What was your major in college?

**MonroeIV** · 10-29-2010 02:50 PM

I'm not sure which major I should choose that would help me get a job in web development. I don't want to do web design (the aesthetic aspect), but I rather handle what goes on behind the scenes (the coding, database management, etc).

I was considering a major in computer science and a minor in mathematics. But I'm not sure if computer science is directly related to the work I would want to do. I don't want to build the hardware of computers.

I start registering for classes on Nov 18th so I have some time to think it over and research. But it seems like what I want to do falls under different ones. Some call it computer science, some call it computer programming, others call it software engineering. Not sure which path to take.

What was your major/minor in college?

**KyleXY** · 10-29-2010 11:30 PM

If you're looking to learn web development, going to school won't teach you that. There is no major for web development. Computer science is the closest thing as it teaches you the principles of programming and learning specific programming languages which may later help you learn web languages specific to web development but almost all web development is purely self taught.

Having said that, there are some courses at very select schools that offer classes that teach web development languages but it's not something you can "major" in. As for the differences in computer science vs software engineering, depending on the school, it's named different but the lessons are practically the same with minor differences that won't matter in the grand scheme of things. There is no computer programming major as far as I know (or at least it's highly uncommon if it's called that). Computer programming is what you "do" as a computer science or software engineering major.

Simply put, all web developers, including the founders of Google, Facebook, Yahoo, etc... were all computer science majors. That should help you understand better.

**MonroeIV** · 10-30-2010 01:23 AM

Thanks for the reply. I was looking through the catalog for Univ. of CA East Bay and the course Web Site Development falls under Computer Science. The course description is "Web servers and browswers. HTML, images, audio and video files, indexer, forms, CGI scripts, Java programming, Javascript." I suppose this would be along the lines of what I'm looking for.

Unfortunately, I have to take ALL of the following courses before I'm able this take the Web Site Development course:

Trigonometry and Analytic Geometry
Calculus I, II, III
Elements of Linear Algebra
Discrete Structures
Statistics and Probability for Science and Engineering
Computer Science I, II, III
Computer Organization and Assembly Language Programming
Programming Language Concepts
Data Structures and Algorithms
Object Oriented Programming and Design
Computer Architecture
Operating Systems
Data Communications and Networking
Database Architecture
Software Engineering I
Numerical Analysis
Compiler Design
System Analysis and Design
Advanced Topics in Business Computer Systems
Modern Logic
Introduction to Systems Programming

Only after taking all of those classes can I take Web Site Development, which makes no sense to me because I don't give a damn about any of that stuff. And I understand how mostly everything in web development is self-taught, I've been teaching myself a lot in the past two months. But I would still like a degree, and Computer Science seems to be the closest related.

**David CopperField** · 10-30-2010 01:49 AM

I was considered major in economics and minor in mathematics. Maths is boring

**KyleXY** · 10-30-2010 03:23 AM

If you want a degree, go for computer science. If you simply want the skills, and don't care about the degree, there are online courses that you can take at some community colleges (cheaper) that don't require you to have a lot of unnecessary pre-reqs to take.

FYI, I've never heard of any course requiring that many pre-reqs before you can take a class. That's very unusual.

**MonroeIV** · 10-30-2010 10:51 AM

Well the course itself only has one pre-req, and then that course has three pre-reqs, and those courses have pre-reqs, and so on.

**JohnGalt** · 10-30-2010 12:49 PM

That computer science major that you posted the course list for sounds exactly what you are looking for. That is the closest you will get to a web development major and many of the things you learn will be applicable to web development. You can always work on side projects throughout college and continue self-teaching the things that are not taught in class.

FWIW
Econ and Business Management undergrad and I'm about 2 classes short of an Accounting undergrad because I had to take a lot of extra accounting classes so I can sit for the CPA this spring. I do a little web development (php/mysql) and some design stuff (html/css/javascript) but it was all self taught or taught by friends.

**The Stealthy One** · 10-30-2010 05:20 PM

MonroeIV, as info - a computer science degree has nothing to do with computer hardware. (Trust me, I've got two!) It focuses on the type of stuff you're looking to do - remember, Web development is like any other software development. Computer hardware would be addressed in an electronics engineering sort of program.

**Nickflair** · 11-04-2010 04:39 AM

Hi

To be number one in basketball team.

**vidhiparekh84** · 11-09-2010 01:18 AM

To own a business some day

**farsizaban** · 11-28-2010 03:55 AM

I'm majoring in Middle Eastern/Persian Studies. It may seem random, but since I run an Iranian-American pen pal program, it's not as out there as it seems.