IT Degree or Computer Science ?? (1 Viewer)

[kietkiet]

I'm in year 12 atm planning to goto Newcastle University and i cannot decide which degree i want to pursue, all i know is that i love computers. I would love to learn all the programming/coding/computing maths in Computer Science, but the multimedia subjects and 7 (outside) electives in the IT Degree sound really good to me.

However, after talking to a couple of teachers. They told me that an IT Degree is the "lowest" form of education in the computer industry and that a Computer Science degree is recognised more highly. (Their words not mine).

So what i was wondering was ... Which degree do you guys suggest ? and what are the career prospects of that degree ?

 

[kietkiet]

bump

 

[GoldyOrNugget]

Computer science is very maths-oriented. You will have the opportunity to learn things like cryptography, linear algebra, artificial intelligence, etc. IT is more about networking, database management, fixing computer issues, etc. If you aren't a strong maths student you probably shouldn't do computer science.

 

[brent012]

They told me that an IT Degree is the "lowest" form of education in the computer industry and that a Computer Science degree is recognised more highly. (Their words not mine).

That distinction goes to a Cert 4 in IT. But yes, in terms of degrees IT could be considered the lowest form of education. In addition to Computer Science there is also Software Engineering to think about.

 

[witide]

Computer science will most likely give you more flexibility with what you want to do, but it can depend on the university. Software engineering might be more what you're after, with it being more about the implementation and design of software solutions.

 

[mohitwali]

It and computer science are almost same

 

[brent012]

It and computer science are almost same

Definitely not. They may often result in similar jobs but they are different.

 

[ronniewalker]

In todays scenario IT will be beneficial. I am talking about job perspective.

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[Jikky]

what if one isn't strong in coding? is computer science going to be too difficult? or do they teach you methodology and the thought processes needed to design and develop a software solution? I'm keen on programming, but I don't seem to be all that great at algorithms and such.. :l

 

[witide]

what if one isn't strong in coding? is computer science going to be too difficult? or do they teach you methodology and the thought processes needed to design and develop a software solution? I'm keen on programming, but I don't seem to be all that great at algorithms and such.. :l

Computer Science is what the name implies: the science of computers. You don't learn how to code, you learn the underlying principles of computer systems. If you want to learn to code, read a book or go to TAFE. Engineering is geared more towards the design and implementation of problems, and as such, Software Engineering will teach you the process of solving software problems.

 

[Jikky]

Computer Science is what the name implies: the science of computers. You don't learn how to code, you learn the underlying principles of computer systems. If you want to learn to code, read a book or go to TAFE. Engineering is geared more towards the design and implementation of problems, and as such, Software Engineering will teach you the process of solving software problems.

Thank you for clearing that up. I always thought Comp Sci. was based around coding and that IT was based upon hardware and networking, guess I didn't look hard enough. Which course do you think, however, will provide the greater job prospects for the future?

Thanks once more.

 

[witide]

Thank you for clearing that up. I always thought Comp Sci. was based around coding and that IT was based upon hardware and networking, guess I didn't look hard enough. Which course do you think, however, will provide the greater job prospects for the future?

Thanks once more.

Each degree will have a large common area, so you really can't go wrong with either. It also depends on the university for how they are structured. In my opinion though, an accredited engineering degree will always be the best in terms of job prospects, and a science degree more directed towards higher research. If you want to get the best of both worlds though, you can always do a combined degree.

IT tends to have a bad name because it also refers to the IT trade, which you can do without a degree and at most some TAFE study. I personally didn't choose it because it doesn't have the flexibility of a science degree or the depth of an engineering degree.

 

[NMK]

Each degree will have a large common area, so you really can't go wrong with either. It also depends on the university for how they are structured. In my opinion though, an accredited engineering degree will always be the best in terms of job prospects, and a science degree more directed towards higher research. If you want to get the best of both worlds though, you can always do a combined degree.

This isn't really true for computing, because there isn't really a widely known and accepted definition for computer science. For some universities, the computer science degree is just a catch-all for people who want to do computing but aren't prepared to take the more rigorous software engineering program. For some universities, the software engineering is just the computer science degree with some (arguably useless) courses tacked on. For some universities, computer science implies taking higher mathematics or electrical engineering courses - or both. For some universities, the "IT degree" is the most challenging computing program they offer (in terms of the computer science content), and in others, the least.

You really need to have a look at the courses you need to take to find the differences between them, if any. It's definitely possible (and not uncommon) to graduate from a computer science degree and know anything about cryptography, linear algebra or artificial intelligence.


If you want to consider job prospects right now, then far and away "being able to problem solve using code" trumps "being able to configure networks" currently (my opinion is that this is unlikely to change, but this is just my opinion). But you need to consider that a degree isn't always necessary to get a job in either of these fields, and getting a degree won't guarantee that you'll be able to get one either.

 

[witide]

Yep. I think I mentioned earlier it depends on each university. My experience is from USYD, which is more aligned with what I wrote.

 

[360]

At UoN there isn't a whole lot of maths in the computer science degree. You do 3 math courses in the first year and that IS IT! One of them isn't even difficult and covers a lot of probability and basic logic concept stuff. You cover java and c++ in the first year when it comes to programming, and other courses will teach you logic/switches/1st year electrical/computer engineering courses. You also do a course which covers html/css etc. That is essentially the first year of the computer science degree at Newcastle (what you're looking at).

I did terribly in mathematics at high school and still came out OK last year when I did computer science, just apply yourself.

