I am planning to transfer to UTD in the fall of 2024 after spending two years at Collin College. My goal is to pursue a career in software engineering. Currently, I’m a bit behind in my math courses, needing to complete Calculus 2 and Discrete Mathematics 1 and 2. I’ve heard that it’s still possible to secure a job as a software engineer with an Information Technology Systems (ITS) degree, which could mean I don’t need to complete all these math classes.
I’m trying to decide whether it would be wiser to pursue a degree in Computer Science (CS) or ITS. I’m a bit confused about the differences between ITS and Computer Science. Additionally, I’m curious about how challenging ITS is compared to other business and engineering majors. From my understanding, ITS combines business and computing, while CS is more focused on programming and technical aspects.
Any advice on this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.
Cs is a significantly better degree when it comes to job prospects and salary packages. In cs, you will learn more technical skills that will make you more employable. Cs is a significantly harder degree than ITS but in ITS you need to be close to the top of your class to get a good job whereas with CS you can be in the middle as long as you get your degree.
I didn’t go to UTD for undergrad, but where I went, their version of ITS was full of students who couldn’t cut it in CS. Where the ITS degree will hurt you is if you ever try to go work for a technology company instead of just being in IT for a business.
Which part? A cs degree is better for IT jobs or the class percentile part? I was purely going based of the ut dallas job placement statistics online. @Sea_Flatworm_4884
@indie_loverz ITS, teaches you a lot of IT fundamental roles such as information security, Network engineering, cloud computing, IT infrastructure and you can go into the IT or cybersecurity track that’ll teach you the intricacies of IT, so ITS is a better degree if you want to go into IT or Cybersecurity, and the class percentiles thing is exaggerated lol, I’m no where near an exceptional students and I’ve gotten 4 internship offer lol. And ITS is very versatile in similar mode like CS, however CS is better in prestige and goes A LOT more into details when it comes to pure tech, programming, mathematics, while ITS merely touches on the foundations of those. ( sorry for this long reply !)
Since you’ve actually gone into Informations system degree, I will take your word for it. The only knowledge I have is the research I did when picking out my degree. When I looked online, I was basically found that a cs student can do all the work an ITS student and not the other way around (again, I could be wrong). From what I saw, the ITS students that were getting employed were master students with a CS undergrad going into a management job. Yeah, the percentiles were over exaggerated, but the point I was making is that a larger % of cs students get employment.(Anyway, thanks for the reply. I felt like I learned something) @Sea_Flatworm_4884
@indie_loverz You aren’t wrong about the first part, at all, ITS is basically CS dropout lol, however ITS is a very good alternative too, while CS is for the technical kids, ITS is more for the more business minded tech kid if that makes sense ( so yea the management role definitely makes sense ) however they’re also many opportunities that comes with ITS, literally just last week Friday I had a data science interview with McDonald’s, although the kids at the interview were definitely stronger from the Looks of things, it does show that you can get even solid tech jobs with an ITS degree !
Cs is better for technology, ITS is better for business tech and more versatility, I’m in ITS and I got 4 internships offer, and interviews for variety of roles, from Data analytics, to Supply Chain, to cybersecurity and even Data science. so the job prospects is definitely there. Both are good, but I think CS is better especially if you want a tech role in the future.
@Sea_Flatworm_4884 Yooo, I am currently an ITS major in my 3rd year and am trying to break into tech (specifically cybersecurity). I’m in between potentially choosing either an APM intern role with Coinbase (offer not confirmed) or a Cloud Support Associate intern (offer given) at Amazon. In your opinion what would be the better choice if you want to showcase the tech aspect? Imo the CSA role is customer support and won’t be as exciting for me but the company name could open doors for me, whereas the APM role would be more impactful in terms of the work and exp I earn, but I am not sure if it would segway into a more tech-dense role. Would like to hear your thoughts on which is better, thanks!!!
@p0_0ja Honestly, from the title and company, Cloud support associate internship sound a lot more appealing and interesting to me than the Apm role ( associate product manager) and honestly from the job role, cloud support just sounds more appealing ( I might be bias because I love cloud computing) but it’s a no brainer, I’ll choose the Amazon role, I don’t know why you think it won’t be exciting tho? I’m I missing any context or something? Pls elaborate if any, but congratulations on the offer, those are genuinely impressive
@Sea_Flatworm_4884 Interesting… so the CSA role is very much Customer Support really (no programming) which is why I feel like I might get bored from it…. Right now I work at ITS here at my uni and it def gets boring cuz we work the same cases. I also think that I could get that cloud experience from pursuing the AWS cloud practitioner certification. But yeah still confuzzled as to which role is better for me now to get into roles like cybersecurity and data analyst positions in the future
@p0_0ja Ahh I see, ultimately, I’ll say choose whatever you think would be best for your career, again the title of the Amazon role seems interesting & since it’s an internship, I’ll expect that they get more technical, but choose which ever would teach you the most skills to be prepared properly for the job market.
@Sea_Flatworm_4884 Do you think that the cloud-related role (even though it’s primarily customer support) would be more enticing to cybersecurity recruiters compared to an APM role? Just curious cuz ik u mentioned u had a cybersecurity role in the past… In the Amazon role you only help other customers w their AWS issues and I’ve heard from a previous intern in the same role that you don’t get to program a lot. That being said, I don’t really want to program a whole lot career-wise, but do really enjoy data analysis and SQL
@p0_0ja I’d say do this one tbh, it just sounds more cybersecurity related than the other one. And the company prestige would significantly improve your resume too. And no, I’ve gotten interviews for Cybersecurity, I haven’t actually done it. Anyways, Good luck !
@Sea_Flatworm_4884 Oh gotcha, could you point me in the right direction of where I should look for cybersecurity internships to apply to? Kinda finding it difficult to find lol
@p0_0ja Honestly it’s hard to find an internship for cybersecurity or even an entry level job, that’s why I’m going for data/business analysis, business intelligence, analyst role than my previous interest of cybersecurity, it’s ridiculously hard to find one, my Advice would be that you look for IT (roles) then pivot into cybersecurity. Many IT roles don’t pay well, so look for roles like network engineering, information security, IT infrastructure, etc. do those for a few years or even as an internship, then try to pivot into cybersecurity.