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Comp Sci Programs at Junior Colleges? 105

Posted by Cliff from the untransferrable-credits dept.
An anonymous reader asks: "What place does a Computer Science Department play in a Community College? I recently started taking classes out of an interest in learning new things and getting a few college credits toward my first degree. I come to find out (only 1 semester after I started) that none of these credits will transfer to a bachelor's degree at one of our state schools. Many of the courses here are 'applied technology' such as Linux Administration/Installation or Web programming with PHP, but the local University only accepts their own 'theory based' courses such as Data Structures, Theory of operating systems, and so forth. I was wondering where a community college fits in, has anyone seen a great community college program recently and if anyone knows how these programs are designed?"
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Comp Sci Programs at Junior Colleges? More

Comp Sci Programs at Junior Colleges?

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  • Wrong courses (Score:5, Interesting)

    by MobyDisk ( 75490 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:23AM (#12076052) Homepage
    Those 'applied technology' courses are IT courses. The 'theory based' courses are CS courses. That's usually a different department. You should ask the university if they offer IT courses and what is comparable to the ones in the community college. I know that in Maryland, the community colleges don't offer much in CS.

    I don't know your state, but I know that in Maryland, the community colleges, colleges, and universities have a shared system. You are guaranteed that any course you take in a state community college will transfer to any state school (and most non-state schools too).

    • Re:Wrong courses (Score:5, Informative)

      by jhoger ( 519683 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @02:24PM (#12078273) Homepage
      In the California community college system, at least at Fullerton College, we had a complete array of undergraduate CS courses. Everything you would normally get in the first two years... introductory programming, data structures, and the general math courses that are required were available.

      I was able to get my AA in Computer Science, and transfer most of my credits to University to come in as a Junior in Computer Science. There were still lots of classes to take, but that's just because CS is a heavy unit major.

      You need to see the counselors at both the university you intend to transfer to and the community college you are transferring from to make sure you are getting the classes you need and nothing more, and that you transfer at the right point.
      -- John.

    • Re:Wrong courses (Score:2, Insightful)

      by undef24 ( 159451 )
      Here's the answer... you should be taking all your math and physics pre-reqs at your community college and save the real deal CS for your university.

    • Re:Wrong courses (Score:2, Informative)

      by aXiSPoWeR ( 856487 )
      Not True. I attended Montgomery College in Maryland, and only non CS courses transfer for equivalent credits to UMCP. CS courses transfer only if you test out of those classes, otherwise they transfer as electives.

  • Not computer science (Score:5, Informative)

    by eztiger ( 790405 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:25AM (#12076061)
    PHP programming and linux admin (or any kindof admin) are not computer science disciplines.

    The things they want (data structures etc) are. A more abstract layer that can be practically applied in any programming language.

    Computer science is, funnily enough, more about the science.

    You seem surprised that computer science is theory based...I'm afraid (at least from my own degree and others in surrounding universities) it largely is. The programming parts are merely to allow a practical presentation of the theory learned.

    They generally expect you to pick up languages by yourself (you may get a quick introduction your first semester but you'll probably be handed a book and told to go read) and whilst you will probably be taught a smattering of unix, it won't be from a sysadmin point of view it will be from an IPC / pipes / OS theory / thread handling slant.

    I'm not from the USA so I can't comment on community college courses but I would suggest you double check the Computer Science courses you're looking at to ensure it is actually what you want to do...better now than getting there and realising it's not what you thought.

    Kev

    • Dijkstra (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Rufus88 ( 748752 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @01:36PM (#12077558)
      "Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes"
      --Edsger Dijkstra
    • That just means the U. you attended overemphasized theory. In the Cal State system, specifically, CSUF, we got all the theory but they also required programming classes, and that we be able to write code all the way through the program. It was not something that they expected you to pick up on your own...

      -- John.
      • Regardless of what the other two responders said, I know what you are talking about.

        when I got my degree, we got taught the basics and intermediates of CS alongside learning C/C++. In the upper division classes we could generally program in whatever language we chose ,however.

