the first question is what does your website need to do. if its a typical "some info about us" site with no real functionality, $6k is pretty heavy.

What does this mean?

You don't need a marketer who thinks they are a web designer, you need a web designer who thinks they are a marketer.

Need way more details, for starters is it a family business based on local trade skills or do you want to sell products online?

Sorry if my description is vague.

We are a small scale logistics company. Right now we have a website that is outdated and embarrassing. Honestly, we'd be better off having no website.

Anyway, here is an example of an industry leader.... http://www.chrobinson.com/en/us/

Advice?

They look like spammers, tons of ads, tons of emails?

at my school for CS they have a "professional track" and "general track" (i would think this refers to BA vs BS normally but it doesn't say that). anyway, does the difference between these tracks matter to employers? main differences are...

math for professional:

Calc 1
Calc 2
Math Proof and Problem Solving
Discrete
Stats
Linear Algebra

math for general:

Calc 1
Discrete
Stats
Linear Algebra

Garden State,

On the site you linked they had a section to login. Do you plan to have custom programming in place to offer customers some type of service through the site?

As a general rule employers know very little about the specifics of a degree - especially for different variations of a CS degree. At my school there were 2 versions of a CS degree, a Software Engineering degree, and a Computer Engineering Degree. It was extremely rare to find someone that actually understood the differences between the 4 options (and TBH there really wasn't a big meaningful difference).

In your case I would look at how the math courses covered effect the advanced CS classes you can take. My totally wild ass guess is that the "math for professionals" prereqs would open more doors in advanced CS topics.

In a very general sense I'd usually recommend going for the more comprehensive option as long as you think you can handle it. You'll learn more stuff which makes it more likely you'll know what an employer cares about you knowing (not to mention knowing stuff is good in lots of other ways).

I suggest taking the one with less math courses and using your extra time to focus on programming.

Its not something I thought of one way or the other. Would it be good to have, yes, but not really necessary. How big of a difference does it make?

What service did you plan to offer behind a customer login? It makes a big difference but it depends on what you want to do.

Disagree with this, go with more math if you can handle it.

Your programming will improve automatically as you start working on projects, I don't think your initial courses matter all that much in the long term. You just need solid basics. Technologies change all the time, you will do a lot of self-teaching anyway.

Math on the other hand is much harder to learn by yourself, and frequently you won't even realise that your project could benefit from some specific math knowledge unless you already know what to read up on. I'd guess most people in CS peak in their math abilities around graduation and are basically capped around that level for their entire careers.

Tracking of shipments, but it isn't necessary. The more I think about it - we would not need a customer login.

Do you plan to have about as much content as the other site you linked?

Such as:

- About 15 content pages
- A contact form
- 1 or more custom quote forms
- Blog
- Maybe a newsletter
- Case studies / testimonials / etc.

Also what are you shipping them? Are you selling them a physical product? Would you want them to be able to buy this item through your website at some point?

Yea another good question is:

Do you plan on using this website to create revenue, or is it focused more on look and feel?

From the list he provided, Calc 2 + Math Proof and Problem Solving are not game changers for most programming jobs.

Unless he loves math or wants to go into a field where he does need those courses + more... then sure take them

I mean yeah, 2 courses are not going to make a huge difference either way obviously.

In hindsight I'd take Math Proof and Problem Solving over something like Functional or Logic Programming any day. Of course, like most CS students, i actually chose programming>math most of the time when i had the choice.

Calc 2 is almost certainly useful for more advanced CS topics.

No, it is not a product - we're providing a service.


The website would be more focused towards look & feel I guess. I wouldn't expect someone to visit our site unsolicited. However, if they do go to, it comes across as profession, not WTF is this.

thanks for the answers guys.

i just checked on this, looks like the only class where the pre-reqs would make a difference is Numerical Analysis (taught using Fortran!), which would additionally require Calc 3.

Do you plan to setup a marketing campaign or do any online/offline paid advertising?

Btw I'm going to do a self plug since I'm in between contracts. If you're interested in taking this further let me know by PM to discuss things further.

in what scenarios would it make sense for someone who already has a BS in CS to pursue an MS in CS?

fwiw question is not about me. i have a friend who's doing this which kind of surprised me, since i've heard that PhD's are highly valued a lot of places, but Master's usually just get an initial pay bump that a BS would have gotten after working a couple years anyway and would be getting paid along the way instead of paying for the degree.

edit: he wants to work in the videogame industry

In my experience an MS gets you very little. Some people treat it as a small bonus (getting hired one level above where a BS would be hired) and some people I've heard ignore it completely or give it the small anti-academia negative weighting.

I'm probably closest to ignoring it completely unless they can tie it to something specific that I think is useful (for example a focus on machine learning when applying for a job asking for machine learning experience).

Personally, if you're looking at it as a purely business decisions I'd say its probably not worth it. If you also think you'd find it interesting and want to do it for the knowledge - then it might make sense.

My employer will pay for mine and I am still not sure if it is worth it. I am going to work a year before I even seriously consider it.

What advanced video game topics are usually covered in masters programs?