which curriculum is better?

cmb

which one of these curriculums would you say is better for an MIS major --- i am only posting the MIS classes, as the rest are pretty much the same:

school 1: Business Application Programming 1 and 2, MIS 1 and 2, Advanced MIS, Applications of Database Management, Decision Support Systems, Distributed Business Information Systems, Applied Systems Analysis and Design, Applications of MIS
-- Advanced MIS studies data structures, file processing, etc all within orgs in detail - hierarchical, ntwk, and relational models

school 2: MIS, Databse Mgmt Systems, Business System design and development, Object Oriented Business Programming, E-Business Application strategy, Data Communications-Network-and Security, Open Source Software, Project Life Cycle Mgmt, 2 programming classes

some of the classes are named different but deal with the same thing, but there are about 4 classes or so that are really different and i am having a hard time deciding on which one to choose from - i tried looking on US News or Princeton Review for the ranking of schools with emphasis in MIS but could only get the top 3 without paying like $35 --- anyway, any help is appreciated - thanks
if you need any additional info about any of the classes, let me know and i can get it for you

arnevikm

Not sure what to say as to which might be better. I think they look very similar. I would probably base that decision on the school's reputation and affordability. They both look a lot better than the MIS program I was looking into down here. MIS at my local school is a business degree with a very limited technical curriculum. I wanted my main focus to be on PC's and exposure to as many different technologies as possible (programming, networking, etc). I actually ended up going CIS for that very reason. I found that I am able to minor in Bus Mgmt with only an additional 3 classes.

famosbrown

Why not take them both? I wasn't offered two different curriculums for my MIS degree. What school is this? If the two offerings are for two schools, list them both. I didn't take any of those classes at my university. I only took a final Senior year class called MIS which actually put everything learned fromt he business and computer science side of things together in actually working with real companies.

The curriculum consisted of the same CS classes the CS majors were taking and all of the core Business classes with a few added electives.

Famos

cmb

no this is 2 different schools - and at both schools MIS is in the School of Business - its just that besides the MIS classes, the business classes are pretty much the same, thats why I didnt list them --- but yeah -- this is 2 completely different schools

famosbrown

Do the schools have a CS major? At my school, there were MIS and CS majors. We both took all of the CS classes together, but while the CS majors were off doing the Calc III,DiffEQ, and other sciences, the MIS majors were off doing all of the Business classes.

School1 seems like it is preparing you to be a Database Administrator. I'm not sure what will be taught in the Application Programming 1 and 2 courses.

School 2 seems like it will be sort of the same thing. I'm not sure what will be taught in the Object Oriented Programming course, but it should be programming languages like C++.

Without knowing the full details and descriptions of each class, it seems like they are really preparing you to be a true MIS (MANAGER OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS). It's not really TOO technical. When I went through my course, I learned how to be a true manager/business while taking all of my business courses, but a true geek/techy while taking my CS courses. It seems here that they actually have a separate curriculum for the MIS and CS majors. I can only say from my experience that this wasn't the case.

In my opinion, if you would like to get more technical and geeky, this might not be for you. BUT...if you would like a curriculum that will teach you how to lead and manage an I.T. department, then either would be good. If you decide on either, you could always study on the side for the certifications that will pad your degree with the technical skills that you desire.

Famos

cmb

yeah, both schools have a CS major ---- and school 2 also offers a degree in Information Technology.......and CS is not for me, i am not that into all the technical and "geeky" aspects of it, more on the MIS side of things

---

and if anybody was wondering -
school 1 is The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss)
school 2 is The University of Southern Mississippi

i cant afford out of state, so either one of these schools or Mississippi State University is where i can go ---- Miss State's curriculum is a Business Info Systems degree and you take alot of MIS and BIS classes - its different than these 2, but if you think it could be better, let me know and i can post their classes

i will try to get a class description and post that for you too - may be a long post, but if it helps i am all for it