    • You're quite correct in pointing out that programming and system admining are not Computer Science skill. However, it's important to remember that there's more to computing than "Computer Science". There are schools that have "Computer and Information Systems" programs which emphasize practical skills instead of CS fundamentals. In that case you could probably transfer programming credits -- if you studied core programming languages like C++ and Java. They'd probably be more skeptical of classes in scriptin

  • What junior and community colleges are for (Score:5, Informative)

    by pocari ( 32456 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:26AM (#12076076)
    I'm not sure that there's anything not "great" about the school you're attending. Junior and community colleges typically provide very applied topics, like system administration or training in particular software packages or even programming languages. Even though it is unfortunately called "Computer Science," it is not what a CS department at a 4-year school would offer.

    For students planning to go to 4-year schools, junior and community colleges offer what California schools call "general education" requirements: English, calculus, etc. Offering the type of CS class that a 4-year school would offer would be too specialized for them.

    If your plan is to get a job right away learning skills you can pick up quickly, then that's what the CC CS classes are for. If you are looking for credits that will apply toward a bachelor's degree, they are probably in more general things like English, math, and science. In a community college, it is usually cheaper, and you get those things out of the way so you can focus on your major-related classes once you transfer.

    Good luck!

    • I think this differs a lot based on the school. Do some research, first. As others have posted, many CCs have arrangements with local universities which map their courses one-to-one. I took the first two years of my WPI CS degree at Springfield Technical Community College (Massachusetts), in a program specifically designed to transfer into a "real" CS program. I was absolutely not handicapped in any way, and went on to get my MS in CS.

      It can be done, but it depends a lot on the curriculum at the specif
    • Computer science is simply too hard and too specialized to fit into a "community college", and any community college teaching it is either out of its league and something you should stay well away from, or trying to transition away from "community college" to true University. I don't know if that ever happens, but it sounds plausible.

      Baloney. I took some CS in high school. To say it's beyond the ability of community college students is condescending at best. Granted, it wasn't hard core 400-level coll

  • It also depends... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Nos. ( 179609 ) <andrewNO@SPAMthekerrs.ca> on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:29AM (#12076103) Homepage
    what you're final goal is. If you're looking for a degree, then yes, check before hand if any credits you're getting will transfer over. However, if you're goal is a job, then you have to look at what the qualifications are for the jobs you're interested in. Do they require a university degree or will a technical type diploma suffice? Do you have experience?
    I completed most of a University degree but got fed up with the fact that all I was learning was theory, I really had very little idea how computers worked and had next to no programming knowledge. I worked part time at a local computer store putting together and fixing PCs. I picked up a help desk contract and started doing a lot of learning on my own. I'm now in a fairly senior tehcnical position (actually, the next step up is management). The university classes didn't really help, except to network and learn from things other students did in their spare time. What helped me was experience and proof I did learning on my own.
  • The Ontario (Canada) system used to suffer from problems in granting standing for community (3-year) college courses to prospective university students.

    The technical solution was to go through the standards for college and university courses, and match them at that level, so the university can now say "Joe Student has taken COL-231 and COL-233, which matches out UNI-206 course".

    Net results? The Universities are now cooperating nicely with the Colleges. Notably Seneca (College), which opened their ne

  • Forget it... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Saeed al-Sahaf ( 665390 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:30AM (#12076116) Homepage
    Forget CS at the community college level. In today's world, you need a BS. Really, you need a Masters, but you can work on that later. Instead of thinking about an Associate CS "degree", think about getting a whole lot of prerequisites out of the way at a much lower per credit cost, than transfer to a respectable 4 year college and finish up with a decent BS.

    • Re:Forget it... (Score:3, Insightful)

      by oni ( 41625 )
      think about getting a whole lot of prerequisites out of the way at a much lower per credit cost

      bingo. That's what community colleges are for. You get two years on the cheap, then go to an expensive school for two years, and when you graduate with a BS, nobody is going to care about those first two years.

      • and there's more to it than that. many of the kids that go off to a four year are simply too immature to handle being away from mommy and daddy and their {boy|girl}friend. they eat too much, drink like fish, and don't have anyone to wake them up at 7:30 to get to class. when they fail after the first year, it's like the biggest embarassment of their lives, especially considering these are always the top students, always get A's (forgetting about grade inflation, and teachers too frustrated to deal with n
    • In today's world, you need a BS. Really, you need a Masters, but you can work on that later.

