Do I want a degree in CS or MIS?

Question

I'm a junior right now and have been thinking lately is CS really the route for me or would MIS be the better route?

I've been lucky enough to been taken into a development team and it's given me some insight and quite frankly I know I don't need a CS degree for what I currently do, or maybe it's not that I don't need a CS degree, may be it's just overkill?

The work I do is mostly c#, MsSQL, starting to pickup on SL2. With these tools all I do is manipulate data, data in, data out. I love what I do and it sounds like MIS would be a great degree for me..

Are there any developers out there who hold a MIS degree and wish they would've stuck with a CS degree?

If you have a degree in MIS how much do you code?

Answer 1

Don't get either. Go into business. Of all the CS developers I know, they say they could have guided their learning interest independently. Of all the MIS people I know, they feel their degree is worthless.

This is all contingent upon the school you go to though.

Answer 2

This is just a generalization, but I think a CS degree will open more doors to software development jobs, and an MIS degree might open more doors to more of a system or database administration job. MIS might give you more practical skills in systems, whereas CS might give you more theory.

Answer 3

I was in the exact same boat about 5 years ago. I followed through with the CS degree when many of my friends/co-students switched to the MIS degree. I’m really glad I stuck with the CS degree just because I don’t feel like I gave up on myself. Ultimately, it’s up to you; the degree (either) will get you an interview. Your enthusiasm about technology and knowledge/skill set you develop with independent studies will get you a job. Best of luck.

Just my opinion: stay with the CS degree.

Answer 4

Bottom line, you have to learn about something and educate yourself within the context of your interests and passions, period.

Since you are asking this question you may not truly want either. Sit back, and do some soul/passion searching. Then, if there is a degree that offers education along the lines of what you truly enjoy then go for it by all means, or self teach of course.

Answer 5

You should find out if your school has a Software Engineering program.

CS is good for writing software, but it gets into a lot of the math and science behind how things work. You'll probably never care about the internals of an OS or the Pumping Lemma (God knows I don't) but you'll definitely better programmer for it.

SE, however, focuses a lot more on design and teamwork than on the underlying principles. You'll learn to design systems, write proper documentation and requirements docs... and how to write code.

MIS is probably the worst choice if you want to remain in software development. MIS is all about managing hardware, building/maintaining networks and servers basically. I put out a help wanted ad for an entry level programming job, and every candidate was an MIS grad. Not one of them could write a simple query against a database. You'll take a basic programming course or two, but you'll never learn how to write good software in an MIS program.

Also you may love "data in, data out" now but it will get boring eventually. You'll want new challenges and you'll want to write bigger and better programs. CIS or SE will most likely help you with that far more than MIS would.

Answer 6

When I was a working developer I knew people with both degrees. From what I gathered people who can handle the math and more intense classes went for the CS degree, and those who couldn't went for the MIS degree. It was just easier.

I was a slacker in junior high and high school (playing in bands and drinking beer was more important at the time), so during my short time in college I did not go for the CS degree because I just didn't have the background in math.

If you have the aptitude and a decent background in math, go for the CS degree. I would if I had it to do over again. :)

Answer 7

It might not matter all that much, and I think it's more about what you do with the degree than the particular degree you get.

I did a CS degree, and work with other programmers that did a CIS degree (similar to MIS). There's not much of a difference between what we know, and what we do from day to day.

If you're interested in and like taking business courses, then MIS is ever bit as good. Your ability to communicate and persuade is just as important as your programming skills, and you may learn more things about communication in an MIS program.

Answer 8

MIS is some sort of CS/Business hybrid. Essentially, it's people who have business and technology knowledge and who work towards finding applications of technology in the world of business to streamline current operations. These are the people that work in IT management, hardware or software sales reps, telecommunications planning, database management, GUI design and etc. Essentially, anything that has a direct relationship with the business world and interaction with clients, these are the guys you want. They are your business/tech gurus. They are not to be confused with software engineers! CS is, obviously, theory. You're looking at working designing and analyzing systems, data mining, software integration, security (integration, management and administration) and etc. These guys will know everything there is to know about technology and its implementation. They generally know very little about the business side of things.

So what it comes down to is what you'd rather do: plan and manage or analyze, design, and support.

The truth is that you can still do software development with your MIS degree, which is probably a bad bad thing. But the current state of the industry is that you can be a business major and still write code. So... what gives.

Answer 9

The degree you should seek really depends on what you love doing. Computer Scientists enjoy solving abstract problems, tinkering with algorithms, and pushing boundaries. Often, they tend to view common programming tasks as routine and boring, and seek more stimulating problems to solve. It turns out that solid understanding of theory actually helps a great deal when it comes down to writing code.

