Master's in Computer Science

[tmoney61]

Hello Forum, 

I am new here but have maybe an interesting question. I now have a bachelor's in applied mathematics and applied statistics degrees. I graduated with a 3.92 and a 4.0 with my degrees. I do know multiple languages but because of my degrees the languages I know such as python, R, SAS etc do not really help me with computer science as a whole. Because of my history as well,  I am not the best computer science major but because of my GPA and GRE scores and performance I am able to get into any computer science masters program i want to. I know I will have to take the 5 remedial classes but I truly want to know how hard will it be to transition to a graduate program in computer science without having a bachelors in it. Should I get another bachelors or go straight to grad school with computer science. What will be my obstacles and do you think it is a very easy transition. 

 

thank you in advance, 

Tom 

[Prometheus]

There are topics in computer science that a background in statistics would be ideally suited for. Something like machine learning has a lot of overlap with statistics (though there's debate over their similarities/differences). Guess it depends on what problems in computer you want to work on and how much the programme focuses on aspects you are not familiar with. It's probably best to ask the person in charge of the programme - they will know exactly what it entails.

[Sensei]

On 7/6/2019 at 7:30 AM, tmoney61 said:

I am new here but have maybe an interesting question. I now have a bachelor's in applied mathematics and applied statistics degrees. I graduated with a 3.92 and a 4.0 with my degrees. I do know multiple languages but because of my degrees the languages I know such as python, R, SAS etc do not really help me with computer science as a whole. Because of my history as well,  I am not the best computer science major but because of my GPA and GRE scores and performance I am able to get into any computer science masters program i want to. I know I will have to take the 5 remedial classes but I truly want to know how hard will it be to transition to a graduate program in computer science without having a bachelors in it. Should I get another bachelors or go straight to grad school with computer science. What will be my obstacles and do you think it is a very easy transition.

Professional IT company HR doesn't bother and does not pay special attention to what bachelor you have or not have in CV.

They will give you one or couple of exercises from websites like:

https://www.coderbyte.com/

Internet disabled during making exercises!

Here is list of such websites for coders with challenges (they're often used by HR of IT company, for quick verification of competences of employee-to-be)

https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/the-10-most-popular-coding-challenge-websites-of-2016-fb8a5672d22f/

..if you won't be able to solve them, game over.. regardless of your education..

 

Edited July 19, 2019 by Sensei

[Klaynos]

As someone who recruits graduate and postgraduate scientists and software engineers, I would look favourably on a mathematics background. But that's because a lot of the tasks we solve are mathematical in nature. 

I don't think you should have much of an issue applying your skills, you may find you need to do more background reading than your peers who have a compsci background.