      Any more detail on that? In my experience, a bachelors degree is almost mandatory for getting a job in the computer industry, but a masters degree in CS is basically pointless except as a step towards a PhD: it holds no real attraction for business, and anything less than a PhD is not sufficient to advance in academia. [This is obviously not true of all fields, e.g., a MBA seems to have some bizarro magic attract
      • Well, it certainly does not hurt when everyone else has a BS. But yest, on the road to PhD, and fairly easy to get...
      • Oh, there definitely are advantages to having an MS...

        People working on an MS at a major research university will most likely be involved in some sort of research and will be required to take some more advanced coursework. More than anything, I think the process solidifies the student's knowledge of the field and allows him or her to focus a bit on one or two specific areas of interest in order to gain some depth not usually possible in an undergraduate program. Additionally, students are expected to wor
  • Working in the IT arena for over 15 years at numerous companies and responsible for the hiring of resources for many of them, I can tell that you are probably better off taking the 'applied technology' (hands-on) courses. While a degree might help get you through the HR trolls, managers prefer experience and current/relevent industry certification.

    Go for the degree if you want the piece of paper (and a well-rounded education), but remember that it won't guarantee you a job.
    • Here's the thing though. The OP said nothing about wanting to work in IT. His specifications are a little vague. I agree with you that a university setting is not the place to learn how to administrate a bunch of Unix boxes. It is a great place to learn the fundamentals of CS though and "good" algorithmic design. Remember, getting your certs won't guarantee you a job either.
    • The funny thing is that, my experience is exactly the opposite. Darn near anybody can memorize a bunch of "facts" and pass a cert exam... anybody. Event the more "practical" ones are game-able. Having a university degree in anything shows, you have the ability to learn things you know nothing about, and apply that knowledge thoughtfully. To use more the ability to learn and adapt, rather then just the knowledge/experience that is in your head is much more important in most jobs, because things change. In an
      • You are right, the ability to learn is important, but a degree doesn't always make someone "educated". One of the best coders I've ever met never even graduated HS.

        A degree is no substitute for intelligence and experience. Case in point, when I was in school I learned on a PDP writing FORTRAN-77. It was one step above punch cards. Very, very little of what I learned is helping me today. But, keeping fresh on new technologies by practicing, being active in the community, reading, and taking classes (c
    • Another replier sort of addressed this, but anyone who got a CS degree probably isn't wanting to work in IT. It would be like saying a CE (Computer Engineer) would want to work in IT. In the end, if you want IT you go to a CC or teach yourself. The best IT staff people I know don't even have college degrees. If you want to work in a programming or a design environment on software go to a 'real' school and get your BS in CS. And if you want to do hardware, more then likely you want a CE degree, or ECE (
      • Completely agree with this. I certainly don't intend any offense to the IT folks out there, but I hate being referred to as IT. Sure, I can do IT, but it's because I have a good general grounding due to my CS degree.
  • go ahead and get your A.A./A.S. ... once you have a degree it sort of "locks in" your level of expertise. You'd have much better success tansferring in as a junior with an A.A. instead of "just some classes"
    • If you are going to transfer to a 4 year, the AA might make you feel good, but is otherwise worthless. What counts is transferable course work. You can in fact do much better than an AA (if you intend on transferring) by maximizing your transferable credits. An AA with a shitty GPA will not get you into a 4 year. An AA with a decent GPA is no better than a butt-load of transferable credits with a decent GPA. Go for transferable credits.
      • That really depends on the programme, and the University, and the state laws involved.

        I know I'm going wih an Associate in Applied Science at Washtenaw Community College in Michigan, and then going to Eastern Michigan. They have programmes set up so I'll take 3 years of tech classes @ WCC, and 2-3 semesters at Eastern in Buisness and Management classes, getting a degreee in IT Management.

        Works for me.
  • What you're describing are more along the lines of a vocational or an MIS-type of curriculum. Heavy on specific technologies, light on the theoretical underpinnings of same. If you're serious about CS, go somewhere with a good theoretical focus. You may want to find somewhere that strikes some balance with practical application (see also: software engineering), especially if you want to, say, work for a living, instead of do graduate studies, but you do need a theoretical basis for that. It makes a big diff

  • Depends on the community college (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Red_Winestain ( 243346 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:41AM (#12076222)
    I work at a major public research university. My department awards no credit for any courses taken at the local community college. The reason is that the state cc system is in disarray and has no assurances about the courses. In particular, they cannot assure us about (1) qualifications of the instructor, (2) topics covered, and (3) types of assessment of learning. It isn't that the course is always bad; rather, it is too variable. It also is not the case that we're snobbish or elitist: we give credit to many different institutions at many different levels. It is just that the local cc is in disarray (and has been for years and years).

