What Can I Do with a Bachelor’s in Computer Science Degree?

Is a com­put­er sci­ence degree worth it? It’s a ques­tion worth ask­ing for stu­dents who are research­ing which careers are most like­ly to return on the invest­ment of their time, work, and mon­ey. Sure, com­put­ers are basic to every part of mod­ern life, but is a com­put­er sci­ence degree still the best way to get into a career in tech­nol­o­gy? Can you even get a good job with a bach­e­lor’s degree? And will a com­put­er sci­ence degree still be valu­able in the future?

Accord­ing to the Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics, tech­nol­o­gy careers are grow­ing faster than aver­age through 2026. The BLS fur­ther points out that the medi­an pay for these jobs is $82,860. That’s good news, con­sid­er­ing the aver­age medi­an wage for all posi­tions across the coun­try is $37,040 annu­al­ly. There­fore, if your ques­tion is, “Is a com­put­er sci­ence degree worth it,” the short answer is, “yes.” We’re going to dive into the long answer now.

Relat­ed:

• Top Online Schools for a Bach­e­lor’s Degree in Com­put­er Science
• Top Cheap Online Bach­e­lor’s of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degrees
• Top Bach­e­lor of Com­put­er Sci­ence Degree Programs

What is Computer Science Accreditation?

What makes a com­put­er sci­ence degree worth it? When stu­dents are research­ing which school or uni­ver­si­ty they should attend, it’s essen­tial they pick an accred­it­ed pro­gram, whether they’re get­ting a com­put­er sci­ence degree online or in a tra­di­tion­al on-cam­pus for­mat. Region­al accred­i­ta­tion is the first hur­dle of any col­lege or university.

Despite the name, region­al accred­i­ta­tion is actu­al­ly the high­est form; it cov­ers the entire insti­tu­tion. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion-approved, inde­pen­dent accred­it­ing boards set the stan­dards for each of six regions in the US: the Mid-Atlantic, New Eng­land, the South, the Mid­west, the North­west, and the West. Region­al accred­i­ta­tion doesn’t just tell employ­ers that you got your degree from a legit­i­mate school; many cer­ti­fi­ca­tions and licens­es require that an appli­cant have a degree from a region­al­ly-accred­it­ed school.

What is ABET Accreditation?

Along with region­al accred­i­ta­tion, stu­dents should seek out pro­grams with com­put­er sci­ence accred­i­ta­tion. Schools, uni­ver­si­ties, learn­ing insti­tu­tions seek­ing com­put­er sci­ence accred­i­ta­tion for stu­dents seek­ing an accred­it­ed com­put­er sci­ence degree online look toward ABET accred­i­ta­tion. In this day and age, is ABET accred­i­ta­tion impor­tant for com­put­er sci­ence? What is ABET accred­i­ta­tion, even?

Specif­i­cal­ly, the Accred­i­ta­tion Board for Engi­neer­ing and Tech­nol­o­gy (ABET) pro­vides pro­gram accred­i­ta­tion for four areas of sci­ence edu­ca­tion. The Com­put­er Accred­i­ta­tion Com­mis­sion, part of ABET, sets stan­dards for com­put­er sci­ence schools and depart­ments. When col­leges, uni­ver­si­ties, and oth­er learn­ing insti­tu­tions receive accred­i­ta­tion from the Com­put­ing Accred­i­ta­tion Com­mis­sion (CAC), it ensures they’re meet­ing stan­dards for best prac­tices. When these learn­ing insti­tu­tions receive com­put­er sci­ence accred­i­ta­tion, they must under­go a set of cri­te­ria including:

• Pro­gram Edu­ca­tion­al Objectives
• Stu­dent Outcomes
• Assess­ments
• Eval­u­a­tions
• Gen­er­al Criteria
• Pro­gram Criteria

Accred­i­ta­tion is hard-won, and fair­ly eas­i­ly lost if col­leges do not keep up their aca­d­e­m­ic stan­dards. The accred­i­ta­tion process focus­es on ensur­ing edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams are meet­ing the defin­ing stan­dards regard­ing qual­i­ty. How­ev­er, if these pro­grams achieve this goal, their accred­i­ta­tion isn’t per­ma­nent. They must renew their accred­i­ta­tion peri­od­i­cal­ly to ensure they’re main­tain­ing the qual­i­ty of their edu­ca­tion­al programs.

