An Alum’s Perspective on the Four-Year Computer Science Tracks

I want to start by saying that the YC computer science department has gone through an amazingly successful transformation in the last several years. Students and alumni have secured jobs and internships at top companies, and this success should be fully attributed to the professors, the department and the dedicated student body. Personally, I came into YU not knowing a single line of code and left with the skillset to procure an internship and full-time offer from Amazon. However, after two years of time to contemplate on the four-year programs, I would like to explore some of the benefits and drawbacks of the different options.

As the faculty has mentioned many times, the four-year program does not help you get a better starting job out of college. So, for any student whose primary academic goal coming out of college is to procure the best possible starting job, there is no need to read any further: a four-year degree does not help you attain a better starting job out of college.

So, what is the point? When you are 10-15 years into your career, you will have to make an important career choice of either becoming a manager, specializing in a more narrow or advanced field or getting fired. Since you do not want to become a manager, as the department claims you will not, the only option left is to specialize in a four-year track or else you’ll get fired. If this is truly the reality of industry, then how can anyone attempt to make the case to stay for three years?

First of all, who says that you don’t want to become a manager? Most software engineers our parents’ age don’t code anymore, but instead manage other people who do the coding. Look no further than YU’s very own Computer Science Advisory Board to see that a successful long term computer science career does not need to involve coding forever — more than half of the advisory board members no longer code, but manage those who do. This is a very standard and desirable career path, and there is no reason to immediately discount it. If one decides that a managerial path is for them, then again, the four-year option is of little help.

Secondly, and more importantly, I fail to see how the six extra courses that a student takes in undergrad will save their career 10 years down the line. As I mentioned before, no one argues the fact that the starting jobs of a three-year grad and a four-year grad are identical. They are performing the same tasks and developing the same skills for numerous years. I have spoken to many of my peers who graduated from the four-year track and they all claim that they are yet to incorporate their four-year specialties in their current jobs. Ironically, the only machine learning engineer who I know to graduate from YU actually did the three-year track.

If you do not use the four-year specialties in the first several years of your career, when will they magically come to your rescue? After a three- to five-year period of not working in advanced data science or distributed systems fields, it is probably fairly difficult to recall those skills when they become necessary. Instead of acquiring these skills in your undergraduate education, it is probably more feasible to develop these skills while you are working, so that you will actually be able to use them in the right time, instead of just forgetting them after many years of neglecting them.

I am by no means an expert in the computer science industry. I only have a couple of years of industry experience and I am merely sharing my thoughts from the environments that I have experienced thus far. Feel free to speak with computer scientists who have been working for many, many years to discuss which track makes the most sense for you (preferably an unbiased individual who is not part of the institution, which is pushing certain tracks). Remember, these tracks are not standardized across universities; companies know the difference between a B.A., Master’s and Ph.D., not the inner workings of the three and four-year tracks at YU.

Until now we’ve discussed the fundamental differences between the three and four-year programs. I’d like to spend the rest of the article engaging in more specific points regarding which program is more beneficial.

1. The advantages of earning a B.S. vs. a B.A. Anyone who has applied to a job or internship knows that you select the “BA/BS” option from a dropdown. I have not seen any companies that differentiate between the two. Additionally, at YU, if you major in anything in Sy Syms, you get a B.S., while anything in YC is a B.A. Does a Syms marketing or management major have an advantage over a YC double major in physics and math because of the B.S. vs. B.A. degree? I think not.

2. More time/lighter schedule. Doesn’t the four-year program give me more flexibility, including a lighter course load and more time to learn? In theory, yes, but in practice, no. When I was in YU, any single computer science class that I was taking was more rigorous and time-consuming than the rest of my other courses combined. While the four-year track offers the ability to take fewer courses per semester, this won’t actually increase your spare time since you have just as many computer science courses to take. 

3. Extra Summer. Having an extra summer is extremely beneficial when applying to jobs and internships — there is no denying that fact. However, a fourth year of full tuition and courses is not the only way to achieve this. Personally, I learned for two years in semikha after undergrad and this gave me multiple extra summers. I have other peers at Amazon who spread out the three-year track over four years to give maximum flexibility; others did it in three and a half years. An extra summer is undeniably a huge help, but there are other options which are more cost-effective and allow for more learning or general free time.

4. Burnout. I think one consequence which many junior students fail to consider is the possibility of burning out in a fourth year. YU is an extremely difficult (and rewarding) place with a gruesome schedule. Many fourth-year students feel extremely isolated and fatigued while their friends have graduated from YU to pursue graduate degrees, enter the workforce or learn in semikha. This shouldn’t be the biggest factor to sway one’s decision, but it is worth noting to consider.

I want to end by reiterating how I started — the YU computer science department has done an excellent job of revamping the program and turning it into something that is nothing short of extraordinary. I just wish that we progressed from the current status of default four-year students with a few three-year rebels to people giving it more thought and having a more even split. Who knows, maybe in a few years it will be the default three-year students with a few four-year rebels?

Photo caption: Students must weigh conflicting reports from their faculty and their alumni regarding the different computer science tracks at YU

Photo credit: Tumisu / Pixabay