    That said, other states do things differently: the cc system is specifically set up as a "feeder" to the larger public universities. In many cases, your 2 years at cc give you 2 years credit at the uni.

    This may not help you, but to others, please check before hand about your local cc and transfer credits. We see lots of students who waste two years (of time and money) and get nothing at the next level.

  • You should definitely look and see if this stuff will transfer to a CIS degree, because it seems to be a lot more of what you're learning. CIS is the practical application of computer science, where you learn configuration, setup and not the theory behind it all.

  • Firsthand Info (albeit dated) (Score:3, Interesting)

    by SnowDog_2112 ( 23900 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:46AM (#12076268) Homepage
    I received a 2-year degree from a Massachusetts community college back in the early 90s, at a school which had tailored the program specifically for transfering to a 4-year school. They even had agreements with many schools such that as long as you had a 3.0 or higher GPA, you were guaranteed a transfer into the school.

    I was at Springfield Technical Community College [stcc.edu], and transfered the degree to WPI [wpi.edu], where I eventually ended up getting my MS in CS. I absolutely feel my 2 years at STCC were no handicap to me in my academic knowledge.

    URLs:
    List of transfer programs [stcc.edu]
    CS Transfer Program [stcc.edu] ... looks like my favorite professor is still hanging around there!

    I actually feel I got an excellent grounding in CS from my introduction at the community college. I had, like you say, a Data Structures class. It was taught using C++, so I picked up some practical knowledge to go with the theory. Same with the introductory programming class, which used Pascal. Same with the machine language class, which had theory elements.

    Basically I came out of the school with all the math I needed for a BS in CS (including linear algebra, DiffEQs, and discrete math), almost all of the science, and almost all of the humanities classes. I was a litle behind in CS theory classes, so when I got to WPI as a "Junior" I ended up enrolled in a couple "Sophomore" CS classes to catch up. It was really no big deal, and I had a little more practical knowledge than some of my classmates, too, because WPI at the time wasn't teaching C++ to its freshmen and sophomores.

    Considering I saved, oh, maybe 15K+ each year by taking the first two years at a CC, I'm thrilled with how it worked out. Plus I could overload and take even more classes, at a cheaper cost per credit.

    There's definitely a place for Community Colleges in science and engineering. You just need a program designed around it. Maybe your state has something similar....
    • Tidewater Community College [tcc.edu] offers a Comp Sci A.S. at one of its 4 campuses. I got mine there and transferred to a State University and am about to graduate. The only problem was that they had ONE instructor who wasn't that great, but he did cover the topics more or less equivalently to the 4-year school. The CS A.S. degree was more or less a GE transfer degree except instead of 5 electives, you had required CS courses and also were required to take Calc I & II. Those of us who were smart enough too
    • There's definitely a place for Community Colleges in science and engineering. You just need a program designed around it. Maybe your state has something similar....

      Truly words of wisdom. I met some professors in the UC public school system that setup a program to do just this. The program was so successful that they presented its design at a conference I attended.

      Here's some advice if you don't have such a program available.

      1. Find out the degree requirements for the program you intend to transfer in
    • Different country, similar experience. I attend the then-named Cork Regional Technical College for a two-year National Certificate (Associates Degree) in Computing. It was an interesting blend of the theoretical and the practical. Languages covered were (don't laugh, I'm old, this was the mid-80s) RPGIII, COBOL, Z80/6502 assembly, dBaseII, some kind of awful BASIC on a Prime 750, Pascal, C. You were expected to learn everything beyond the basics about each of these languages on your own.
  • Community Colleges are a great place to pick up your core curriculum that will cost 2 to 3 times as much to get at a University. You can generally get a couple semesters worth of English, Math, and other courses that will transfer to your University of choice. As always make sure that the courses you plan to take at your Community College will transfer to the University before you pay for them.
  • At the junior college I attended ( http://www.llcc.edu/ [llcc.edu]), there were two types of computer science degrees. The first was the A.A.S. which was the applied degree. The second (the one you would be interested in) was the A.S. degree.