Claiming that a business degree is the best idea is barking up the wrong tree in this case. Programmers who claim they could have learned Computer Science on their own are usually code monkeys, not Computer Scientists. While there are certainly great opportunities for tech-savvy businessmen, it's not the same as business-savvy technologists (an oxymoron in all but a few cases). Programming languages are easy to learn — programming concepts, algorithms, and theory are much more difficult to master.

Although your responsibilities on a development team are currently simple, you'll find that if you want to move to positions where broader overarching technical decisions are made, a more technical background becomes increasingly valuable.

Answer 10

+1 for a good question. I can't tell you how many times my co-workers and I have had this same conversation.

I went for the MIS degree over the CS degree and in my experience I find that I do have to work harder to catch/keep up on my technical knowledge, but I think that the knowledge that I gained on the business end makes up for that.

I feel that the MIS degree was definitely more generalized than what I've heard of CS. The way I understand it, MIS is designed to give the student more of an overview of many different areas so that they can use that knowledge to make managerial type decisions in the future. CS seems to be more focused on the theory and diving much deeper into specific topics. I think the goal of the MIS degree is to know that the technologies exist and have an basic idea of what they do instead of knowing everything about one particular technology.

I look at MIS as understanding what the business needs and that a technical solution can be done, but if you can't figure out how to get it done, then get with CS guy. :)

Answer 11

As someone who personally left CS to go into MIS/College of Business let me ask you a few questions:

1. Do you have a solid foundation in programming or a passion and aptitude for self learning?
2. Are you more interested in being a "heads down" programmer or do you have aspirations to go into management or client facing positions?

I started programming on my commodore 64 when I was like 10. By the time I got to college and started CS, I already knew pascal, c++, and BASIC. After two semesters in CS I discovered that while some of the foundational theory was interesting, I wasn't really reaping the skill increases that one would expect for tens of thousands of dollars in investment (tuition).

I switched to MIS, got to take finance, accounting, ops management, marketing, statistics as well as some programming and database languages. Entering the IT field I started as an entry level programmer. However, the companies that employed me quickly found that I was not only someone who could sling code, but I could walk into a meeting with business people and not only communicate with them in their language and understand business issues, but also break down technical concepts into language they could understand.

Long story short, being technical but also business savvy landed me multiple promotions across companies and in less than 5 years I had more than tripled my starting salary and was in a lead/management position.

So in summation, if you have technical aptitude already and want to be face to face with the movers and shakers in a business setting, go get those business classes. If you just want to code and have no interest in soft skills, stay CS.

Answer 12

Hi, Im Studying manegemnt of information systems.(My second year) So, after getting my undergraduate degree in MIS, Im plnannigt study master of computer science. I just would like to learn your opinions about if it would be a good combination or not? Have a nice day!!

Answer 13

MIS is a great degree for anyone who is interested in both Business and Technology

Answer 14

Cs is my choice and if ur good at studies. In my college, cs is for people that have better grades. People drop cs in diploma to go to other courses including mis is just to avoid maths. But ultimately, it is up to you, follow your heart and most important do what you like, what you're passionate about. Then move on and never look back.

Answer 15

I would say that you should go for a degree that is in an area which you are currently interested in but gives enough scope for you to broaden your horizons.

I think that there are not too many people (my opinion) who know at your age (junior in college) what they are going to be doing for the rest of their life. Even for the ones who do know, i dont think that all of them necessarily will do it. Hell...lots of people my age whom i know (where my college days are nothing more than a fond memory of the past) still are trying to figure out what they want to do.

Points i am trying to make are :-

1. Just because you think you want to be a programmer right now doesnt mean you will be one always.

2. I have a CS degree and while i think it definitely opens more doors than maybe an MIS one, I personally think that if i could go back and do a course which was more broader than narrower in terms of its choice of subjects and topics, it might have given me a completely different perspective of what i wanted to do with the rest of my life.

3. Like someone said above, it depends a lot on the school you are doing it in. Do some research on the elective courses offered by the school. Irrespective of whether you choose CS / MIS /something else, try and pick a school where you have more Breadth rather than depth in choice of subjects (The reason i prefer breadth is because though i learnt assembly programming and did it for 2 years in college on various processors, today, as a C# .NET programmer, its really not very relevant to my work)

Remember that even though your BS/MS might be your last degree, in this job, you never stop studying!!

Answer 16

I've been lucky enough to been taken into a development team and it's given me some insight and quite frankly I know I don't need a CS degree for what I currently do, or maybe it's not that I don't need a CS degree, may be it's just overkill?

I have worked hard to be a developer without a degree and have had many positions but I can tell you it’s something that has always held me back. I am currently going back to get my CS degree because without it I am stuck in my current position (Title & Pay wise), while I am doing work that some of the Sr. Software Engineers can’t. From my experience, CS degree = Faster Career Advancement.