To give you the background – There are a number of viable IT majors and I will cover the 3-4 main ones. These main Computer majors have associated career categories and you need to know these just to get the lay of the land. These degree titles are often found in Associates, Bachelors and Master’s degree programs. Generally most IT employers are looking for a 4 year Bachelor’s degree in an IT related major as a minimum requirement. Certifications (Microsoft, Cisco, CompTIA, etc.) while valuable, should not be considered a substitute for a degree. Picking the right major is important because if you choose poorly you can bury your Grades so badly that you can spend many semesters digging out of that hole. The difference between a 3.0-3.5 minimum GPA and a 2.7 GPA is huge in job finding potential in the Technology job sector.
First, you need to realize that college and universities vary in their course curriculums for the same major title. As an example, one school may have more programming classes in the same major while another school has fewer. Schools may call their general IT program Computer Information Technology, Computer Information Systems or Computer Information Science. To really tell what the major is about you should look at the courses that a particular school offers in that major. Here are the majors and some associated jobs:
Computer Information Systems (CIS) - This may also be called a variety of other names like Information Technology (IT), Information Systems (IS), Computer Applications (CA), etc. This is a general technical degree and is the degree that I have. Holders of these degree work in a variety of technical jobs like these:
Computer Technician, Service Center Coordinator, Help Desk Staff, Storage Administrator, Network Administrator, Systems Administrator, Systems Engineer, Enterprise Administrator, Active Directory Administrator, Exchange and Messaging Administrator, Backup Administrator, Disaster Recovery Specialist, Database Administrator, Computing Security Specialist, Ethical Hacker, Corporate IT Acquisition Specialist and Data Center Administrator, just to name a few. CIS degrees usually have less advanced Math and Programming in the required courses than CS and CE. If a CS or CE student was to find their GPA dropping below 3.0 they might want to switch into this less difficult major. However, before you disrespect people in this area remember that numerically these are the greatest number of jobs and often people you will be working closely with if you are a CS or CE graduate.
Computer Science (CS) - A technical degree which usually has a Programming emphasis - people with this major usually are developing application software, web development, embedded code and robotics. Sometimes, depending on the college, the degree may cover some more general topics as listed under CIS major above. CS is a difficult major and may include a number of advanced math courses. Many CS students find themselves not enjoying programming, not being gifted at it or not having the math and logic skills to be good at programming and they will switch out into CIS. CS majors that are able to graduate can also qualify for jobs listed above under CIS. This is a special calling and not for the faint of heart and all the studying in the world will not make you a Programmer if you don’t have that gifting. People who have a natural gifting for Programming will excel in this degree while others will struggle. Often times after you take 2-3 Programming courses it will become evident if this is the major for you. If you can figure that out before starting college it will save you time and money.
Computer Engineering - This is a highly technical engineering, Programming and design degree. In some schools this may be offered in a joint degree with Computer Science because Programming and Advanced Math are involved in both. These degree holders get jobs related to designing and manufacturing computer related hardware and it may also include Programming. Obviously when you think of hardware you think of laptops and PCs but this might be all kinds of computer devices and components like tablets, processors, memory, storage, networking equipment and components of computers. This will be the highest degree of difficulty in the common IT majors. Take CS and add 10%-20% more difficulty and you have an idea of the challenges in getting a CE degree.
Management Information Systems (MIS) - The MIS degree is tricky. In some schools this is very much like CIS and in others it is part of the School of Business and related to a Management degree. If you get into the Management based MIS degree it is usually for non-technical students training them in managing people, budgets, creating presentations to management, project planning, creating policies and procedures and the like. If you like that type of work that is fine but many of us like hands-on tech work and the Management MIS will not provide you with training for that. So look carefully at the MIS course listings and see if they are about Technology or Management. If they are about Technology topics then you are good to go. Traditionally, senior IT technical pros would eventually be promoted into management positions after years of technical work. The good news is they understood technical challenges their people were working with but the bad news was that some were great tech people but poor people managers. I have had both types of these managers and the new trend is definitely towards these non-technical managers. If you are thinking about going the Management route remember many of these jobs require a Master’s degree.
Hope this helps.
Best Wishes!
17 years IT systems engineer in Fortune 50 company, Bachelors degree in CIS, Bachelors degree in Advertising, 21 Microsoft certifications, MCSE and MCT, A+ Security+ Server+ Cloud+ CompTIA certifications, IT Published magazine author of 200+ magazine articles, IT book and magazine technical editor