    The A.S. usually has the transferrable credits. In my case, almost all of my courses transferred. LLCC (Lincoln Land Community College) is almost right next door to the University of Illinois at Springfield and they have a close working relationship. Most of the people that a
  • I guess it depens on where you are. Here in SE Virginia out community colleges (TCC) teach both the theroy based classes needed for the CS degree. And the pratical application classes (MIS/IT) that you are describing.

    TCC even offers an Associates in Computer Science, but again as others have said, this is a theroy based degree.

  • University vs. Community College (Score:4, Insightful)

    by kenneth_martens ( 320269 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:51AM (#12076318)
    A university degree program and a community college/technical institute program do not have the same focus. The community college's goal is to get you a job as soon as humanly possible, so they offer:
    • Practical courses, e.g. DNS and BIND
    • Current hottest technologies
    • Immediate job skills
    A university is about a foundation of theoretical knowledge. You don't go to university to be trained for a job, you go to learn the knowledge to understand a field. Universities offer:
    • Theory-based courses, e.g. Networking
    • Exposure to good technologies, not necessarily the latest hottest thing
    • Related knowledge, such as mathematics
    • No specific job skills
    At a university they won't teach you the specific skills you'll need to get a job. That does not mean you won't have job skills by the time you graduate. You're expected to learn the theory in class and learn the practical job-skill aspects on your own. If you aren't comfortable with that responsibility, a university degree is not for you.

    • The community college's goal is to get you a job as soon as humanly possible, so they offer:[...]

      A university is about a foundation of theoretical knowledge. You don't go to university to be trained for a job, you go to learn the knowledge to understand a field. Universities offer: [...]

      I've seen this sort of comment all over this page. It is true for the most part, and it should be, but it is not necessarily the complete truth. In fact, in the almost-two years of university at a well respected CS dep

    • At a university they won't teach you the specific skills you'll need to get a job. You're expected to learn the theory in class and learn the practical job-skill aspects on your own.

      Oh, come on, maybe that's a reasonable way to describe the overall tenor of higher education, but it isn't really true for CS, unless you're only considering very low-level jobs.

      A great deal of what they teach in a typical CS curriculum is directly applicable to a typical development job in the software industry (I expect the

  • Same here... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by identity0 ( 77976 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @11:55AM (#12076356) Journal
    I am going to a community college majoring in IT with a Unix/Linux concentration. I am finding that I wish I'd gone into another major, like graphic arts or English or something.

    I basically did it because I figured since I'm a computer geek, I may as well get a degree in it. However, I've found that the IT program at my school sucks. 40% of the students have left the IT program in the last year. Most of the credits will not transfer to another school, so if I go to a CS program I might have to start from scratch. And I do want to study CS more than IT.

    In retrospect, I am thinking I should have used the comm. college to broaden my horizons a bit before concentrating on getting a BS in my chosen field.

    I don't mean any disrespect to them, but I suspect that the other departments are not as inferior to their 4-year school counterparts as the IT/CS departments at a CC. Perhaps majoring in something like math at a CC will help you in your quest for a BS. It would be more likely to transfer credits, anyways.
    • It may be beneficial to look at your situation as a challenge to be overcome. Even a crappy degree might give you the extra confidence or experience to do well at a different degree or whatever later in life.

      If nothing else, if you get some kind of IT degree or certificate from your current school and then enroll in a CS program at a 4-year university sometime in the future, you'll have several advantages over your fresh-out-of-high-school classmates.

  • For anyone in New Jersey looking for what classes do and don't transfer to and from community colleges to the four year schools in the state, check NJ Transfer at http://www.njtransfer.org/ [njtransfer.org]. A most invaluable resource.

  • most CS majors learn that IT stuff on their own (Score:5, Insightful)

    by cheezus ( 95036 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @12:07PM (#12076464) Homepage
    actually, it's my experience that most CS majors have significant background in it/programming before they even start university; it's this background that's often the driving force behind choosing CS
  • At my university [wfu.edu] they do offer courses in the computer science department very similar to those you described, usually under the heading of CSC 191: Special Topics (examples this semester: "Unix Systems Administration" and a course on Perl). They're typically half a semester long, worth 1.5 credit-hours (normal classes are worth 3, sometimes 4) and are explicitly excluded from being counted towards the computer science major. They're purely elective.

