This is WSU CS B.S


Computing/Programming in C
Formal Logic
Introduction to Digital Design
Engineering Economy
Data Structures and Algorithms I and II
Assembly Language Programming
Introduction to Computer Architecture
Programming Paradigms
Object-Oriented Programming
Algorithm Design Methods
Computer Networking
Programming Language Concepts
Operating Systems
Introduction to Database Systems
Introduction to Software Engineering
Design Projects I and II
Technical elective

66 core classes.

Is this bachelors degree missing important classes like ( c#, java)?

databases, Engineering Economy, and Computer Networking don't appear to belong to a CS Degree....

Is this a weak CS degree?

Without reading the course catalog it's impossible to know what languages the courses are taught in, but it will likely be at least 2 or 3 different ones, hopefully not all ancient. The list of courses seems very standard, and you'll definitely get a decent CS education out of it assuming they're taught properly.

As for your second comment, computer networking and databases are two fairly important CS topics, although their usefulness depends on the quality of the course. Databases may not apply to game development (and to be fair, you likely won't be doing only game development) but computer networks definitely does.

Those classes should be fine.


The purpose of a university of education is to learn the science behind it, not just teach what you need for a game job.

The same computer theory applies to every language. Learn the theory and a few simple languages, and you can pick up any computer language on your own.

The fact that you don't understand why databases or networking aren't important is telling. Computer science is about data. Data structures, algorithms to use on the data, and storing, transferring, and otherwise manipulating the data. Databases and networking are critical manipulation methods to learn.

You can't, and shouldn't, judge a course by the languages they teach -- well, actually, in fact, I would be inclined to judge them negatively for teaching primarily in languages like C# or Java: First because these types of new-fangled languages make it difficult to teach concepts like pointers and memory-management, and second because it indicates a willingness on the part of the institution to adopt new and uproven languages in response to outside influences. Usually when a school clings to "old" or "outdated" languages there is something to them that allows them to continue being used, despite themselves -- perhaps they're just a really good teaching language, posess a certain purity (Smalltalk, Lisp, for example) or force the students to undertand fundamentals over language-centric details, since it is unlikely grads would find a job favoring these languages. In any case though, a good program should expose you not just to many programming languages, but many programming paradigms -- Procedural, Functional, Object-Oriented, Data-Oriented, Logic-Oriented.

University is there to teach you how to be a Computer Scientist, not a computer programmer -- there is a distinct difference. A Computer Scientist uses their fundamental understanding of computation to make them an effective programmer, not their knowlege of any specific language. Those classes which you charge "don't belong" are quite standard and quite necessary -- any programmer who doesn't know a reasonable amount of Database stuff will be locking them out of a lot of work and missing some good lessons, one who doesn't understand the economic issues as applied to engineering will be deficient (I assume this course is in part related to cost/benefit of features and the like), and anyone who will ever access a network from their application had better have a reasonable understanding of how computer networks actually work (The 7-layer OSI model, collision detection and correction -- routing is also a good way to apply path-finding algortithms like A-Star with non-trivial distance metrics, for example).


Presuming WSU is Washington State University, if you do come to feel that the program is not as good as you would like, have you considered University of Washington? They have an excellent program (a Top 10 CS program in the nation) -- both the staff and the facilities are top-notch, and they do many interesting research projects and have close ties to many top technology companies.

for some reason they all echo in my mind, these are classes to teach you about optimization, because you already know how to get things done.