Value of math minor for comp sci major?

[Pegasus]

DD had a good advisor session at the university she is transferring to. He pointed out that a math minor is relatively easy to add to the comp sci major.

 

Looks like an additional 4 courses, 12 credits, would be needed.

 

I am not sure how to advise her. What is the value of having a math minor? Worth loading up the course schedule with an extra math class each semester?

 

My gut tells me that she will be better off focusing doing well in her core courses. On the other hand, calculus 3 was her favorite class this semester.

[Matryoshka]

My CompSci dd is thinking of a Math minor, for pretty much this reason - not a lot of extra credits to do it, and math is fun. ;)

 

I have no idea of the merits of having one other than that... so, I'll just  :bigear:

At the end of her undergraduate career, I assume that she'll either want to get a job, or go to graduate school.  In either case, her undergraduate resume will be important in that next step.  Generally speaking, I'd advise her to add the Math minor, all other things being equal.  With the minor, her resume will say "I'm not willing to do the bare minimum to pass, I'm interested in multiple things and willing to work hard".  Perhaps if the minor prevented her from getting a summer internship, or research position (which I doubt), then I'd be less inclined to suggest it.  It is more likely that an internship or especially research position would benefit from having a stronger math background.  She will have access to and interaction with more professors seeing her work at a higher level, which can be useful for recommendations and research.  I would also advise her that the more advanced math classes tend to be very different than the introductory math classes -- abstract algebra can require very different skills than calc.

[Sunshine State Sue]

math is fun. ;)

:iagree: I double majored in math and computer studies (what would be a BA in computer science these days)

 

I would think that a CS minor is more valuable to a math major than vice versa.  However, it might open up more possibilities should she desire to get a master's degree or for certain careers.  For example, I have a master's in Industrial Engineering with a specialization in Operations Research.  I don't think that I could have applied with a CS degree - my math degree was needed (from what I remember).  Perhaps a math minor would make her more attractive to IT in the financial industry, which may (or may not) appeal to her. 

 

When I look back at my college transcript, I realize that I enjoyed my math and CS classes way more than any of the other classes - art of India, 3rd world lit, languages of the world, french, poly sci, UGH! I tried to take them all pass/fail if I could.

 

HTH!

 

Edited December 8, 2016 by Sue in St Pete

[wapiti]

I'm certain I've seen a thread on this topic somewhere over at College Confidential, though when I google, I only pull up rather old ones.  Maybe poke around over there.

 

E.g. http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/science-majors/1231367-computer-science-major-is-a-math-minor-worth-it.html

[FaithManor]

I don't know much about the value except that NASA told us during our workshop this summer that it is a real plus on any application for any position with them that is technical related to have a math minor. Several engineers and managers told us that is it s HUGE bump to the resume/application.

 

Dh double majored in math and comp sci back in the 80's. He didn't find it that hard since he was in a rigorous software engineering major that required all four calculus classes which were four credit courses. That gave him 16 credits right off the bat for the major. I would think that the minor would be useful and not particularly difficult to pick up if scheduling is not a problem.

[Dmmetler]

DS also double majored math/CS, and has found the math degree a plus in hiring (he actually went to grad school in math, and ended up doing a hybrid because he likes the computational applied stuff more than the theoretical stuff).

[G5052]

Definitely a plus, although the utility on the job may vary. I ended up with double B.S. degrees. My computer science degree was very math-focused. I already had a lot of credits, so taking three more classes in math gave me a double degree. I actually like some of my math classes more than certain computer sciences.

 

My post-college job was in scientific research, so the math was very useful because I focused on statistics in my extra classes. Initially, I wrote programs for analyzing data and several simulations for testing purposes. Later I got into other programming and management.

 

When I applied to graduate school, they said in the interview that extra math was a plus. Although I didn't finish it, my dissertation involved analysis of multiple algorithms against large data sets, so the math applied there.

Edited December 8, 2016 by G5052

[Gwen in VA]

Ds1 majored in math and got a master's in operations research. He had very few classes in computer programming, but he is currently a programmer at a top (name) company. His math background is what allowed him to stand out in the interview process.

 

The attitude of his company is "of course you can learn a new language in a week or two, but the math background takes years to develop", so his extensive math background has allowed him to work on some pretty exciting projects (even when he didn't have any prior knowledge of the programming language involved).

 

Based on ds1's experience, I would encourage your student to get the math minor.