Comp Sci Programs at Junior Colleges?

An anonymous reader asks: "What place does a Computer Science Department play in a Community College? I recently started taking classes out of an interest in learning new things and getting a few college credits toward my first degree. I come to find out (only 1 semester after I started) that none of these credits will transfer to a bachelor's degree at one of our state schools. Many of the courses here are 'applied technology' such as Linux Administration/Installation or Web programming with PHP, but the local University only accepts their own 'theory based' courses such as Data Structures, Theory of operating systems, and so forth. I was wondering where a community college fits in, has anyone seen a great community college program recently and if anyone knows how these programs are designed?"

Comments

Not computer science

[eztiger]

PHP programming and linux admin (or any kindof admin) are not computer science disciplines.

The things they want (data structures etc) are. A more abstract layer that can be practically applied in any programming language.

Computer science is, funnily enough, more about the science.

You seem surprised that computer science is theory based...I'm afraid (at least from my own degree and others in surrounding universities) it largely is. The programming parts are merely to allow a practical presentation of the theory learned.

They generally expect you to pick up languages by yourself (you may get a quick introduction your first semester but you'll probably be handed a book and told to go read) and whilst you will probably be taught a smattering of unix, it won't be from a sysadmin point of view it will be from an IPC / pipes / OS theory / thread handling slant.

I'm not from the USA so I can't comment on community college courses but I would suggest you double check the Computer Science courses you're looking at to ensure it is actually what you want to do...better now than getting there and realising it's not what you thought.

Kev

What junior and community colleges are for

[pocari]

I'm not sure that there's anything not "great" about the school you're attending. Junior and community colleges typically provide very applied topics, like system administration or training in particular software packages or even programming languages. Even though it is unfortunately called "Computer Science," it is not what a CS department at a 4-year school would offer.

For students planning to go to 4-year schools, junior and community colleges offer what California schools call "general education" requirements: English, calculus, etc. Offering the type of CS class that a 4-year school would offer would be too specialized for them.

If your plan is to get a job right away learning skills you can pick up quickly, then that's what the CC CS classes are for. If you are looking for credits that will apply toward a bachelor's degree, they are probably in more general things like English, math, and science. In a community college, it is usually cheaper, and you get those things out of the way so you can focus on your major-related classes once you transfer.

Good luck!

Re:What junior and community colleges are for

[SnowDog_2112]

I think this differs a lot based on the school. Do some research, first. As others have posted, many CCs have arrangements with local universities which map their courses one-to-one. I took the first two years of my WPI CS degree at Springfield Technical Community College (Massachusetts), in a program specifically designed to transfer into a "real" CS program. I was absolutely not handicapped in any way, and went on to get my MS in CS.

It can be done, but it depends a lot on the curriculum at the specific school. Research first!

Re:Firsthand Info (albeit dated)

[arnie_apesacrappin]

There's definitely a place for Community Colleges in science and engineering. You just need a program designed around it. Maybe your state has something similar....

Truly words of wisdom. I met some professors in the UC public school system that setup a program to do just this. The program was so successful that they presented its design at a conference I attended.

Here's some advice if you don't have such a program available.

1. Find out the degree requirements for the program you intend to transfer into. Just because there aren't any CS courses that will transfer doesn't mean that you can't get your degree requirements out of the way. Completing all your math requirements in a CC setting will probably be one of the biggest helps you can get. I finished Cal 1-4 at the local college while in high school, but still had to take linear algebra and DiffEQs once I went off to college. Neither class was very hard, but the learning environment made them more difficult than to which I was accustomed.
2. Save some electives. I highly recommend getting any transferable requirements out of the way, but one mistake I made was getting my electives out of the way. I had taken 108 quarter hours of college classes by the time I graduated high school. When I got to "college" I basically had nothing but major classes left to take. It is a huge transition from taking a mix of classes (1 hard science, 1 soft science, 1 liberal arts) to taking nothing but classes in your major.
3. Plan out your major requirements. If you are thinking far enough ahead to consider getting a BS degree, you should probably consider what courses you'll have to complete after you transfer. Check for dependencies, pre-requisites, scheduling and any other road blocks. Someone in the CS department of the school to which you transfer should be able to help, but don't plan on it. I made a matrix of all the courses I needed to complete and it was very helpful.

All I can add is good luck.

Re:Wrong courses

[jhoger]

In the California community college system, at least at Fullerton College, we had a complete array of undergraduate CS courses. Everything you would normally get in the first two years... introductory programming, data structures, and the general math courses that are required were available.

I was able to get my AA in Computer Science, and transfer most of my credits to University to come in as a Junior in Computer Science. There were still lots of classes to take, but that's just because CS is a heavy unit major.

You need to see the counselors at both the university you intend to transfer to and the community college you are transferring from to make sure you are getting the classes you need and nothing more, and that you transfer at the right point.
-- John.

Re:Wrong courses

[aXiSPoWeR]

Not True. I attended Montgomery College in Maryland, and only non CS courses transfer for equivalent credits to UMCP. CS courses transfer only if you test out of those classes, otherwise they transfer as electives.