Honors vs Regular degree

[Clever Error]

So I'm going into 3rd year of my Computer Science degree and I'm at the point where I need do decide wether I'm going for the honors degree or just the regular degree. My question would be what is the difference between a regular and honors degree? Does the option you choose afect what jobs are available to you? Thanks in advance for any help.

[apomb]

If you're in third year and still dont know the difference, you should not be in third year... your school probably has much more information on the subject than an internet forum site does anyway.

Alas, here goes my attempt to help:

A few questions you might want to ask yourself before even considering doing honours:

What school are you at? by which i mean, how are the graduation statistics etc.

Why do you not know the career paths you can take and you're in third year?

Why are you in a program you know nothing about?

How many years do you want to be in school?

These are all questions only you can answer, then, maybe you'll get some answers from others about career choices.

thanks for staying with me this far, i assume you made it to the end of this post without expecting to get much information out of it, or what you're going to do after you read this post, since you obviously didnt put much effort into choosing a university course, why would you put much effort into reading an web forum post by a stranger?

Cheers, Apomb

[[Gandalf]]

I thought all university CS programs in Canada were now "Honours"?

But jeeze apomb... Really...

[jernst]

Clever Error @ Thu Jun 18, 2009 11:38 pm wrote:

So I'm going into 3rd year of my Computer Science degree and I'm at the point where I need do decide wether I'm going for the honors degree or just the regular degree. My question would be what is the difference between a regular and honors degree? Does the option you choose afect what jobs are available to you? Thanks in advance for any help.

One thing an honours degree is good for is if you want to continue on and take a Masters degree later. Generally they require you to have an honours degree, or will make you do some extra work to get in if you don't.


...and lol @ apomb

[rizzix]

apomb @ Fri Jun 19, 2009 12:32 am wrote:

If you're in third year and still dont know the difference, you should not be in third year...

Comments as these are not really necessary; neither are they welcomed.

[apomb]

rizzix @ Fri Jun 19, 2009 12:32 pm wrote:

apomb @ Fri Jun 19, 2009 12:32 am wrote:

If you're in third year and still dont know the difference, you should not be in third year...

Comments as these are not really necessary; neither are they welcomed.

thanks for contributing to the thread.

on a related note,

Wikipedia wrote:

Depending on the province, a bachelor's degree takes either three or four years to complete. Traditionally, a three-year degree is also called a pass degree or general degree, and a four-year degree is also called an honours degree. In provinces that grant three-year bachelor's degrees, a student may choose to complete an additional year of studies to obtain a four-year honours degree.

[Clever Error]

Well... I would that to say that helped but that would be a lie.

I'm going to the U of S so far, 1st and 2nd year are mostly the same (not counting electives) no matter what comp sci degree your going for. Third year is when everyone decides what to go for. So I'll try clarifying my questions.

What is the advantage of a honors degree over a regular degree?
- I know it has more theoretical courses
- It is not required for graduate school

Is it possible that a job would not hire you just because you dont have a honors degree?

[jernst]

If I were hiring someone, I would take the person with the honours degree over the general degree. I'm not sure how they do it at companies like microsoft, google, rim etc...But an extra year of school is helpful when comparing two people who have similar qualifications. The honours degree generally has higher requirements so without even looking at transcripts you can guess that the honours student likely had higher marks. You have less time in school with a general degree, so likely fewer electives meaning you are less rounded student compared with the honours student.

It may also depend on what type of job you are looking for, at some smaller companies who are just looking for a programmer or web dev, they might not even realize the difference between honours and general in which you are probably okay.

In the end though, alot of getting a job comes to how you sell yourself. I know people who have college diplomas and have had no trouble finding very good jobs immediately after graduation (RIM, Opentext, etc). Keep in mind these people were the top of their class and had great work experience as well, but it can be done.

[Dan]

Some of the most interesting and challenging course i took in my undergrad where at the 4th year level. So i would say you could be missing out on alot just in terms of your education if you don't go for honours.

Also having an honors degree is a big adventage when trying to get in to grad school. It might be rather hard to get acppected with out one.

[jernst]

Dan @ Fri Jun 19, 2009 2:56 pm wrote:

Some of the most interesting and challenging course i took in my undergrad where at the 4th year level. So i would say you could be missing out on alot just in terms of your education if you don't go for honours.

Also having an honors degree is a big adventage when trying to get in to grad school. It might be rather hard to get acppected with out one.

+1 I felt the same way. All of the theory finally starts be put to use with alot of the 4th year courses. You could probably take a few of them in your 3rd year if you managed to use all of your electives for comp sci courses...but still not the same as a whole year of them. You also sacrifice exposure to other courses and points of view outside of computer science. This is fairly important, at least to me.