0

I have been asked to design a major in IT (Information Technology). I am not based in US, and I didn't graduate in US. So, I am not familiar with US graduation system. However, I have been asked to use US bachelors as examples.

So, it would help me to have links to pages where I can see detailed descriptions of the IT majors, such as lists of mandatory courses, and syllabi. So far, I was only able to find general descriptions of the IT majors offered in some US Universities and Colleges.

I am particularly interested in Liberal Arts Colleges.

Improve this question
3
  • 4
    Just a guess here, but I think that small liberal arts colleges in the US are far more likely to offer more traditional CS than IT. There are a few business oriented (i.e. not "liberal arts") colleges that might do IT. And being small, they aren't comprehensive like larger places can afford to be.
    – Buffy
    Commented Nov 5, 2018 at 13:22
  • 1
    Both Babson (babson.edu) and Bentley (bentley.edu) offer CIS oriented degrees, but that may not be what you are after.
    – Buffy
    Commented Nov 5, 2018 at 13:27
  • 1
    Well, it's Germany and not the US, but in Germany you will find a so called "modulhandbuch" (module description) on every website of every computer science / informatics department containing all courses and module descriptions. In many cases you will find some in english language, too.
    – OBu
    Commented Nov 5, 2018 at 14:34

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

I don't think you'll find this in one centralized place. You'll need to:

  1. Identify some specific colleges whose programs interest you. As a way to get started, there are various publications that create rankings of programs in different subjects. One prominent source is US News and World Report. But keep in mind that rankings are inherently subjective and that other people may disagree about which schools should be emulated.

  2. Go to each institution's website and look for their catalog. This is a large document that lists all the degrees and majors offered by the school, and the specific courses that one has to take for each one. It will also explain general graduation requirements that may not be specific to a particular major. (US schools typically have general education requirements, that every student must take a substantial number of courses in a variety of different subjects, which may be unrelated to their major.)

    Be warned that the requirements can be rather complex, with many different options, elective courses, etc, and may take you some work to sort through. There is a standard joke that the most difficult requirement for graduation is to figure out the requirements for graduation.

    The catalog will also contain a short course description of the topics studied in each course.

  3. Find syllabi manually; they are not usually available in one centralized place for a given institution. Usually the instructor of a given course in a given term has the authority to write the syllabus, explaining what assignments and exams will be given, what books or readings will be required, how grades will be determined, etc. They can also vary the topics from the official course description, within reason. The syllabus is usually posted on a website for the course, to which students are given the URL, but you may have trouble finding this for a number of reasons:

    • Course websites may not be organized or centrally indexed in any particular way.

    • You may not know when the course was last taught, or the name of the instructor who taught it. In some cases, it can happen that a course appears in the catalog, but is not actually taught anymore, or taught very infrequently.

    • Course websites may not be accessible by the public. This is becoming more common as institutions migrate course websites into learning management systems, which are often set by default to require a student login to access.

You could also email the department chair or secretary and ask if they have a collection of recent syllabi that they could send you. Keep in mind that responding to such a request would be a very low priority task for them.

Improve this answer
1
  • Thanks a lot Nate, your answer has helped me a lot!
    – Fabio
    Commented Nov 8, 2019 at 6:38

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .