Ryan
I am going to be going to a 4 year university, and these are the two majors I will possibly be persuing. I need help on deciding to get one or the other, or both. A little about the program: it is through a well known university, that has a business school with a really good reputation. Both CS and CIS are considered "smaller" majors where there isn't as much competition and focus because it seems like everyone is a business major or some type of medical major. With that being said, it is definately possible to double major in the two of them because it is not like a CS major at MIT where it is one of the most competitive programs.
My goal is to be able to do freelance work and work on my own projects by my junior/senior year. I am interested in mobile development, web app development, and just general programming for problem solving. Eventually I want to get into the start up scene as a mobile platform developer. I feel if I majored in CS, I would have plenty of time to do this type of stuff on the side. On the other hand if I double majored I think I would be much more employable if I was looking to do corporate work for a while before getting into the startup scene. And from a third take, many of the CIS classes actually focus on things that I think would be useful even with a start up (database construction and analysis etc.)
Opinions?
Answer
To give you the background - There are several main Computer majors and their associated career categories and you need to know these just to get the lay of the land. Now some of the titles colleges use may consist of different course curriculums. As an example one school may have more programming classes in the same major while another school has fewer. Schools may call their general IT program Computer Information Technology, Computer Information Systems or Computer Information Science. To really tell what the major is about you should look at the courses that a particular school offers in that major. If this is info that you already know, apologies. Here are the majors:
Computer Science (CS) - A technical degree which usually has a Programming emphasis - people with this major usually are developing application software, web development, embedded code and robotics. Sometimes depending on the college the degree may cover some more general topics as listed under CIS below. CS is a difficult area major. Many CS students find themselves not enjoying programming or not having the math and logic skills to be good at programming and switch out into CIS.
Computer Information Systems (CIS) This is a general technical degree and is the degree that I have. Holders of these degree work in a variety of technical jobs like these:
Computer Technician, Service Center Coordinator, Help Desk Staff, Storage Administrator, Network Administrator, Systems Administrator, Systems Engineer, Enterprise Administrator, Active Directory Administrator, Exchange and Messaging Administrator, Backup Administrator, Disaster Recovery Specialist, Database Administrator, Computing Security Specialist, Corporate IT Acquisition Specialist and Data Center Administrator, just to name a few.
Computer Engineering - This is a technical engineering and design degree. These degree holders get jobs related to designing and manufacturing computer related hardware.
Management Information Systems (MIS) - This is a business degree that prepares non-technically trained people to manage projects, budgets and people. Traditionally, senior IT technical pros would eventually be promoted into management positions after years of technical work. The good news is they understood technical challenges their people were working with but the bad news was that some were great tech people but poor people managers. The idea with the MIS degree is to provide business training that is slanted towards managing IT work. Business Colleges like to offer this degree because management principles change must less frequently that technical info where there is always a new operating system or new programming language. This means they can have the same classes, same books and same course titles year after year. In a technical major the technology changes very fast. I have had both types of managers and the new trend is definitely towards these non-technical managers. A lot of them are showing up in the large company I work for.
Personally, I enjoy technical work more than management - I can do programming and do a little bit of that with scripting that I do but I would not like doing that every day - all day.
Best wishes!
To give you the background - There are several main Computer majors and their associated career categories and you need to know these just to get the lay of the land. Now some of the titles colleges use may consist of different course curriculums. As an example one school may have more programming classes in the same major while another school has fewer. Schools may call their general IT program Computer Information Technology, Computer Information Systems or Computer Information Science. To really tell what the major is about you should look at the courses that a particular school offers in that major. If this is info that you already know, apologies. Here are the majors:
Computer Science (CS) - A technical degree which usually has a Programming emphasis - people with this major usually are developing application software, web development, embedded code and robotics. Sometimes depending on the college the degree may cover some more general topics as listed under CIS below. CS is a difficult area major. Many CS students find themselves not enjoying programming or not having the math and logic skills to be good at programming and switch out into CIS.
Computer Information Systems (CIS) This is a general technical degree and is the degree that I have. Holders of these degree work in a variety of technical jobs like these:
Computer Technician, Service Center Coordinator, Help Desk Staff, Storage Administrator, Network Administrator, Systems Administrator, Systems Engineer, Enterprise Administrator, Active Directory Administrator, Exchange and Messaging Administrator, Backup Administrator, Disaster Recovery Specialist, Database Administrator, Computing Security Specialist, Corporate IT Acquisition Specialist and Data Center Administrator, just to name a few.
Computer Engineering - This is a technical engineering and design degree. These degree holders get jobs related to designing and manufacturing computer related hardware.
Management Information Systems (MIS) - This is a business degree that prepares non-technically trained people to manage projects, budgets and people. Traditionally, senior IT technical pros would eventually be promoted into management positions after years of technical work. The good news is they understood technical challenges their people were working with but the bad news was that some were great tech people but poor people managers. The idea with the MIS degree is to provide business training that is slanted towards managing IT work. Business Colleges like to offer this degree because management principles change must less frequently that technical info where there is always a new operating system or new programming language. This means they can have the same classes, same books and same course titles year after year. In a technical major the technology changes very fast. I have had both types of managers and the new trend is definitely towards these non-technical managers. A lot of them are showing up in the large company I work for.
Personally, I enjoy technical work more than management - I can do programming and do a little bit of that with scripting that I do but I would not like doing that every day - all day.
Best wishes!
Info on Animation(Job)?
iFreak
I would like some information on being an animator(like making anime shows and things like that). I want to know about the training/education it takes to earn a degree in that field. Also, I would like to know of any schools that offer this training and, if you know, what the costs are. Just a general rage. If this job has any benefits, and what the salary range is. If you have more information that would be useful, please let me know. :3
Answer
Education and training: a 4 years bachelor's degree on animation would be most common, however, 2D animation (like anime) is very hard to make a living off of in America. Currently 3D animation is a stable job, and thus, most animators learn computer animation. My brother decides to learn two more years of computer animation after his animation courses of 4 years.
A good school in Ontario for it is Sheridan college, well known for their animation courses. Even presidents of Pixar and dreamworks visit this school. The cost for Scheridan animation course per year is $7000 but don't forget that you need money for apartment or dorms, food, and art supplies(including a computer and a laptop recommended as well.
hmmm.. my brother is in that field so he knows more but he isn't here right now so that's all i got to say
hope this helped
Education and training: a 4 years bachelor's degree on animation would be most common, however, 2D animation (like anime) is very hard to make a living off of in America. Currently 3D animation is a stable job, and thus, most animators learn computer animation. My brother decides to learn two more years of computer animation after his animation courses of 4 years.
A good school in Ontario for it is Sheridan college, well known for their animation courses. Even presidents of Pixar and dreamworks visit this school. The cost for Scheridan animation course per year is $7000 but don't forget that you need money for apartment or dorms, food, and art supplies(including a computer and a laptop recommended as well.
hmmm.. my brother is in that field so he knows more but he isn't here right now so that's all i got to say
hope this helped
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