Aca­d­e­m­ic accred­i­ta­tion in the Unit­ed States is a vol­un­tary process, and ABET is a non-prof­it com­mis­sion. Not only do these experts vol­un­teer their time, but they also vol­un­teer their expe­ri­ence and knowl­edge. It typ­i­cal­ly takes approx­i­mate­ly eigh­teen months for a com­put­er sci­ence degree to receive accred­i­ta­tion. There­fore, those who are look­ing to spe­cial­ize in spe­cif­ic areas of exper­tise in this field can be sure it under­went rig­or­ous eli­gi­bil­i­ty require­ments to be con­sid­ered compliant.

Types of Computer Science Degrees

Stu­dents research­ing types of com­put­er sci­ence degrees may have con­fu­sion regard­ing the dis­ci­plines and spe­cial­ties for com­put­er sci­ence degree online. Those look­ing to achieve their com­put­er sci­ence degree online can do so in two dif­fer­ent dis­ci­plines. These types of com­put­er sci­ence degrees include Applied Com­put­er Sci­ence or The­o­ret­i­cal Com­put­er Sci­ence. With­in each dis­ci­pline, there’s a break­down of spe­cial­ties stu­dents can explore even fur­ther. In doing so, they can nar­row down their career focus. So, when they select the types of com­put­er sci­ence degrees they would like to pur­sue, they’re pick­ing a dis­ci­pline and a specialty.

Next, when choos­ing their com­put­er sci­ence degree online, stu­dents must look at com­put­er sci­ence degree cours­es and com­put­er sci­ence degree require­ments. Maybe you want to attend the very best under­grad­u­ate com­put­er sci­ence schools, no mat­ter the cost; maybe you want to save mon­ey and still get a great afford­able com­put­er sci­ence bach­e­lor’s; maybe time is of the essence and you want an accel­er­at­ed com­put­er sci­ence degree online. They can find this infor­ma­tion in the com­put­er sci­ence course details or where the list­ing infor­ma­tion is for the com­put­er sci­ence degree online.

(See our Essen­tial Guide to Online Bach­e­lor’s Degrees for more infor­ma­tion about online programs.)

What Area of Computer Science is Most In-Demand?

Select­ing com­put­er sci­ence degree cours­es is not only about meet­ing require­ments for a student’s com­put­er sci­ence degree online. It’s also about deter­min­ing which area of com­put­er sci­ence is most in-demand so they can ade­quate­ly meet career aspi­ra­tions. There­fore, in addi­tion to meet­ing their com­put­er sci­ence degree require­ments, they’ll be look­ing at the spe­cial­iza­tions for com­put­er sci­ence and information.

Areas of spe­cial­iza­tion in com­put­er sci­ence include:

• Algo­rithms and Data Structures
• Arti­fi­cial Intelligence
• Com­pu­ta­tion­al Science
• Com­put­er Archi­tec­ture and Engineering
• Com­put­er Graph­ics and Visualization
• Com­put­er Networks
• Com­put­er Secu­ri­ty and Cryptography
• Data­bas­es and Infor­ma­tion Retrieval
• For­mal Methods
• Health Infor­mat­ics
• Infor­ma­tion Science
• Infor­ma­tion and Cod­ing Theory
• Par­al­lel and Dis­trib­uted Sys­tems, Concurrent
• Pro­gram­ming Lan­guage Theory
• Soft­ware Engineering
• Spe­cial­iza­tions for this Dis­ci­pline: The­o­ret­i­cal Com­put­er Science
• The­o­ry of Computation

Getting an Accelerated Computer Science Degree Online

When research­ing their com­put­er sci­ence degree online, stu­dents may won­der if they can par­tic­i­pate in an accel­er­at­ed com­put­er sci­ence degree online. Accel­er­at­ed pro­grams meet all of the same com­put­er sci­ence degree require­ments as a con­ven­tion­al pro­gram in their area of com­put­er sci­ence — just faster. In fact, some accel­er­at­ed degree-com­ple­tion pro­grams can be com­plet­ed in as lit­tle as a year, as long as stu­dents have their gen­er­al edu­ca­tion cred­its in order.

