What Are The Different Types of Computer Degrees?

Key Infor­ma­tion:

• Dif­fer­ent com­put­er-relat­ed degrees include majors such as Com­put­er Sci­ence, Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems, Com­put­er Engi­neer­ing, and Soft­ware Engineering.
• Each major has spe­cif­ic areas of focus, for exam­ple, Com­put­er Sci­ence cov­ers broad com­put­ing con­cepts, where­as Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy focus­es on data man­age­ment and net­work security.
• Depend­ing on the major, grad­u­ates can work in var­i­ous roles such as cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, sys­tems analy­sis, or soft­ware devel­op­ment.
• Com­put­er degrees are avail­able in dif­fer­ent for­mats like on-cam­pus, online, or hybrid, to accom­mo­date var­i­ous learn­ing pref­er­ences and lifestyles.

There is a wide selec­tion of majors that a stu­dent could choose from for their com­put­er degree, and there are com­put­er degrees avail­able at all lev­els of upper edu­ca­tion from asso­ciate to doc­tor­al degrees. Often there are fur­ther spe­cial­iza­tions with­in each major that allow stu­dents to pre­pare for a spe­cif­ic career path.

This arti­cle was orig­i­nal­ly pub­lished in Novem­ber 2022 and was updat­ed and revised to reflect the most up-to-date infor­ma­tion avail­able in Jan­u­ary 2024.

Some of the most com­mon majors with­in the field of com­put­er sci­ence are: 

• Com­put­er Science
• Infor­ma­tion Technology
• Infor­ma­tion Systems
• Com­put­er Engineering
• Soft­ware Engineering

Stu­dents will also be able to choose the for­mat of their degree, as many insti­tu­tions offer com­put­er degrees with class­es on cam­pus, online, or a hybrid of both. Online options are typ­i­cal­ly suit­ed for work­ing pro­fes­sion­als who are look­ing to obtain a com­put­er-based job, or already one and are look­ing to increase their cre­den­tials for career promotion. 

Grad­u­ates with com­put­er degrees are some of the most sought-after employ­ees, as there is a large skills gap between the num­ber of com­put­er jobs and qual­i­fied appli­cants. There­fore, some peo­ple may find that an afford­able com­put­er degree will get their foot in the same door as a degree from a pres­ti­gious Ivy League school, at a heav­i­ly dis­count­ed rate. 

Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, com­put­er-relat­ed degree grad­u­ates can expect to earn an aver­age of $100,530 annu­al­ly. The job out­look also is pos­i­tive with a “much faster than aver­age” rate of growth.

For ref­er­ence to some of the most afford­able com­put­er sci­ence degrees, check out our list of the Top 10 Cheap­est Online Bach­e­lors of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degrees.

Let’s take a clos­er look at what dif­fer­en­ti­ates the dif­fer­ent com­put­er degree majors from each other.

Computer Science

Com­put­er Sci­ence is the most com­mon major for com­put­er degrees. The field of com­put­er sci­ence can encom­pass a wide range of sub­jects, giv­ing stu­dents a broad back­ground and basis from which to lat­er choose a specialization. 

In gen­er­al, the field of com­put­er sci­ence teach­es the under­ly­ing sci­en­tif­ic the­o­ries and rea­son­ing that go into the build­ing blocks of com­put­ing. Major­ing in com­put­er sci­ence is the most ver­sa­tile com­put­er degree, as it will not pigeon­hole you to any par­tic­u­lar specialization.

Information Technology

Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy is the sec­ond most com­mon major for com­put­er degrees and focus­es on data archive, retrieval, and trans­mis­sion. This major empha­sizes learn­ing how com­put­ers con­nect through Local Area Net­works (LANs), Wide Area Net­works (WANs), and Ethernets. 

Areas of spe­cial­iza­tion with­in the field of Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy include but are not lim­it­ed to:

• Infor­ma­tion Assur­ance and Security
• Net­work Administration
• Soft­ware Analy­sis and Development

The spe­cial­iza­tion of stu­dents with­in the field of Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy will qual­i­fy them for par­tic­u­lar careers like Infor­ma­tion Secu­ri­ty Ana­lyst, Sys­tems Admin­is­tra­tor, and Soft­ware Developer.

Information Systems

Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems is a very sim­i­lar major to Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy, with the slight dif­fer­ence being that Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems majors will focus on the busi­ness appli­ca­tions of IT prin­ci­ples. This degree con­cen­tra­tion will teach stu­dents how to ana­lyze com­pa­nies, cor­po­ra­tions, gov­ern­ments, and oth­er insti­tu­tions to define and achieve spe­cif­ic goals.

Computer Engineering

Com­put­er Engi­neer­ing majors deal with com­put­er hard­ware, learn­ing how to con­struct and pro­gram moth­er­boards, and design the dif­fer­ent devices that these moth­er­boards oper­ate. They also focus on the inter­face of per­son­al com­put­ing, design­ing seam­less inter­ac­tions between humans and technology. 

Research sci­en­tists and oth­er com­put­er sci­en­tists in com­put­er tech­nol­o­gy often have an engi­neer­ing degree. Engi­neer­ing is also often the high­est-pay­ing online degree, accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics (BLS).

Software Engineering

Soft­ware Engi­neer­ing majors cre­ate the oper­at­ing sys­tems and appli­ca­tions that uti­lize what Com­put­er Engi­neers have cre­at­ed. They will learn how to write code, and will usu­al­ly spe­cial­ize in one of the major com­put­er pro­gram­ming lan­guages like Java, Python, and C+, among many others.

Some of the careers you may take on with one of these degrees include:

• Com­put­er Sys­tems Programmer
• Cyber­se­cu­ri­ty
• Data­base Administrator
• Web Devel­op­er
• Sys­tems Analyst
• Com­put­er Programmer
• Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Manager

There are relat­ed, high-demand con­cen­tra­tions stu­dents may want to con­sid­er, such as:

• project man­age­ment
• game devel­op­ment
• web design
• human-com­put­er interaction
• arti­fi­cial intelligence/machine learning
• appli­ca­tion development
• data­base management
• big data
• soft­ware systems
• data struc­tures
• algo­rithms

In addi­tion to the fun­da­men­tals, strong, in-demand com­put­er sci­ence pro­grams should also empha­size soft skills like prob­lem-solv­ing, crit­i­cal think­ing, and real-world, hands-on appli­ca­tions in their course­work. Enrolling in a full-time bach­e­lor of sci­ence pro­gram is just the start!

Relat­ed:

• Top 10 Cheap­est Online Bach­e­lors of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degrees
• Top 10 Bach­e­lor of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degree Programs
• Top Ten Online Schools for a Bachelor’s Degree in Com­put­er Science

Source:

BLS.gov