  • Check more carefully (Score:2, Interesting)

    by DukeLinux ( 644551 )
    I teach part time at a community college and we have courses that transfer and courses that do not. The ones I teach all transfer to the big schools so students can save a bit of money getting the lower division course work out of the way. We work closely with the larger universities in the area to ensure that we cover all the required material so that our students are properly prepared when they transfer.
  • In California, courses from jr colleges are transferable to state colleges; however, you need to choose CS classes, not IT classes. My jr college had both an CS and an IT department. I earned an Associates degree from the CS department. I was able to transer all my C, Ada, physics, calculus, and English credits over to the state school, where I earned a Bachellors.

    This is the preferred path, since classes in jr colleges are generally smaller than those in 4 yr colleges. It's been shown that students that s

  • get your AA degree first. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by ajayrockrock ( 110281 ) on Tuesday March 29, 2005 @01:08PM (#12077227) Homepage
    I dropped out of school in '96 (with a decent job, who needs stinkin' school!).

    Then I was laid off in 2001 ("sorry, we don't hire non-college graduates")

    So now I'm going back to the local Community College and will transfer to complete a Computer Information Systems [csusb.edu] degree at Cal State San Bernardino. From all the advice that I'm getting, everyone is saying that you should get an AA degree before leaving community college. The requirements change at the universities all the time so once you complete your AA degree they can't take away any of those classes that you completed.

    --Ajay
  • Technical schools, like the US's community college structure, are about how to do things. Like how to make a DLL. Universities, like the University of Calgary, Saskatchewan, Alberta, etc, focus in the why. As in, why you should make a DLL, and why is it possible to make a DLL.

    The stated goal of a University is to never teach anything practical. Read that twice if you don't get the joke ;) In University, the focus is always on theory. Theory of data structures, algorithms, logic, digital circuits, mac
    • It really depends on where you're at. Community colleges in California are aligned with the state university system. So, you can do your first two years at the community college and transfer to a cal state school.

      It's really not an either-or proposition. Sure the CC also offers purely applied vocational stuff, but they are also a great springboard for getting into the state university system. Get your intro computer science, data structures, assembly language, math, science, english, etc. at community coll
  • Having gone to school and worked at the same Community College since Fall 2002, and having a parent who has gone to school, graduated, and now teaches at that same community college, I can give you a bit of perspective.

    Most students go to there for skills, not so much for degrees. If you want to use a CC as a cheap jumping-off point for a four-year institution, check with your counselors to see if they have a direct-transfer or three-and-one programs with the school you want to transfer to. That way, you
  • CS is about being able to advance the state of the art. It's related to IT in very much the same way physics is related to auto mechanics: you need to understand *some* physics to be any good at auto mechanics, but you're not going to be up for a Nobel prize anytime soon, and you'll probably stand there like a deer in headlights if people start trotting out Maxwell's equations.

    However, most people who study CS and get degrees in the field are really not all that different from before they got the degree. C
  • What are you expecting? Community colleges are 2 yr colleges and only really going to offer classes you'd take in the first 2 yr of university. If you look at 100 and 200 level courses in most university CS departments, there's not a lot of material there. Essentially you're looking at introductory programming classes and maybe a little bit of basic theory.

    While I'm suprised that there's nothing you can take that will transfer over, you shouldn't be suprised that you're not getting much CS-specific stuf
  • Applied Technology : Computer Science :: Brick-laying : Structural Engineering

    Computer Science is a branch of Mathematics. This confuses a lot of people who have different ideas of what Math is, and it apparently confuses a lot of Slashdotters too. To Joe Public, Math={Algebra, Trig, maybe high-school Calculus}. It confuses my Mechanical Engineering friends, because to them Math={DiffEq, Numerical Analysis, etc.}. The confusion comes from the fact that Computer Science doesn't "look" like those othe
  • I attended a community college for my first 2 years for economic reasons since I was self funding my education. You can really only do this for your college basics i.e. classes everyone has to take: English Lit, Music appreciation, underwater basket weaving, etc... I then was able to transfer every credit of that to a University. At the time in my state there were 2 things to look for. First is a system where all schools have a standard for each class and are "certified" to be transferable. Second, is
  • I took a 2-year programming course [mhc.ab.ca] at Medicine Hat College [mhc.ab.ca]. Some of the required classes (the Excel one and the Linux Admin. one) could be replaced with courses that do transfer (Calculus I and Intro to Comp. Sci I and II, I believe). I was lucky, though. Although the course was centred around VB.Net, Java, and a little bit of C++ the teachers were good at making sure the concepts behind the languages were explained.

