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Bsc Applied mathematics and computer science unisa
- Thread starter Landvite
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Hello sweetie, my female friend who is 65 recently studied computers though UNISA is doing very well. UNISA is an excellent university, some very clever youngsters that go there.
Make sure you wear the right underwear for exams sweetie in case you have an 'accident'
All the best.
Make sure you wear the right underwear for exams sweetie in case you have an 'accident'
All the best.
Moonlit8377
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What?!
PaulGherkin
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My colleague in South Africa did the same course.
Life after graduating was interesting, he became furniture, but also, he is considered weird, so life is not so good according to him.
He still sets the Wi-Fi password to be the answer of a differential calculus problem
I don’t know about UNISA specifically, but graduates doing this from the university I went to did very well for themselves. It offers opportunities in general software development, and also finance and engineering.
I suggest going to at least honours level for better overseas recognition.
I did CS and pure maths as majors, but did 2 years of applied maths too. I have been extremely successful, although I did study to a PhD first.
Landvite
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That's nice, what is career path did she take, is it software engineer or dev e.g.
Landvite
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What about in terms of his career, how was that like
Landvite
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Do you think applied mathematics has more opportunities than pure math
Directly, no, however, it does help one's ability to learn and comprehend certain topics, and it offers a different perspective. Almost everything done in Applied Maths is a special case of something more general/abstract, that you'll only really see if you do Pure Maths.
I completed my BSc in Computer Science and Information Systems back in 2015. It was assessed by ACS (Australian Computer Society) as being comparable to a similar degree from an Australian university in June 2023. It has held me in good stead.
Landvite
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So if I major in applied mathematics and computer science that would be a great combination
Landvite
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Was it from unisa
Brawler
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I didn't do the exact degree but did a similar BSc at Unisa and I'm doing well. It just checks the degree checkbox and the rest boils down to experience and your aptitude.
Yep
I did this degree and then started work as a C++ dev afterwards. If I could make the choice again I would do Unisa's BSc Computing degree instead. With the Applied Math and Comp Sci degree you going to spend a LOT of time on third year math modules like Mechanics and Calculus of Variations, Special Relativity and Riemannian Geometry, and Ordinary Differential Equations which takes time away from programming. None of these subjects helped me at all once starting work as a dev and after a few months you start to forget because you're no longer using what you learnt. Also a year into your career how well you code and what you're like to work with is going to matter more than which specific Computer Sci degree you did.
If you're super strong academically, top of your class, and going to do Masters and PhD like cguy then maybe you'll get some additional value out of all the extra math and still do really well with the programming.
If you're more like me and might struggle a bit or you have to work at the same time I think it's better to do the Computing degree and then do honours in Computing as well if possible for better global recognition. It will also be easier to get into honours because your marks should be higher than with the Applied Math and Comp Sci degree (and I say this as someone who went into it with what most would consider a very strong math background).
Either way, good luck. If you're really on the fence between the two you could start with Appl Math and Comp Sci and if you're not getting very high marks for the math in first year change to Computing, you would only have 2 extra subjects to pick up at that point.
If you're super strong academically, top of your class, and going to do Masters and PhD like cguy then maybe you'll get some additional value out of all the extra math and still do really well with the programming.
If you're more like me and might struggle a bit or you have to work at the same time I think it's better to do the Computing degree and then do honours in Computing as well if possible for better global recognition. It will also be easier to get into honours because your marks should be higher than with the Applied Math and Comp Sci degree (and I say this as someone who went into it with what most would consider a very strong math background).
Either way, good luck. If you're really on the fence between the two you could start with Appl Math and Comp Sci and if you're not getting very high marks for the math in first year change to Computing, you would only have 2 extra subjects to pick up at that point.
Yes it is.
Although @Smets does make some good points. The direct value of the maths courses really depends on what you end up doing, which also depends somewhat on what you want to do.
I have worked my entire career in engineering and quantitative finance, so maths has been very useful to me. If you end up doing WebDev or e-payments or mobile apps or some such, it’s less likely to be directly useful.
Personally, I feel that the maths courses were a trial by fire (much harder than the CS courses), and that they made me smarter and more tenacious by doing them.
I have been involved in the hiring process of late at the company I work for, and the candidates with a BSc in Computing generally do a lot worse.
Worse than candidates with App Naths too? Or worse than candidates without a BSc?
If you’re hiring candidates without a BSc, you likely have a lot of selection bias in your candidate set.
My main role is to assess their cultural fit and quality of code/answers to technical questions. My anecdotal feedback is that candidates with only a BSc in computing, tend not to do as well. Those with applied maths have done well.
Ah. Yes. Math qualifications are a very good filter for things like intelligence and tenacity.
BSc CS degrees required 2 years of maths in my day (now only 1 I believe).