That suits some stu­dents, but an accel­er­at­ed com­put­er sci­ence degree online isn’t for every­one. You need to be very moti­vat­ed, with strong time man­age­ment skills and orga­ni­za­tion. An accel­er­at­ed pro­gram is not a learn-at-your-own pace; if you can’t keep up, you won’t make it.

Com­put­er sci­ence course details will vary from one pro­gram to anoth­er, but the best under­grad­u­ate com­put­er sci­ence schools will all meet cer­tain require­ments. When look­ing at the accred­i­ta­tion for com­put­er sci­ence and infor­ma­tion regard­ing rank­ing, it’s essen­tial to look at the cri­te­ria for the student’s com­put­er sci­ence degree including:

• Area of com­put­er sci­ence: what’s its rank­ing? Does this spe­cial­ty have accred­i­ta­tion? What is the accred­it­ing agency?
• Com­put­er sci­ence degree require­ments: does the stu­dent need to meet any work or intern­ship expe­ri­ence require­ments? Are there any spec­i­fi­ca­tions or pre­req­ui­sites that they must meet before enrolling?
• Com­put­er sci­ence degree cours­es: does the stu­dent under­stand all the cours­es that they must take to achieve their degree? Have they tak­en any pre­vi­ous cred­its that can trans­fer over to their cur­rent program?
• Com­put­er sci­ence course details: are all the course details ade­quate­ly spelled out, or is there a need to sched­ule a con­sul­ta­tion with an advi­sor for fur­ther explanation?

These ques­tions give you a sense of how to choose the best under­grad­u­ate com­put­er sci­ence school, and what to look for in a com­put­er sci­ence degree online. The com­put­er sci­ence degree require­ments and course details the pro­gram pub­lish­es will help you deter­mine if their area of com­put­er sci­ence and types of com­put­er sci­ence degrees are right for you.

Computer Science and IT Certifications Online

For those who are already hold­ing their post-sec­ondary cre­den­tial and are look­ing for IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online, it’s easy to find quick cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that pay well. The def­i­n­i­tion of a post-sec­ondary cre­den­tial is one where­by stu­dents com­plete for-cred­it cer­tifi­cates after meet­ing cri­te­ria set forth by the accred­it­ing insti­tu­tion for that aca­d­e­m­ic year.

Due to the lev­el of employ­ers in the indus­try that will not con­sid­er indi­vid­u­als with­out com­put­er sci­ence cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, hav­ing access is crit­i­cal. There­fore, depend­ing on the stu­den­t’s pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence in the indus­try, find­ing quick cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that pay well for those look­ing for IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online shouldn’t be a problem.

Quick Certifications That Pay Well

Cloud Com­put­ing: Not only is this field grow­ing but it also offers pro­fes­sion­als oppor­tu­ni­ties in a broad range of IT set­tings. The two most pop­u­lar com­put­er sci­ence cer­ti­fi­ca­tions include:

• Pri­vate Cloud
• Comp­TIA Cloud+

Com­put­er Foren­sics: Those who have an inter­est in gath­er­ing, ana­lyz­ing, and report­ing data from com­put­er sys­tems that are admis­si­ble in courts of law will ben­e­fit from com­put­er foren­sics cer­ti­fi­ca­tions. The two most pop­u­lar com­put­er sci­ence cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online include:

• GIAC Cer­ti­fied Foren­sic Ana­lyst (GCFA)
• EnCase Cer­ti­fied Exam­in­er (EnCE)

Com­put­er Net­work­ing: It isn’t uncom­mon to find many high-pay­ing cer­tifi­cate jobs with­in this field due to the many IT spe­cial­ties avail­able. The two most com­mon com­put­er sci­ence cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online include the following:

• Cis­co Cer­ti­fied Net­work Pro­fes­sion­al (CCNP)
• Cis­co Cer­ti­fied Inter­net­work Expert (CCIE)

Best IT Certifications for Beginners

Because not every­one is an expert in their field and every­one needs to start some­where, find­ing the best IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for begin­ners is opti­mal. There­fore, this list of IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions is an excel­lent place to start.

