Just a vanilla computer science program. I combined it with a math major. I think the program at my uni was especially soft; there were no math courses at all. I suspect it's a bit better at a 'technical university' (I do my masters at one). I think the electrical engineers at my new uni are on par with the computer scientists at programming (which is basically the one and only skill you learn in my CS program), or even better.
That is the difference between a bs vs ba. Different schools offer the computer science programs as either one or the other in my country and the courses in both programs can be very different.
I have to echo this. Computer Science is essentially a Mathematics field, not having extensive math in the major doesn't really make any sense. In fact, very little of the major after the Freshman of Sophomore year should even be about learning to program. It's like having a B.A. of Computer Science, or a B.S. in Literature, it doesn't really make any sense and should probably best be called some other kind of major.
I've known a few folks who had these kinds of degrees and I'm not sure their schools did them a service graduating them without a proper curriculum. At most schools with C.S. majors, they have alternative majors for people who don't want to do the intensive Maths and Sciences and they're usually called something like "Information Systems" or "Computers for Business" or similar.
>At most schools with C.S. majors, they have alternative majors for people who don't want to do the intensive Maths and Sciences and they're usually called something like "Information Systems" or "Computers for Business" or similar.
My undergrad degree was a BS in Computer Information Systems, and I still had a ton of math. The main change from CS to my degree was replacing the higher end maths like Calc2+ and Physics2+ with business oriented courses like finance and economics.
I graduated from undergrad in 1999 and I think since that time colleges have tried to make CS more 'friendly' to non-geeks. This has unfortunately meant lowering the math requirement.
At the state schools in my state, the curriculum generally consisted of math up through and including three semesters of Calc + Linear Algebra + Discrete + 3 semesters of calculus-based Physics with labs + two semesters of algorithm design and formal methods (which I count as math courses) + Stats + an Operational Research course. You could also swap one of the sciences with a semester on diff-eq if you wished. I think you could get a math minor if you took something like 3 more higher-level math courses and a dual major wasn't that much more after that. It was brutal and I think the second highest number of required credits of any major at the school after EE. It wasn't uncommon to start a semester with 100 students in the class and end with 8-12 at the end.
The non-CS "Info Sys" or "Software Engineering", etc. dropped all the calc, linear algebra, OR, formal methods and required only two semesters of science classes that did not require any calculus (they were called something like "Physics for Business" or something) and no algo design. They actually had fewer classes than the CS major, but the rest of the gap was filled with major specific courses like finance or econ or whatever.
At my university, they have a CS program without math, and on top of that an easier major (it's not officially, but everyone considers it an easier version of CS) which is called "information sciences". This program has easier versions of some courses and skips some hard courses that are known to be problematic for some computer scientists.
It is crazy. To be fair, there was some math buried in the courses (like modular arithmetic in the cryptography class, and some discrete math in the concurrency class), but it felt rather awkward and not relevant to the classes.
I'm not sure if no math should be a source of envy or pity for me (probably neither) - in my computer science program each semester included at least one math course. No exceptions.
