It is. Also most course curriculum start with learning Java or C and that's what you will be doing if you minor in CS (taking the starting courses). There will also be requirements for algorithms and data structures and what not but none of this can be put into practice without knowing languages to write in.
The thing about coding is that if you don't like it or don't practice it, having a major in CS is a big waste of paper. That said, there are many people who don't have CS degrees that are programmers. It's a nice to have but 80% of the programming jobs out there use a fraction of what you learn in college. Most comes from on the job experience and side jobs. Asian?
I'd rather minor in partying (which I did) but that's just me. Yes, I have a MIS bachelor's degree and work in IT.
It seemed like all the interviews I had were heavy on algorithms. The worst was the hedge funds. They ask you all these esoteric things about code optimization and math questions. If you didn't at least had a algorithms class you would have been screwed.
Simply biased, since I have degrees in engineering, chemistry and computer science. :grin: Again, programming/software is just a subset of computer science. Of course you have to know programming as a CS major but you have to know a lot more. Some of you guys are speaking as coders only. You need to see the work being done in Artificial Intelligence and data mining for example. Heavy heavy probability/statistical math to develop new algorithms. Its the algorithm that is the challenge. Writing code for it is not the hard part.
A CS minor would do very little of that. There would only be one reason to be a CS minor and that's to get good at coding cause you will do lots of it.
Unfortunately, college curriculum are very poor at teaching you coding. A minor would be even more hopeless when it comes to learning programming. Computer Science is mostly theory. You need to practice/learn coding on your own. We used to keep telling this to struggling students in our department who kept waiting for their classes to teach them to code. The above statement of mine that you quoted was meant for Cs major. But in any case, with data structures, algorithms, probability and statistics, and discrete math, under his belt, he would have the sufficient theoretical background to work in AI for example. The AI classes just bring it all together. The reason the CS minor would be good for him is that with it he will have something on his transcript/resume saying that he has the some background to be looked at for the CS jobs. Without those he might not even be considered. Coding/CS interviews interviews are mostly data structures and algorithms anyways. He might as well take it.
Tru Stery. During our trip to Malaysia, we were at a book store looking for some good books for my daughter to read. My daughter comes across a Jeremy Lin book and asks me if I can find a James Harden one for her instead. My wife - "Hun, you are not going to find that one in the 80% off section."