• CCTP (Cer­ti­fied Cloud Tech­nol­o­gy Pro­fes­sion­al): an excel­lent option for those need­ing cer­ti­fi­ca­tion who are just get­ting started.
• Cer­ti­fied Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Secu­ri­ty Pro­fes­sion­al (CISSP): indi­vid­u­als who receive this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion have the com­pe­ten­cy for pro­tect­ing orga­ni­za­tions from attack.
• Cis­co Cer­ti­fied Net­work Asso­ciate (CCNA): those receiv­ing these IT cer­tifi­cate pro­grams online helps employ­ers know you’re able to install, PCs, and SharePoint.
• Comp­TIA A+ Tech­ni­cian: when receiv­ing this certification,and printers.
• Comp­TIA Cloud+: pro­vides a foun­da­tion-lev­el cre­den­tial for those look­ing for entry-lev­el work.
• Del­l’s EMCCA (EMC Cloud Archi­tect): for those who have more expe­ri­ence, and oper­ate routers and enter­prise-lev­el switches.
• Microsoft Cer­ti­fied Sys­tems Engi­neer (MCSE): recip­i­ents of this cer­ti­fi­ca­tion not only build solu­tions across mul­ti­ple tech­nolo­gies in an inno­v­a­tive way, but they can also do so with a specialization.
• Miran­tis: cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are avail­able at asso­ciate and pro­fes­sion­al lev­els for those who need per­for­mance-based Open­Stack and Kuber­netes certification.
• Net­work+: receiv­ing these IT cer­tifi­cate pro­grams online means stu­dents are gain­ing glob­al recog­ni­tion for design­ing, and trou­bleshoot­ing net­works that are wired and wireless.

These spe­cial­iza­tions for best IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions for begin­ners include busi­ness intel­li­gence, com­mu­ni­ca­tion, con­fig­ure, data plat­form, desk­top infra­struc­ture, enter­prise devices and apps, man­ag­ing, mes­sag­ing, mobile devices, oper­at­ing sys­tems, serv­er infra­struc­ture. Stu­dents are at their IT career’s pri­ma­ry start­ing point for han­dling the main­te­nance for laptops,this is an excel­lent cer­ti­fi­ca­tion program.

Are There Free IT Certifications Online?

It’s pos­si­ble to find many free IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online, but there’s a caveat. When stu­dents find these free IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online, they can view the course mate­ri­als in part or whole. How­ev­er, under most cir­cum­stances, if they want to receive cred­it for the work they’re doing and earn their cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, they must pay for the course. So, while it may seem ben­e­fi­cial to par­tic­i­pate in free IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online, doing so is pure­ly for edu­ca­tion­al and gain­ing expe­ri­ence purposes.

Stu­dents may believe this is a way to earn quick cer­ti­fi­ca­tions that pay well, but that’s a mis­con­cep­tion. Earn­ing IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online requires effort, as well as a time com­mit­ment. There­fore, for those who are look­ing for easy cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to get online, you may have to take on a dif­fer­ent approach. Here’s some advice regard­ing that matter.

Top IT Certifications in Demand Today

Accord­ing to Forbes, the top 5 IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in demand today are as follows:

• Cer­ti­fied in Gov­er­nance of Enter­prise IT (CGEIT): Annu­al Salary — $121,363
• AWS Cer­ti­fied Solu­tions Archi­tect (Asso­ciate): Annu­al Salary — $121,292
• Project Man­age­ment Pro­fes­sion­al (PMP): Annu­al Salary — $114,473
• AWS Cer­ti­fied Devel­op­er (Asso­ciate): Annu­al Salary — $114,148
• Cer­ti­fied Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems Secu­ri­ty Pro­fes­sion­al (CISSP): Annu­al Salary — $111,475

