Computer Science (B.S.)
Why Study Computer Science at NIU?
Our computer science degree gives you the skills you need to keep pace in an ever-changing industry. When you pursue this degree, you may choose from three areas of emphasis:
- Software development: Computer science classes only; our graduates are well-prepared for software development careers in any industry.
- Enterprise software: Includes accountancy, finance, management or marketing courses; our graduates are well-positioned to program business applications and management.
- Computational software: Computer science courses combined with applied mathematics and statistics; our graduates typically continue to graduate school or pursue careers in mathematical programming.
We also offer a certificate in mobile computing. Computer Science is a limited admission program which means you will begin as a pre-computer science major and must fulfill additional requirements
Careers with a Computer Science Degree
As a graduate of our program, you’ll find rewarding careers (no hyperlink)in business, high-tech industries across the United States, and research organizations. Numerous companies recruit NIU computer science graduates for both internships and permanent positions.
Examples of career paths include:
- Business Analyst
- Business Application Developer
- Business Intelligence Specialist
- Chief Information Officer
- Data Scientist
- Database Analyst
- IT Auditor
- IT Consultant
- IT Risk Advisor
- Product Developer
- Project Manager
- Security Analyst
- Security Engineer
- Software Developer/Programmer
- Software Engineer
- Systems Analyst
- Systems Integration Consultant
- Technical Sales Manager
- Web Developer
Computer Science Faculty
Our faculty and staff have varied research interests including:
- Spatio-temporal data instructions
- Object-oriented programming
- Intelligent tutoring systems
- Bioinformatics
- Algorithm design and analysis
High performance grid computing- Computational intelligence in medicine
Hands-on Learning Opportunities
We support several extracurricular activities that complement our academic programs.
- We sponsor the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) Living-Learning Community to provide you with social as well as academic interaction.
- The Student Chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) hosts a series of events including “meet-the-firm” opportunities, visitations to industrial computing facilities and speakers from national high-tech companies. The chapter also offers
tutoring - We hold one or more colloquiums, bringing nationally known researchers to campus each semester to keep you up-to-date with the latest advancements in computer science.