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Second BS or MS Please Help!

Princeton Man

Joined
7/31/10
Messages
33
Points
16
I will be completing my BS in mathematics this year and wanted to know if its a better investment to spend a year to year in a half obtaining my second bachelor's in computer science or an MS in statistics. I want to invest my time in something that's going to help me in the long term, actuarial science is currently my back up as i'm taking the exams, but I think CS would open more doors for me in terms of a broader job industry versus feeling more confined with statistics. I may be wrong.

Thanks in advance.
 
I would go for BS in Comp Science. With Math degree you can enter AI industry and do very good
 
I would think that statistics is pretty broad too. What industry doesn't deal with data?
 
Go for computer science - your employment opportunities will be more and bigger

Statistics is fine if you are prepared to work in academia or industry
 
i would no neither. Honestly, do you have time to do another degree. Where in the world are you. If you know math, you should be able to learn CS. Unless your first degree was from a very poor unknown school and the second BSc is from a top school. I would do neither
 
I agree with martingale. CS is only worth the paper it is on. Math is difficult and requires years to learn the various topics even on a basic level. CS was meant to be learned on the fly...

Then again you might want the paper. To which I ask again, why no MS in CS?
 
MRoss said:
I agree with martingale. CS is only worth the paper it is on. Math is difficult and requires years to learn the various topics even on a basic level. CS was meant to be learned on the fly...

Then again you might want the paper. To which I ask again, why no MS in CS?
Click to expand...
In replying to both MRoss and Martingale, the reason I can't do an MS in CS at this point is because I have only taken introductory programming and obviously don't have the option to apply to an MS program in CS. I looked over the schedule at my school and within the next 3 semesters I would be able to graduate with a BS in both Mathematics and Computer Science. My other option was to graduate after next semester and enter a statistics graduate program. I know that the necessary statistical knowledge can also be learned in an MFE program such as in Baruch with courses like time series analysis and financial statistics. So I personally thought I wouldn't actually need an entire masters in statistics. On the other hand, I think programming and development builds more experience and having a job of this sort before applying to an MFE program would be worth more, not only to the school but future employers after MFE. My third and final option is to complete the 15 credit prerequisite in CS at my school and apply to an MA in Computer Science within the school for the Spring 2013 semester, instead of staying for the year to complete the BS. The trade-off is obviously time and money.
 
If you're planning on doing an MFE, do you really need another degree? You can self-study and take a few extra courses to build your profile.
 
stats vs cs. If you are good at math, take the background preliminary courses in programming and develop your math skills. Math is hard.....! I say it again math is hard.

What sort of job are you going for. If you have taken introductory courses in fundamentals of programming, algorithms and data abstractions, then you don't need more programming classes. As you will learn other programming stuff on the job. In banks, most math quants can program but not as well as the CS people. Honestly, if you have mastered recursion, linked-lists and data abstraction - you are fine for most programming jobs. A masters in statistics is different from an MFE.

In an MFE, you use bits of stats. In the masters in statistics you really go in depth some people find this boring. you seem undecided on what you want. I would take the extra time to get those prerequisites. Then you can decide what you want: stat, cs or more math. I remember a famous CS masters student who got fed up of CS. He took a few years to get a second major in math and went on to do a phd in Math - probability I believe. His view was CS was good but the math stuff gave him something extra. and in case you hadn't heard it before - math is hard.

Many engineers pretend to know math. they don't. you have to decide what camp you fall in: theorem proof math guy, or applied engineering dude who also do good numerical stuff. the world needs both. so who are you. decide and move on.
 
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