The Last Word on Easy Certifications to Get Online

It isn’t uncom­mon for stu­dents to want to fig­ure out how to get easy cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to get online. The main rea­son is that they’re already work­ing busy sched­ules and they’re seek­ing flex­i­bil­i­ty. In that case, find­ing a list of IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions meet­ing your cri­te­ria isn’t impos­si­ble. Easy cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to get online include ones that will:

• Allow you to work accord­ing to your schedule
• Have flex­i­bil­i­ty accord­ing to your busy lifestyle
• Meet the needs of your cer­ti­fi­ca­tion requirements
• Fit in with the career aspi­ra­tions you’re planning

Look­ing at the above cri­te­ria will allow stu­dents to deter­mine not only they’re research­ing the right easy cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to get online but also the IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions online that will best help them achieve their career goals. It’s crit­i­cal for stu­dents to research which IT cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are in demand today for a myr­i­ad of rea­sons. Not only do they want to ensure they’re work­ing in a spe­cial­iza­tion they are pas­sion­ate about, but it’s also ben­e­fi­cial to work in the high­est pay­ing jobs in com­put­er sci­ence field after work­ing their way through the stages and require­ments of entry-lev­el com­put­er sci­ence jobs.

Careers in Computer Science

Stu­dents who are about to grad­u­ate with their degrees are often begin­ning their career search for the high­est pay­ing jobs in com­put­er sci­ence field. Because there are many com­put­er sci­ence career options avail­able, it depends on the student’s inter­ests and specialization.

For exam­ple, com­put­er sci­ence gov­ern­ment jobs are among the high­est-pay­ing jobs in com­put­er sci­ence field, among bach­e­lor of com­put­er sci­ence jobs. Accord­ing to the Office of Per­son­nel Man­age­ment (OPM)‘s Enter­prise Human Resources Inte­gra­tion (EHRI) dataset, the aver­age salary for com­put­er sci­ence gov­ern­ment jobs is $125,751.17 annually.

Oth­er com­put­er sci­ence gov­ern­ment jobs and their salaries show some of the high­est pay­ing com­put­er sci­ence career options. Every gov­ern­ment agency has a need for bach­e­lor of com­put­er sci­ence jobs, including:

• Fed­er­al Avi­a­tion Admin­is­tra­tion: Annu­al salary — $126,557.78
• Nation­al Insti­tute of Stan­dards and Tech­nol­o­gy: Annu­al salary — $133,871.85
• Nation­al Insti­tutes of Health: Annu­al Salary — $140,516.41
• Fed­er­al Bureau of Inves­ti­ga­tion: Annu­al Salary — $61,339.12

Anoth­er prime exam­ple is mul­ti­me­dia pro­gram­mer. Accord­ing to Payscale, the aver­age salary for a mul­ti­me­dia pro­gram­mer is $87,921 annu­al­ly. What this trans­lates to is an hourly wage of $21.62 for some­one look­ing for this spe­cial­ty in Bach­e­lor of Com­put­er Sci­ence jobs. While it’s not the high­est pay­ing job in the com­put­er sci­ence field, mul­ti­me­dia pro­gram­mers are opti­mal entry lev­el com­put­er sci­ence jobs.

Which Entry Level Computer Science Jobs are Best?

While you may want to walk out of your bach­e­lor of com­put­er sci­ence pro­gram and make mil­lions, entry-lev­el com­put­er sci­ence jobs are the only real way get your foot in the door with respectable careers. Com­put­er sci­ence career options for new grad­u­ates aren’t gold mines. For­tu­nate­ly, this effort will lead to high­er-pay­ing jobs lat­er. The ques­tion is, when stu­dents are search­ing for Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence Com­put­er jobs, which are best?

Accord­ing to Forbes, a Data Sci­en­tist is one of the high­est pay­ing jobs in com­put­er sci­ence field with a medi­an base salary of $110,000 annu­al­ly and 4,524 job open­ings avail­able. As Big Data becomes more and more inte­grat­ed into dai­ly life, experts in data are more and more in demand.

