InformationWeek

January 5, 1999

I'm a 34-year-old computer science student. Six years ago, I earned an associate's degree in business administration from a community college. I've been in the IS field for the last two years mostly working on tech support. I went back to school two years ago because I thought that a bachelor's degree in computer science would help me advance. My career goal is to become a network engineer, but I noticed that a computer science degree involves more programming than anything else. Would it be better to pursue a degree in computer information systems instead of computer science?

In my opinion, there's little difference between the two degrees you described. If your focus is network and integration, and ultimately you want to be in the network-engineering arena, I recommend that you refocus your education toward a B.S. degree in telecommunications with an emphasis on network integration. Either way, a must is to finish the degree--whatever it is. You can always do additional education work via CNE or networking courses.

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