Does it make sense to have a B.A. in Business and then go for an MSc. in Computer Science?

Question

Yes or No? Why?

Let me clarify why I am asking:

Would it be a 'weird' choice in the eyes of interviewers that somebody doesn't go for a Bachelor CS foundation, but later did the MSc? And is the MSc much more difficult than the BSc in CS?

Answer 1

I guess it makes sense if you already have a B.A. in business and you want a MSc. in CS.

EDIT: I don't see why it would seem "weird." If you got the degree, then clearly you made up for your missing undergraduate experience successfully one way or the other.

Answer 2

Business/Management degrees are overrated — the best way to learn this stuff is by doing it, which you won't, at a school.

A CS degree on the other hand, is much more useful.

Answer 3

Most probably, the B.A. in Business won't give you the background you would prefer to have for an M.Sc. in Computer Science.

Answer 4

I'd steer clear of any school that would accept you for an MSc in Comp. Sci. with no solid scientific background.

Answer 5

A person with a B.A. in Business is going to be missing a lot of the courses that provide a foundation for the M.S. degree in computer science. It may be doable, but you might end up having to take enough remedial courses that going back for a second B.S. in CS might be better as a first step. If the first degree was in math or computer engineering, it might make more sense. This assumes that you haven't picked up the necessary background/experience on your own to make up for the lack of CS coursework.

Answer 6

Would it be a 'weird' choice in the eyes of interviewers that somebody doesn't go for a Bachelor CS foundation, but later did the MSc? And is the MSc much more difficult than the BSc in CS?

No. Plenty of very famous members of the technology crowd have degrees that have nothing to do with their field -- for example, Carly Fiorina, the former head of Hewlett-Packard, was a philosophy and medieval history major. College is what you make of it, and if all you got out of it was a degree, then you didn't use it very effectively.

Answer 7

Depends on what you got and what you want to do when you're done at some point.

If you already got a Business/Management degree, and want to work with CS, do the CS!

If you haven't got any of them yet, a Business/Management degree + a CS degree would take a lot of years to get. However, when you're done, you got a lot of potential working as a projectleader after a few years of programming.

Answer 8

I beliebe both business and programming are stuff you learn indeed doing that, but you can get yourself to learn considerably faster if you have already theoretical knowledge of them.

Also, I think the market is needing computer scientists that have a good eye on the business, and the BA might help. At the same time, it needs managers who have technical knowledge.

IMHO, learning both is a good idea, but I think you should get really good on at least one of them. Also, if you learn both, it will be much easier to change your job if you change your mind

Answer 9

Through my own life experience in job hunting I found that hands on experience trumps degrees. That being said a BS or BA will get you in the door before a candidate without one. I did not have a BS or BA during my last job hunt and get immediately ingnored. Once I was able to get in, since I had 5+ years of programming experience and 10+ years of accounting experience I stood out over the fresh out of school BS and BA candidates. I don't think a M. Sc would be any better then a BS or BA unless you were applying to be CIO.

Answer 10

In my experience, the M.S. is not simply a harder substitute for an undergraduate degree in some software related major. It builds on your existing knowledge of the craft to make you a specialist in some area of computer science.

Without that existing knowledge (which could come from experience, although you'd probably have to make a strong case to the university where you're applying), I doubt you'd be successful in grad school. And if you have no interest in a more research-oriented career, I'm not sure how useful that degree would be.

Answer 11

I don't know if I would approach this from the perspective of the viewpoint of an interviewer. Look at where you want to take your career and what would make the most sense for you personally. In my opinion jumping from a business degree to a computer science masters degree would be a difficult leap and would require some siginficant extra course load to obtain the prerequisites necessary for many of the upper level CS courses.

If you are interested in computer science but would like to pursue a management level position in a technical organization/department, getting a CS degree (at whatever level you wish) and following it up with an MBA might make the most sense.

If on the other hand you are really interested in business/finance and also have a knack for computer science and really want to persue a specialized career in computational finance then perhaps starting with the business degree to get the domain knowledge and then pursuing the CS masters might be the route to go.

I guess the point I'm trying to make is that you should probably take a good look at what you want to do with your degrees and what, educationally, works out best for your own interests and ways of learning. Don't worry too much about the interview question or its apeparance on the resume; an earned degree is an earned degree. A C.S. masters is no less valuable/credible for someone that had a B.A. in fine arts as it would be for someone that had a B.S. in computer engineering.

Answer 12

I've interviewed candidates with both, but most have CS degree first. I can think of some hiring manages that will think of that as refreshing, as long and you can code well. I think it depends on your personality and how you explain it to the hiring manager. Are you a geek developer or are you broader and have more interest in the business side. Did you change your mind? The biggest issue is why you chose it first. Did you realize that Business was your first love in college and then change your mind or vica-versa. If you can convince the interviewer that this was the plan from the start then I think you can make a good case for it.

Once that is communicated the conversations will go to who you are, your passion, you experiences and what you can do, they will forget about degree.

Best of luck!

Answer 13

Forget about what it would look like. What do you want to do?

Answer 14

Others have mentioned this in passing, but let me make it more explicit. A good M.S. program in C.S. will expect you to already know material equivalent to about the junior year of a B.S. in C.S.. Things like discrete math, algorithms, fundamentals of operating systems, and language design. It isn't necessarily harder, but it is cumulative. If you can't demonstrate knowledge of these areas, they probably are going to make you take remedial courses before they admit you.