We’ve already looked at what the salary of a mul­ti­me­dia pro­gram­mer is, so we’ll touch on some oth­er entry lev­el com­put­er sci­ence jobs:

• Soft­ware appli­ca­tions devel­op­ers: design and devel­op soft­ware based on the user’s needs.
• Com­put­er user sup­port spe­cial­ists: answer ques­tions regard­ing soft­ware and com­put­er equipment.
• Com­put­er sys­tems ana­lysts: merge IT ini­tia­tives and busi­ness­es to help improve com­put­er sys­tems, devel­op pro­ce­dures, and enhance sys­tem compatibility.
• Web devel­op­ers: design, build, and main­tain com­pa­ny and client websites.
• Net­work sys­tems admin­is­tra­tors: respon­si­ble for ensur­ing a com­pa­ny’s com­put­er net­work is run­ning smooth­ly and up-to-date.

The aver­age pay for these entry-lev­el com­put­er sci­ence jobs range between $48,620.00 and $98,260.00 per year. These salary ranges are obvi­ous­ly depen­dent on pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence, pro­fes­sion­al cre­den­tials, and edu­ca­tion­al back­ground, but as com­put­er sci­ence career options go, they’re a great place to start and a great way to grow.

Computer Science Degree Salary Expectations

One of the most sig­nif­i­cant ques­tions stu­dents have when pur­su­ing their degree is the bach­e­lor’s in com­put­er sci­ence salary. Accord­ing to Payscale, the entry-lev­el com­put­er sci­ence salary for these top ten jobs in the field include:

• Soft­ware Devel­op­ment Direc­tor: 88% of the work­ers in this field hold a com­put­er sci­ence degree and are earn­ing a bach­e­lor’s in com­put­er sci­ence salary of $154,000 annually.
• Soft­ware Devel­op­ment Man­ag­er: 80% of these careerists hold their com­put­er sci­ence degree and are earn­ing an entry-lev­el com­put­er sci­ence salary of $130,000 each year.
• Soft­ware Archi­tect: 83% of those work­ing in this area earned their degree in com­put­er sci­ence and have a year­ly BSC com­put­er sci­ence salary of $129,000.
• Secu­ri­ty Archi­tect (IT): while only 35% of these experts hold their degree in com­put­er sci­ence, their earn­ings are a Bach­e­lor of com­put­er sci­ence salary of $127,000 yearly.
• Devel­op­ment Oper­a­tions (DevOps) Engi­neer: 62% of these indi­vid­u­als pos­sess a com­put­er sci­ence degree, and their earn­ings are an entry-lev­el com­put­er sci­ence salary of $109,000 yearly.
• Cyber Secu­ri­ty Engi­neer: while only 26% of these engi­neers hold their com­put­er sci­ence degree, their earn­ings are a BSc com­put­er sci­ence salary of $102,000 annually.
• Secu­ri­ty Engi­neer (Infor­ma­tion Sys­tems): 26% of these careerists hold spe­cial­ty degrees in infor­ma­tion tech­nol­o­gy and earn a bach­e­lor’s in com­put­er sci­ence salary of $101,000 yearly.
• Mobile App Devel­op­er: 81% of these indi­vid­u­als hold their degrees in com­put­er sci­ence and are earn­ing an entry-lev­el com­put­er sci­ence salary of $91,700 annually.
• Cyber Secu­ri­ty Ana­lyst: 30% of these experts spe­cial­ize in degrees in cyber­se­cu­ri­ty and are earn­ing a BSC com­put­er sci­ence salary of $90,000 each year.
• Soft­ware Devel­op­er: 86% of these employ­ees are hold­ing their degree in com­put­er sci­ence and earn­ing a bach­e­lors in com­put­er sci­ence salary of $89,400 yearly.

When you research com­put­er sci­ence degree salary, brain­storm­ing the careers you would like to pur­sue is a good place to start. For exam­ple, your first love may be game devel­op­ment, but you may be inclined to switch to mobile app devel­op­ment, where the pay is high­er. Payscale states that a game devel­op­er salary is $64,419 annu­al­ly on aver­age, which trans­lates to $26.50 per hour — con­sid­er­ably less than a mobile app devel­op­er. There­fore, the entry-lev­el com­put­er sci­ence salary varies depend­ing on the specialization.

