College Majors? Math vs. Software Engineering?
 

Which would be a better major in college for a job in the computer field? Computational Mathematics or Software Engineering? Would it be better to have a major is Software Engineering and a minor in Comp. Math? What about double majors with the Comp. Math as the secondary major? Other thoughts?

I am student, and cannot advice you. However, I would like to suggest you to check the job oppurtunities prevailing these days, the demand of type of job, and the job satisfaction in the two fields. In addition, I feel, a field that is evolving is Software Engineering and will continue to evovle. Math is not something that evolves or requires evolution but by and large is very very important if a person is in Computer Science or allied field.

I am doing BSc I.T. at Mumbai university, Maharashtra.

ok, thanks. I'm a sophmore in high school, and am considering options. Other thoughts?

It depends. What do you want to do? If you think you can manage two majors, do it! It'd rather go for math as secondary, but if you prefer pure maths, make it primary.

Select the math always when it is possible. Every CS is built on math "fundament", and if you know and understand math you can understand EVERY techical discipline quite fastly. Math is the great science. After this you wll have to be smarter than that software eng. students very much and know more

Math graduates are always in demand, it's a tough degree and gets you the basics you need to do a LOT of different things. I would choose the Maths one.

I agree!!!! Math!!! Math!!! Math!!!

If you can get that down then everything else just seems to come a little easier, accept spelling that is...

KC

was that intentional? :)

I'm planning on doing software engineering, but I'd like to also do math. My plan was to do math as a minor or as the secondary major. So the impression I've gotten is that math is what I should do :). Other thoughts?

Intentioanal.... Well just saying I am a bad speller in general.

Anyway, Yes, A major in SW eng. would look great on paper. All I am saying is that everyting I have ever gotten myself into, I have neede math at one point or another. It can be fun too! NOT!

KC

Appropriately enough, I have a B.S. in Math and a M.S. in software engineering.

Math is an excellent choice, if you can hack it. Coming out of school, you can get hired to do almost any science or engineering displine. Employers figure if you can learn math, you can learn what they want to teach you. Half of my first job out of college was EE stuff, even though I had no coursework beyond freshman physics in the area.

SE is a highly specialized field. Without an understanding of Computer Science, it seems worthless. (I'm assuming that it is true SE - the study of the entire software process from Requirments Analysis through Maintence, not just a new name for Computer Science). Its almost all paperwork and crap like that. It limits your options much more than even plain old CS.

My advice - go for math.

so math as the primary(or only) major, and SE as a minor? What about a job in programming? will you get hired with a math degree?

If you have a math degree and a couple classes in CS or SE you should not have trouble getting hired as a programmer (assuming your grades and all other factors are OK).

You may not (depending on your school) have to decide right away - the freshman ciriculum for both majors is likely to be similar, a SE major will have to take math classes, and a math major will have to take science electives - which usually can be CS classes.

With good knoweledge of math you'll be very cool programmer

Well you need to consider if your actually getting an engineering degree your not limited to your field. I am going on internship next month for a 12 month work term. I will be responsible for working with real time operating system and doing some hardware debugging. The work involves digital signal processing, digital light processing, and a variety of telecommunications technologies. As you can see i will be performing work that is not really in my field of work but the engineering degree gives me the flexibility to work a little bit everywhere on anything.

PS: I am a 3rd year engineering student with a major in software. :) Hence i might be biased. ;)

No. If you want to get a job as a PROGRAMMER/DEVELOPER a computer science degree would be more in demand than a math degree. I KNOW you can get many jobs with a math degree, but lets not shit ourselves here, a comp. sci degree IS a programming degree. If you know you want to program, go comp. sci.

You dont need to be THAT good at math to program, especially at a first/second/some third year university level.