

Oh, and you can always follow-up your BS with an MS, online from a number of the top ranked schools, to cover his basis.

Aggie Q said:

---

Software engineering, as a career, is a bizarre one; it is simultaneously one of the highest paying entry level jobs and also one of the communities that doesn't really care about your academic background (to a degree). Placing into a software engineering role at a "FAANG" company (short for Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, Google - but really just a euphemism for high-paying, high-prestige tech companies) - typically requires nothing more than an ability to navigate their bizarre interview process, which looks like this:

1. Get noticed by their resume/cover-letter algorithm, or know someone on the inside who can refer you
2. Successfully navigate their coding challenge games (see https://leetcode.com/ for a taste)
3. Be able to describe computing systems on a white-board
4. Be able to talk intelligently about theoretical systems face-to-face with another human
5. Be patient, have humility, and be willing to repeat 1-4 OVER AND OVER AND OVER

If you can do 1-5, regardless of your academic background, you can be successful in software engineering. (By the way, you should by this book for your son as a gift: https://www.amazon.com/Cracking-Coding-Interview-Programming-Questions/dp/0984782850)

That's software engineering. It doesn't matter what degree is has as long as he can do 1-5. Period.

Now, the question is: does he want to do software engineering? We are about to enter into a cool new world where fundamental computing systems are about to get much more bizarre; Moore's law is essentially tapped out for simple architecture CPU's, so we're moving to complex compute architectures for specific applications: chips designed for AI; neromorphic processors, complex system-on-chips sponsored by DARPA... it's getting interesting. Also, we have a political push to bring back manufacturing domestically, to wrestle the grip that China has on our supply chain. There is about to be a huge demand in this area, specifically in the USA. If any of _that_ sounds interesting, then I think getting into computing may be more of a payoff than computer science.

Oh, and you can always follow-up your BS with an MS, online from a number of the top ranked schools, to cover his basis.

---

Follow this post. I've been looking into CS quite a bit for the last 6 months as my son is also majoring in this. What Aggie Q has posted is pretty much what I've gathered. There is more of a meritocracy in CS than other majors and it's not just about coding. CS is also subset of math so he needs to be good at that also.

Very few will pass #2 without a traditional CS background.

We used to offer a programming/logic "aptitude" test to better gauge people's potential in programming. We found that while some people had the aptitude, if they hadn't selected a CS background then they usually were out of there in less than a year. We've adopted more of a coding challenge model and it produces a better result.

The one thing I would add is it's really important to be able to write code, but it's more important to be able to explain code, make requested changes, and be able to read code and understand what it does. .

Is he majoring in Computer Engineering w/ a Software track? As a Computer Science major I was able to take CS 101 fall semester of my freshman year. The Computer Engineering people did not take that course until sophomore year if I recall. Things may have changed but back in the day CS majors (even though in the College of Engineering) did not take all the core engineering courses that other engineering degrees required.

Edit: I looked up the current degree plans and I now realize they have changed the CS degree track quite a bit. CS majors used to be able to choose our science electives and some of the math requirements differed. I don't know why CS majors need physics and chemistry as a requirement even though those were my elective choices. I kind of wish they would separate CS out of the engineering department as it doesn't quite fit with all the other degrees. Georgia Tech and others have a College of Computing that seems a better fit. All that aside I'd recommend the BS. Most places I've worked when hiring entry level positions are looking for a BS. After the first job it won't matter but for getting the first job it might.