Which Degree?

April 8, 2004 8:51 AM

I'm returning to college this summer to finish a degree and have come to a crossroads as to what degree to go for. (more inside)

I need about 20 credit hours to finish my Bachelor's degree and am trying to decide which degree to go for.

Option 1:

B.A. in Computer Science/Philosophy - not a double major, a combination of the two. This will take a longer time to finish and move back my graduation date by a semester. Need to finish philosophy and language reuirements.

Option 2:

Bachelor of General Studies with minors in Computer Science, Information Technology, and Entrepreneurship. This is by far the quicker of the two, only requiring a few semesters of part time work to finish the Entrepreneurship minor.

I want to work in the tech sector ideally doing any kind of programming and would love to delve into interface design.
The BGS makes the most sense based on money contraints and time until graduation, but something about receiving a BGS instead of a BA bothers me. Do employers looking for fresh grads to fill entry-level positions make any distinction between the two? Will the multiple minors in different disciplines help or hinder me?

posted by ttrendel to Education (12 answers total)

Speaking as an IT manager, the only IT managers who would care about the degree are the pointy-haired, clueless ones you wouldn't want to work for anyway. Get it over with and start building your skills. In this economy, you're going to be up against people with advanced degrees at every step of the way, so don't split hairs. It's not the degree that's going to get you the job, in my experience.
posted by ulotrichous at 9:10 AM on April 8, 2004

In the scheme of things a semester is nothing (time-wise, if not financially). To my mind the former is by far the preferable option so that in the future when people ask you what your degree is in you can say "computer science and philosophy" rather than "general studies, but...". My advice would be to go for the BA if it is at all possible. By the time you're talking about multiple minors you might as well be talking about the specific areas you happened to study in your major... CS and IT have a lot of crossover, I guess, and as that's the area you're looking at moving into, and as you have already met the computing requirements, you'll be able to say "I know about X, Y and Z".
posted by nthdegx at 9:12 AM on April 8, 2004

if i were reading your cv, i'd be more likely to interview you if you'd chosen the first. but that probably reflects my personal bias. the first sounds (to me) like you want to design/write code (that designs/writes code); the second like you want to get rich.

but it's not that important, as ulotrichous says. if you've got experience i'm more interested in that. if you've not got experience then i'm looking at what else you've done. coursework projects? run/contributed to any open source projects? have a home page? have code on your home page? have essays/long blog entries discussing the hard/interesting parts of computing?

so if you've got no track record at all (no web page with code etc) i'd choose whichever course gives you more chance to demonstrate that you can do something.
posted by andrew cooke at 9:58 AM on April 8, 2004

would love to delve into interface design.

IANA interface designer, but it may be that to people who are, the CompSci/Philosophy angle would be more appealing. I beleive interface design requires a level of analysis and thinking that a technology philosopher would do better with.

I also agree with andrew cooke: the first sounds like you're serious about wanting to get *into* your discipline. The second sounds like you're just preparing for a career. That will appeal differently to different people of course.
posted by weston at 10:12 AM on April 8, 2004

I agree with andrew cooke about being more inclined to interview you with the first cv.

Also, what constitutes a B.A. in computer science? I've always thought of a computer science degree as a B.S.? That would raise my eyebrow too.
posted by pissfactory at 10:33 AM on April 8, 2004

I'd go with ulotrichous's advice. I don't have anything approaching a tech degree, but I worked for three years in the IT department at my school and I just found out a few weeks ago that my old manager's manager was asking if I was still around for an IT position. At least in my experience IT people want demonstrated problem-solving capabilities and responsibility and could give a rat's ass about what your diploma has on it.
posted by sciurus at 11:00 AM on April 8, 2004

Response by poster: pissfactory- A computer science degree is in fact a BS. The Computer Science/Philosophy inderderpartmental degree is a BA. I'm guessing that it's mostly due to the CS/Phil coursework including more logic courses that mathematics. The coursework outline also gives students a great deal of freedom in selecting which philosophy courses to take so many opt for more ethics courses as opposed to philosophy of the mind,etc.

Thank you all for your advice so far. I'm still stuck between the two. Time is a huge factor for me. I'm 27, spent 4 years as a logistics specialist in the Army,went to school, dropped out and did social work for 1.5 years, and am getting ready to go back. I feel like I'm on some 7-step program towards getting a real life. I'm just ready to finish my coursework and move out of this phase of my life that I feel I've been stuck in for the last 5 years, but I also want to make sure that I am not making any large career sacrifices to do so.
posted by ttrendel at 11:24 AM on April 8, 2004

I am an interface designer (amongst other things). In my experience, new graduates that really impress are the ones that have done something beyond studying. You need the degree, but most employers don't care what it's in, as long as there's some kind of technical component. What every employer wants to know is what have you done? Build that portfolio. For a recent graduate it doesn't matter if it's work you've been paid for or not (but that helps). What matters is that you have some interesting work to show and appear to have done some reading around your area of interest, to be able to hold an intelligent conversation about it without sounding clueless.
posted by normy at 11:27 AM on April 8, 2004

And what ulotrichous said about an advanced degree. If your serious about a tech career, it's becoming almost a prerequisite, these days.
posted by normy at 11:35 AM on April 8, 2004

I am an interface designer, and I designed my own major in college that was a "Philosophy of CS" degree, with lots of meaty readings of german, english, and american philosophers, but that included a reasonable component of coding as well. Bearing that in mind, I'd go with the former.

It's not the B.A. / B.S. / General Studies thing that motivates this. The former story is a story you're going to be much more comfortable telling in job interviews. It's a story that you'll be proud of, and a story that will make sense when looking for jobs that are not strictly heads-down coding, but might include user needs (and requirements), buisness objectives, or broader technology consulting roles.

The HCI / CHI community (odd that people who care so much about people and their capabilities can't pick a consistent acronym for their discipline) is an interesting and probably profitable road to go down -- programming is a lot easier to outsource than more interdisiplinary work.
posted by zpousman at 12:46 PM on April 8, 2004

there's sometimes weird historical shit when it comes to the BA/BSc thing - my degree is a BA in what was effectively physics and maths...
posted by andrew cooke at 2:47 PM on April 8, 2004

And what ulotrichous said about an advanced degree. If your serious about a tech career, it's becoming almost a prerequisite, these days.

Just to clarify, my point was that any opening is going to be besieged with applications from out-of-work people with master's degrees or higher, so don't even worry about competing based on pedigree. And don't even consider wasting your money on certifications. Listing tech certifications on a resume gets your application docked a letter grade in my book.

Do some good work and put the URL on your resume. That's worth a pile of diplomas any day, but make sure it's really good work. I've sent countless applications to the circular file for putting urls on their resume that lead to their star trek or skijoring fanpages.

My current Network Administrator only got an interview (despite a relatively weak application) because I dug his site. I'm glad I didn't listen to our HR manager.
posted by ulotrichous at 8:29 PM on April 8, 2004