If Im a Computer Security Major transferring to 4yr school for Computer Science Degree?
@ my local community college im a Computer Security Major…they offer Computer Science…but im not that im security. I want to goto 4yr college not many offer majors in computer security and everyone says computer science is what I need to transfer to but wont that mean It will take longer if that wasn;t my major to begin with ?
I think it will. But don’t listen to me I’m not a genius.
you only need to spend two more years, if the school you transfer to accept the previous credits.
That depends on the class requirements for a Computer Science degree. If you’ve taken lots of classes that were specific to your CC degree and don’t apply to the degree you want where you want to transfer to, yes it will take longer. If you’ve taken lots of overlapping classes, it won’t take much longer.
In order to be proficient in computer security, you must be proficient in computer science.
Why don’t you see a college counselor? The variables are too many to cover adequately here. Any advice you’re likely to get will be too general to do you much good.
Wow, you’re full of questions today! This provides a little more insight into your reason for avoiding CS, so maybe I can address it better.
Computer science is a very tough major. Many “traditional” majors at my university had 40-60 hours of required coursework for graduation. The computer science program had 92 hours of required coursework. That being the case, very few students graduated in 4 years. I entered college with 21 credit hours and took 18 and 20 hours of classes (respectively) my last two semesters in order to graduate in 3.5 years without a minor and only a couple electives.
Also, many computer science programs have an internship requirement. This can be hard for transfer students expecting to graduate in 2 years because they find themselves applying for internships just a few months after starting the program while others have had 2 years of course work prior to applying for internships. You should be in a better situation in this respect because of your community college concentration, but it might still be hard to graduate in 2 more years.
Another barrier you’ll face is that many of your credits won’t transfer. If you have an associate’s degree from an accredited institution, then most colleges will wave your general education (or “liberal arts”) requirement. This will save you from having to retake history and other classes that may not directly apply to your degree. Your core programming courses (if you took them) should also transfer. Though you might need to take an extra course if the central programming language is different from what you learned (so if you took C++ and the university is in to Java, they might make you take a “Java as a second language” course). You _might_ also get transfer credit for things like calculus (if you took it).
Contact the registrar’s office at the university you plan to attend and see if you can meet with someone to discuss what courses might transfer. They should hopefully be able to assist you with this.
The bottom line is that CS is a hard degree with a lot of requirements. This is why it’s such a useful degree and why you will come out qualified for almost any computer job. You’re going to have to work hard and it’s probably going to take at least another 3 years of school. But when it comes down to it, you will be well-prepared for any job in the industry, including those in computer security.