CIS or IT?

I'm looking at the local community college's list of courses and they have an AAS in business information technology, and an AS in computer information systems. I'm going to go for the AS in CIS more than likely because I want to transfer to a 4 year school. Back to my question, what is the difference between CIS and IT, if any?

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tpatt100

I always thought CIS had programming and business IT had more business applications and financial?

billscott92787

There is definitely a difference. I originally was majoring in Computer Information Systems and changed my major to Networking and Communications Management. The difference is the fact that CIS deals with programming, and lots of it. Whether you specialize in web design, database design, Application programing, management, there usually are different areas in which you can pick to specialize in. IT would probably be more desktop/server degree I'm sure.

hypnotoad

If you list the coursework, we can tell you what the difference is. Programs vary quite a bit from school to school...because nobody in academics can agree where they fit or what to teach.

Rebster40

Well, if CIS is heavy into programming then it's not really what I want to do. That's one of the reasons I ruled out computer science, it's not that I don't think I can do it...I'm just not into programming. I'm wanting to do more hands-on stuff, such as hardware, networks, etc.. Here's the page that lists all the degrees the community college offers, if anyone wants to look through it and give me some insight on it. Thanks.

Columbia State Community College - programs

bwcarty

If you plan on going straight to a 4 year school after finishing your Associate's, you should look at the schools you want to transfer to, choose your major there, and ask that school which AA/AS degree would make the transition easiest.

Having transfer credits not apply correctly, or finding you have gaps in your liberal arts courses that prevent you from transferring is frustrating. I speak from experience. If I would have worked out the details with the school I wanted to transfer to in the first place, I would have saved myself years of extra work.

Rebster40

Yes, I know what you mean. I do want to take some programming to get a grasp on it, but its not what I want to make a career out of and do everyday.

brad-

Rebster40 wrote: »

I'm looking at the local community college's list of courses and they have an AAS in business information technology, and an AS in computer information systems. I'm going to go for the AS in CIS more than likely because I want to transfer to a 4 year school. Back to my question, what is the difference between CIS and IT, if any?

I got my BS in CIS. The way our college was structured, CIS was the name of the college within the university. CS, IS, and IT were the majors in that college. Within those majors, I did IT, and its tracks were web publishing or network security.

All of the majors had a similar "core" of courses...and they were all programming based.

Thats was for a B.S. curriculuum. I honestly dont know what it would look like for an AAS...and if you can help it I would go straigh to the 4 year, because they may not accept your credit transfers. I heard and saw horror stories when people tried to transfer their credits in. You should check beforehand before you waste money and time.

tpatt100

phoeneous wrote: »

If you work in IT, you eventually do some sort of programming. I did a ton of VB in college and loved it. When I became a server/network admin, I used that knowledge with vbscripts for group policies and data enumeration. In my opinion, every server/network admin should have some knowledge of a scripting language, a database language , and a web language even if its just a little.

I may not agree with the database language and web language but TOTALLY agree with having a knowledge of scripting. I know guys we rely on every time when we need something done that involved scripting. It automates, or makes easy so many tasks. My issue is I cannot wrap my head around programing or scripting at all for some reason. Mainly I find scripts that are similar and modify them to our needs.

mav2005

Research the schools you would like to transfer to and review their transfer policies. Select the associates degree that best matches your desired school's transfer policies.

Rebster40

brad- wrote: »

Thats was for a B.S. curriculuum. I honestly dont know what it would look like for an AAS...and if you can help it I would go straigh to the 4 year, because they may not accept your credit transfers. I heard and saw horror stories when people tried to transfer their credits in. You should check beforehand before you waste money and time.

Yeah, I'm going for an AS, then transferring to a 4-year due to cost and other things. I contacted a couple schools I'm interested in, finding out which AS would transfer over the smoothest to their particular courses.