To answer your question directly, I would recommend computer science above IT for sure. After computer science you can do quite a bit of what the IT students will have learnt throughout their degrees but it will not work vice versa. You will have a much more sound knowledge of the process behind the hardware and software rather than just how to interface with them.

But in terms of variety, they both offer a wide range of career options.

 

[MrBrightside]

I'm in year 12 atm planning to goto Newcastle University and i cannot decide which degree i want to pursue, all i know is that i love computers. I would love to learn all the programming/coding/computing maths in Computer Science, but the multimedia subjects and 7 (outside) electives in the IT Degree sound really good to me.

However, after talking to a couple of teachers. They told me that an IT Degree is the "lowest" form of education in the computer industry and that a Computer Science degree is recognised more highly. (Their words not mine).

So what i was wondering was ... Which degree do you guys suggest ? and what are the career prospects of that degree ?

From a very summarised perspective, yes that is true.

CS/Soft Eng/Comp Eng degrees are more world renowned, especially in the US. There's a certain structure to them which all universities must teach. (Though, some universities may vary slightly, their core content is likely to be pretty much the same, i.e. algorithms, math theorems, data structures, programming and CS majors). I would go as far to say, that CS degrees without a doubt, are highly respected more than pure IT degrees at big companies such as Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter etc for Software engineering / technical based roles, since they are primarily software engineering based companies.

IT on the other hand is more broad than CS (less specialised) and the content is more varied, i.e. less of a standard course structure across universities - some teach it as mostly a business degree with a little tech thrown in (UNSW), some teach it with half tech, half businessy (UTS), and some teach it as a CS degree (USyd, Macquarie, Monash), you do a wide range of technical subjects such as programming, networking and server configuration, though you don't necessarily learn data structures and algorithms as a part of core curriculum, meaning, you would most likely have to elective in more technical subjects if you wanted to go down the technical route, but even then, you're limiting yourself to your elective count, whereas a CS degree is 3 years of pure technical content, about how computers function at their lowest levels.

IT touches on some CS 101 concepts, but that's about it, the rest is more report writing and diagram drawing for documenting software / system specifications. It's more high level Information System documentation and communication more than anything else. Though some universities will actually market a CS degree under the 'IT' title, such as Monash (in Melbourne) and Macquarie Uni -though that's pretty rare. As a Googler put it once, IT is like having one foot in the technical world, and one in the business world. Refer to my post about BIT and BScIT at UTS here.

Both degrees will open doors for you, and sometimes even the same doors, but at the end of the day, pick whichever one you see most fit with your interests, it will help a hell of a lot.

My advice as an IT student.

 

[Baldy-95]

I'm planning on going to university at newcastle as well.
Considering what I have read here I'll reconsider computer science instead of information technology. Seems more interesting and as specified by Mr Brightside as more highly respectable.

I also can't see any negatives besides the lacking of the business aspects either. I'd rather keep the report writing and diagram drawing for documenting software / system specifications to a minimum and more code and depth instead. Thanks for the information guys.

 

[MrBrightside]

I'm planning on going to university at newcastle as well.
Considering what I have read here I'll reconsider computer science instead of information technology. Seems more interesting and as specified by Mr Brightside as more highly respectable.

I also can't see any negatives besides the lacking of the business aspects either. I'd rather keep the report writing and diagram drawing for documenting software / system specifications to a minimum and more code and depth instead. Thanks for the information guys.

Yeah, the business side (modelling/diagramming specifications) of IT seems purely pointless and you feel worthless when doing it for assignments, [Sometimes I just think they had to throw it in, because there's nothing else they could teach us, without getting too technical] - Though I suppose if maths/analytical skills is your weak spot, than an IT course is probably more shaped for you - but hey, why not challenge yourself and reap in greater rewards? (I wanted to do Comp Sci or Comp Eng back when leaving school, but my mind was split between CS and this IT Scholarship course offering 1 year industry experience). I'm thinking of doing Masters after my Bachelors, since I feel that I need to learn more technical knowledge, and need that 'respectable' certification for when applying at big tech companies.

If you want a solid business backing as well, do a double degree or sub-major in business, IT doesn't teach you business concepts, from a business aspect, IT merely just teaches you how to model business' requirements on existing and new process-flows, ERDs, sequences etc of how a new system ought to run. Think of it as documentation which is catered for all sorts of perspectives; i.e. end-user business client, Developers, Project Managers. It gets really ridiculous pretty quickly, (and sometimes I don't know why the hell I'm here doing an IT degree). If you look at all of the major big tech companies or language creators / coders (Google, Facebook, Apple, MS) they all (if not, most), have some form of a technical CS/SENG/CENG backing or a self-taught one way or another with technical resources.

tl;dr: a CS/SENG/CENG degree will get you further, faster, if you want to work in the realms of technical coding or hardware circulatory design. If you want to know the whys and hows of how low-level components function, then go down this route.

IT is more maintenance type work (server config, DB setup, documentation), using existing applications, with the occasion of writing your own sometimes (if you're a Developer). I would consider IT degrees if you haven't already made up your mind as to what you want to be. IT is broad enough to let you move between soft-business documentation type roles and technical (programming or networking) ones, without going through all of the heavy math theorems. (Note: some unis market CS as IT, so best to check their individual course structures). I have a mate at Macquarie uni doing CS-level math subjects, but he's in an IT degree, USyd IT is the same.

CS/SENG/CENG degrees will more often than not, let you do IT jobs without a hitch, though the same cannot be said for IT doing specific niche engineering (CS/SENG/CENG) type jobs.

 

[mrob5204]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425951,00.asp

 

[hsc3hard5me]

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2425951,00.asp

Why do amazon need software engineers? (srs)