The Benefits of Computer Science Professional Organizations

Because there are many com­put­er sci­ence pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions, stu­dents may won­der whether it is worth their while to pay their dues and join. That’s an unequiv­o­cal yes, if you want to be tak­en seri­ous­ly by employ­ers, and stay up to date with changes in your field. Some com­put­er sci­ence pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions are nation­al and inter­na­tion­al; some are gen­er­al, and oth­ers are very spe­cif­ic to a spe­cial­iza­tion. But the ben­e­fits of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion mem­ber­ship are many — even if you’re not inter­est­ed in the year­ly con­fer­ence/week­end-long parties:

• Sub­scrip­tions to pro­fes­sion­al journals
• Net­work­ing opportunities
• Job mar­ket support
• Con­tin­u­ing edu­ca­tion opportunities
• Fringe ben­e­fits like insur­ance and discounts

There are a vari­ety of com­put­er sci­ence orga­ni­za­tions you could choose, includ­ing the following:

Asso­ci­a­tion for Com­put­ing Machin­ery: Oth­er­wise known as ACM, has a mem­ber­ship con­sist­ing of edu­ca­tors, pro­fes­sion­als, researchers, and stu­dents. Its world­wide mem­ber­ship con­sists of over 100,000 mem­bers, and its con­tin­ued growth encour­ages mem­bers to find solu­tions to the field­’s chal­lenges.
Asso­ci­a­tion for Women in Com­put­ing: The AWC is a pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tion with its head­quar­ters in Wash­ing­ton, D.C. that has open­ings for all women work­ing in com­put­er sci­ence. Ini­tial­ly launch­ing in 1978, women have con­sis­tent­ly been join­ing the asso­ci­a­tion as pro­gram­mers, researchers, sci­en­tists, and tech­ni­cal writ­ers.
Com­put­ing Research Asso­ci­a­tion: This asso­ci­a­tion is cur­rent­ly work­ing with more than 200 cor­po­ra­tions in the Unit­ed States active­ly par­tic­i­pat­ing in com­put­er research.
Insti­tute of Elec­tri­cal and Elec­tron­ics Engi­neers Com­put­er Soci­ety: Known as the IEEE Com­put­er Soci­ety, this inter­na­tion­al soci­ety has over 60,000 mem­bers. Those work­ing in this soci­ety focus on tech­nol­o­gy and sci­ence with mem­bers rang­ing from under­grad­u­ate stu­dents to researchers.
Inter­na­tion­al Asso­ci­a­tion of Com­put­er Sci­ence and Infor­ma­tion Tech­nol­o­gy: Oth­er­wise referred to as the IACSIT, this is an inter­na­tion­al asso­ci­a­tion con­sist­ing of pro­fes­sion­als focus­ing on devel­op­ment and research regard­ing com­put­er sci­ence. Mem­ber­ship includes con­sul­tants, pro­fes­sors, pro­fes­sion­als, and more.

It’s ben­e­fi­cial for stu­dents, pro­fes­sion­als, and researchers to join com­put­er sci­ence orga­ni­za­tions because the field of com­put­er sci­ence con­tin­ues grow­ing at an expo­nen­tial rate. With com­put­er and tech­nol­o­gy advance­ments are expe­ri­enc­ing such growth, edu­ca­tion isn’t enough. Com­put­er sci­ence pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions pro­vide an out­let for pro­fes­sion­als to thrive. Through part­ner­ships and col­lab­o­ra­tions in their com­put­er sci­ence orga­ni­za­tions, pro­fes­sion­als can work togeth­er in the com­put­er sci­ence indus­try to help the indus­try achieve more. In doing so, these efforts help mem­bers become more suc­cess­ful in their careers, expe­ri­ence advance­ments and encour­age edu­ca­tion­al advance­ment. Join­ing com­put­er sci­ence pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions is just anoth­er way to make the most of your degree.