College Life

Private Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Pennsylvania State University
• Carnegie Mellon University
• Bellarmine University

State Schools That Are Well Known for This Major

• University of Texas—Austin
• Rutgers University—Newark
• University of North Carolina—Chapel Hill (as a minor)

Classes in the Major

Math. Granted, this won't be as in-depth as the math you would be taking as a computer science major, but it's still a hefty amount. Primarily, you'll learn calculus, which helps you understand programming code because it teaches you how to think abstractly with variables. There will also be some discrete mathematics, which is important since computers think in discrete numbers and variables (like on/off, 0/1, etc.).

Programming. Again, not as heavy as a computer science major. You'll be learning about the common object-oriented programming languages like C/C++, Python, and Java and how to code in them, but probably not much more than that. It's not like you'll be plopped into a country that only speaks in a programming language, which actually sounds rather dystopian, if you ask us. Instead, you'll get an introduction to the syntax so you'll know how to look stuff up if you need to.

Databases. Databases rule our lives. Well, at least Google does, and that search engine is basically one giant database with links to every single website in existence. You'll be learning about how databases like Google's are designed, the language they're written in (SQL, short for structured query language), as well as how to manage and maintain those databases. Hey, maybe you'll end up ruling the world some day. If not that, then at least you might work at Google.

Networking. Computers are awesome. We can all agree on that. However, when there's no Internet and we can't connect with each other, computers start being…less awesome. This is where a networking class comes in handy. These classes cover the structure and protocols of different types of networks, such as LANs, which usually connect nearby computers with Ethernet cables, and WANs, which connect computers across a larger area through multiple ways, as well as how to manage and secure them.

Information Systems. This is probably where you branch off most from the academic path that computer science majors take, since these courses are much more interdisciplinary than other computer science classes. These classes also have more of a focus on business; for example, some of the classes you'll take will be on the types of organizational programs that businesses have and how computers and databases can be applied to solve those problems. There will also be classes on how the information systems you'll use to solve those problems were developed, as well as how to set them up and manage them.