That is what troy university has now. What is that? Is it a CIS degree? or is is a Bachelor of Applied Science type degree? or is it a cross between CIS and CS. I am confused.
An Associates or Bachelors in "Applied Science" is a techincal or vocational type degree. This degree is designed to prepare you for employment in a specific career. In addition to some general education requirements, specific technical or occupational curriculum is required for each program. vocational degrees are counted under six headings: business and commerce technologies data processing technologies health services/paramedical technologies mechanical/engineering technologies natural science technologies public service-related technologies The Associate of Applied Science degree is awarded to students who are permitted to relax some of the general education requirements in order to study more course work in their program area. Typically, this kind of degree is for students who intend to enter the work force when they graduate Nonvocational degrees are the Arts and Science designations. I hope this helps
Without looking at the coursework, I would guess it is more programming language classes than in a typical CS program, and fewer CS advanced CS topics, like Operating Systems, Compilers, and Theory of Algorithms. In other words, a degree more geared towards future business app programmers than future CS grad students.
"Applied Science" suggests it's not specifically geared toward preparation for graduate study, but that doens't mean it's unsuitable for it. I think nowadays in most disciplines as long as you have the basics down you can do graduate study. I'm not sure it should be that way, but there it is. -=Steve=-
OK, I've looked at the required courses for the BS. It looks well-designed to me and isn't really a CIS equivalent (it;'s much more programming-heavy than a typical CIS program). The applied program seems to drop the language theory class, an assembly class, an architecture class, a second discrete math class ("logical structures"), real calc 1 and real calc 2, and potentially the first discrete math class (it's 1 of 3 options) for an "Advanced programming" class, business calc, web development, systems analysis and design, and an additional elective. Both programs look pretty good. My main concern about the applied CS program is the limited elective list. You can't take the object-oriented programming classes (which is just weird - as OOP is pretty applied). And if you think grad school might be in your future, it really is in your best interest to take discrete math, assembly language, an architecture class, and the nature of languages class. It would be worth asking if their list of Applied CS electives is firm or if you can cherry pick some classes off the CS degree list.