    Another nice thing they had set up is the ability to transfer to some universities and
  • I work at a Community College and usually most of the CS courses offered here will transfer. Community Colleges are NOT anything like ITT or other technical schools or schools that just teach MCSE or other certs. If it was not for the fact that most of your AA or AS will transfer, most of our students would leave. Again, it depends on the state or on the school.
  • This is more than just degree requirements. It seems that you are attending a trade school. In a trade school, they teach you how to do something -- repair cars, service air conditioners, or write code. In a university, you are supposed to be taught the theory behind that.

    Granted, many of the crappier universities out there have turned into trade schools, but a CS degree is not supposed to teach you how to code. Computer science is about the theory behind computing. It applies equally whether you are
  • In new york (or my part of it, anyway), we have a 2+2 program, where a student can take 2 years of junior college courses, get an associates degree, and then be guaranteed a swift transition into a 4 year school. all credit earned at the 2 year goes to the 4 year. so, the student needs only 2 more years at the 4 year. 2+2.

    That may be regional. As a minimum, I know Monroe Community College has this arranement with U of R, R.I.T. and a number of others in the area.
  • Some time ago, I transferred out of a junior college into a four-year school as a CS major. Here's a basic howto:
    1. If your JC offers discrete math, take it. Even if the university won't (automatically) accept it as transferable, take it. You can always petition for course credit, and discrete math is the most important intro class in a proper CS curriculum.
    2. Ignore any language-specific programming classes, with the possible exception of Java (being the intro language of choice these days). Again, try

  • Being able to stack up university credits...

    or

    Being able to do a job that (hopefully)
    companies are willing to pay your heaps for doing
    (or - in the absence of such companies, near you
    - being able to start a business based on such
    skills & knowledge in the industry... and -
    if you do it well - make more money than in a job)?

    You decide...


  • I can tell you that a degree at the Hollywood Upstairs Medical College is not as highly regarded as you might think.
  • I know somebody has probably already said this, but I'll reiterate:

    1. check with the University you want to transfer too, *before* taking classes somewhere else (including another University) regading transfer credit.

    2. What transfers ultimately depends on the school accepting the would-be transfer credits, but some observations:

    a. "general ed" courses from CC's usually transfer with no problem. That is, the courses that you would typically take in the first two years of a "liberal arts" degree. Stuf
  • Lane Community College [lanecc.edu] near the People's Republic of Eugene [eugene.or.us], Oregon has an excellent Computer Technology [lanecc.edu] programs in the CIT [lanecc.edu] department. Options include a 2-year Computer Programming degree if you want to be a VB/Java code monkey, as well as Computer Network Operations and Computer User Support programs..

    Most of the courses are fully transferable to Oregon universities, and they offer a transfer program [lanecc.edu] for Computer Science students which basically covers most of the lower-division requirements for most C
  • If you want to get the best prep for transfering into an undergraduate CS program you can take every math course possible during your first 2 years. Other math or logic heavy classes such as physics and philosophy will help tune your brain and you have a much better chance of their credit transfering, putting you ahead financially and time-wise.

    Sure, take a couple classes that include some programming to see if you like it, but don't expect that class to count towards your eventual BS degree.
  • What you are experiencing is the attempt by some colleges to pass off an IT or CIS major as CS. (I am starting to see this more and more.) Computer Science involves a lot of theory with some practical knowledge like a programming class here and networking class there. The key word in CS is "science." Just like other scientists you will be expected to experiment on your own and learn. Scientist create or discover, they don't just learn. CIS tends to be CS without the math and some business courses thrown in
    • I've observed this, not just in JC and CC, but also in 4 year distance learning institutions. I'm looking for a decent CS distance program, and haven't been able to find one that includes the important stuff... ie maths, basic theory and a decent quantity of programming practical. I've used google and the various college search engines and come up completely dry. Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

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