Davidboy's question

Hi. I found this thread via intensive google searching. I know it is nearly a year old but please give me some feedback on my situation. I am a junior who is transferring to a Uni in a couple weeks.

Like the OP, I am stressing out over deciding on my major. I went the business route in CC and all of my pre-reqs allow me to focus on any business major (except for IB). I originally wanted to major in management and then accounting. I however changed my mind upon discovering the MIS program my school. I have messed with computer since I was 8 and and always been fascinated with technology. I dont know if I will like programming yet but I loved HTML and learned it at 10. I was a pretty big computer nerd back then however I drifted away from computers into high school.

I thought since I have the pre-reqs for business and MIS is part of the business college dept, why not major in MIS? I have a mind for business, management and a strong interest for computers.

Lately however I have been regretting not going the CS route since math is probably by far my best subject. I found calc, stats and algebra easier than many of my liberal arts classes. One thing for sure is, I do NOT want to be a pure developer! The positions I want to pursue include:

systems analyst
Network systems & data communications analyst
business analyst
network & computer systems admin
systems manager (much later down the road)

and...
maybe database admin
maybe QA analyst
maybe a software engineer (either apps or systems software)

There is a high demand for these fields where I live especially for the first 4 listed. Id like to stick to analysis over development. My question is, if I want to pursue one of these careers after graduation, will I be at disadvantage to the CS graduate?

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance

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odysseyelite

davidboy wrote: »

Hi. I found this thread via intensive google searching. I know it is nearly a year old but please give me some feedback on my situation. I am a junior who is transferring to a Uni in a couple weeks.

Like the OP, I am stressing out over deciding on my major. I went the business route in CC and all of my pre-reqs allow me to focus on any business major (except for IB). I originally wanted to major in management and then accounting. I however changed my mind upon discovering the MIS program my school. I have messed with computer since I was 8 and and always been fascinated with technology. I dont know if I will like programming yet but I loved HTML and learned it at 10. I was a pretty big computer nerd back then however I drifted away from computers into high school.

I thought since I have the pre-reqs for business and MIS is part of the business college dept, why not major in MIS? I have a mind for business, management and a strong interest for computers.

Lately however I have been regretting not going the CS route since math is probably by far my best subject. I found calc, stats and algebra easier than many of my liberal arts classes. One thing for sure is, I do NOT want to be a pure developer! The positions I want to pursue include:

systems analyst
Network systems & data communications analyst
business analyst
network & computer systems admin
systems manager (much later down the road)

and...
maybe database admin
maybe QA analyst
maybe a software engineer (either apps or systems software)

There is a high demand for these fields where I live especially for the first 4 listed. Id like to stick to analysis over development. My question is, if I want to pursue one of these careers after graduation, will I be at disadvantage to the CS graduate?

Sorry for the long post and thanks in advance

I was curious why a one year old thread came back to life. Well I'm at work waiting for the day to come to the end. First, let me tell you I have my degree in Information Studies (name changed to Information Technology the next year). I was told this statement and its pretty much true, the degree itself wont make that much differance. Now what I mean is most jobs will list something like "degree required in CS, IS, IT, MIS"

When I was looking at degrees, I was told by a professor of this break down:

CS: programming and device design
MIS: database, programming, or network\system admin roles
At my time they also had a new degree call IS and it was geared towards system admin or atleast marketed that way. If I was going to do i t all over again, I would have stay MIS.

However, in the end as long as I had a degree in a computer related field that was the only thing that matter.

I would stay stick with MIS. If you choose do a minor in CS. I took some electives and they were pretty cool. Get some entry level certs by the time you graduate as well.

davidboy

Thanks for the input. Do you think I can get any of those jobs straight out of college with an MIS degree? I know an internship would help and I will certainly try to get one.

Im 24 and in my junior year (out of school for 3 years) and really dont want to waste any more time.

How many classes did you have to take for the CS minor? Im going to talk to a counselor next week to talk about the possibility of a minor in CS.

Plantwiz

Mod Note:

Davidboy, please start your own thread when you have a question you are looking to have members answer you directly about your situation. I have moved this to allow others to read your question and get back with you.

Odysseyelite - it is helpful (for the ease of reading the forum) to keep the quotes on top of your reply. I have corrected the above post for you this time. Please follow the formatting of quoted text first, followed by your reply below the quoted.

Thanks

PW