The computer science department’s offering of both an A.B. degree and a B.S.E. degree is rooted in the engineering prerequisites being less applicable than they are to other engineering majors, according to department chair Andrew Appel ’81.
The department offers both tracks because many topics and applications within computer science do not rely on required B.S.E. courses like multivariable calculus, he explained.
"Historically, about a quarter or a third of our majors have been A.B.s and the rest B.S.E.s," he said. "I think it works for those students. The track within the major is pretty similar."
While both A.B. and B.S.E students must complete eight computer science departmental courses,A.B. students are not required to take the B.S.E. degree’s prerequisites of physics, chemistry and multivariable calculus. They also must take one fewer math course than is required of B.S.E. students. While B.S.E. students must complete 36 courses in order to graduate, A.B. students need only 31, but B.S.E. students do not need to fulfill a foreign language requirement.
“They’re very close, ” A.B. computer science major Bobby Ullman ’15 said.“As somebody who started out in the integrated science curriculum, I could’ve really done either.”
He said that he chose his degree based on how he was feeling that day.
Some of the differences also lie in research interests, Appel said.
“Some of our best A.B. majors are interested in things like computational biology, and, as such, they’re likely to take a fair amount of chemistry, but they don’t necessarily take as much physics, for example,” Appel said.
A.B. majors must participate in four semesters of independent work that does not count towards their required courses, complete two semesters of junior independent work and write a year-long senior thesis.
“You could do a theoretical thesis about research entirely,” Ullman said regarding the A.B. computer science degree. “For example, my thesis is about poker. I’m running some simulations in poker while writing a paper about that. But some people do more technical things where they build some kind of project and write about it.”
B.S.E. majors are required to complete one semester of independent work, which counts as a course.
Siddhartha Jayanti ’17 said he chose a B.S.E. degree in computer science because it had fewer additional classes beyond what he would normally take.
“In B.S.E., research credits are courses, so [the number of classes A.B. and B.S.E. students take] comes out to approximately the same thing," he said.
The total course load is relatively similar between the two options, and students can switch their decision about pursuing an A.B. or B.S.E. degree any time before graduation. As long as a student has satisfied the requirements for either degree, that student can switch from one to the other just by filling out a form.
“Most people end up A.B. if they decide too late to easily take all the prerequisites [for B.S.E.],” Ullman said. “That’s probably why A.B. exists, because they don’t want to prevent anyone from taking computer science just because they decide that, in sophomore year halfway through, they started as a history major, but actually they like computer science.”
“The reason I chose A.B. and the reason I can tell you that most people choose A.B. is that I came in as a different major. I came as a math major,” Dale Markowitz ’15 said. “I had so many requirements done for A.B. that I figured I might as well just do that.”
She added that concentrators’ post-graduation goals may also determine which degree they choose.
“If you just want to work at a software company, [the A.B. thesis requirement] is just unnecessary stress,” she said.
Capella Yee ’15 said when she was picking her degree, some people were not sure what they wanted to do and hoped to shop around.
“I think a lot of it was just that I was just worried about some of the B.S.E. requirements," Yee said. "I really just didn’t want to take physics.”
Computer science professor Andrea LaPaugh said she does not believe students are swayed by any one deciding factor.
“Part of it may be when they came in, before what they decided what the major was, if they came in as A.B. or B.S.E," she said. "The two degrees are so fluid, though, that that’s not the main reason. I think it may depend upon interest or just the kind of program that’s mapped out for the A.B. versus the B.S.E. in terms of University requirements."
The programs offer the same kinds of opportunities, LaPaugh added.
“I can’t tell, when I’m talking to a student whether it’s an A.B. student or a B.S.E. student, unless we’re talking about some requirement that has to do with only that degree," she said.
Elizabeth Bradley ’17 said she found the B.S.E prerequisites helpful.
Bradley is a former copy editor for The Daily Princetonian.
“I felt the B.S.E. prerequisites for math and physics would really prepare me for the kind of problems I might tackle in the field," she said. “I can take a semester and find out if independent work is for me. That option is what I find incredibly freeing.”
B.S.E. majors, if they choose, have the option to continue with their independent research work, she noted.
At Harvard, students who concentrate in computer science majors get an A.B. or joint A.B./master of science degree. Yale’s Department of Computer Science offers both Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Arts majors in Computer Science and a combined bachelor’s/master degree program. It also offers joint majors with electrical engineering, mathematics and psychology. The University of Pennsylvania’s department lets undergraduates get a bachelor’s of applied science degree or a B.S.E. degree.Dartmouth offers an A.B. degree in computer science, Columbia says most of its computer science majors, but not all of them, come from its engineering school,Brown offers a bachelor’s of scienceand Cornell offers a bachelor’s of science in computer science.
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