MIS vs. Comp Science Options

[pebkac]

I'm going to go back to school this fall, and I'm trying to decide something. I'd like to do something working with computers and networking, but I don't neccessarily want to be a computer programmer.

Which would be better for me to major in?

[Hartmann]

Finding a job has nothing to do with your degree.  Landing a job does.  You'll have a much easier time landing a job as CS than MIS.  My boss has an MIS degree and is also the DBA and doesn't know much about programming other than SQL stuff.  When we hire a new person, even him (the MIS degree) says hell no we're only looking for CS.

CS is a much harder degree, and employers know that.  Either way though it just gets your foot in the door.  Once you're in it doesn't matter, except the CS people make fun of the MIS people

I guess I'm just odd then because from experience it feels like I have learned more than the CS majors I've talked to.

I had to present at some CS class last semester about cryptography and multi-key hashes and most of the class looked at me dumbfounded and at the end I actually had a few of them come up to me and ask me what a public and private key were

It's all a matter of opinion. I think that if you want to get into networking then MIS may be the way to go, but I suggest you go talk to professors in both departments and lay it out for them. Don't talk to the advisors, they know very little about the majors besides what classes you have to take.

CS is harder because of the engineering classes? I can believe that, but then again, MIS majors have to take finance, accounting, and 3 semesters of economics, the focus is a little different and it's all in your opinion of what's hard. I know some very smart people who can't figure out finance for the life of them...

This whole thread is kind of a testament to what the one problem with CS majors is, the "holier than thou" attitude. I don't have a problem with it, y'all are smart folks, but in certain environments it pisses people off.