Computer science vs math vs IT

I am finishing year 12 in australia this year and will have to put in an application for uiversity soon. I have a deep interest in abstract mathematics and this is by far my strongest subject. I also have an interest in computer security, particularly cryptography. My question is, to get into the cryptography industry, should I study a degree in mathematics, a degree in science (major in math and computer science) or a degree in IT. All opinions appreciated. Thanks.

I am by no means an authority on Cryptography, but I would assume that focusing more on math and science (particularly computer science) would be the better choice. I definitely don't think that IT would be the right path for you if Crypto is your goal, as IT is much more general and likely won't focus long enough on crypto-techniques for you to reach the level you're aiming for.

Math is the way to go. You should learn to program though (if you don't already know)….

I did not intend for that to rhyme lol.

techb wrote: Math is the way to go. You should learn to program though (if you don't already know)….

I did not intend for that to rhyme lol.

Obligatory cliche response: "you could be a poet and not even know it!"

maug wrote: If you can, I would suggest taking a break after your 12th year.

Funny. Every single time I get university advice, the first thing they say is exactly not to do that.

In my person opinion, I think cryptography is a bad career choice. Aside from the odd consulting contract and academic jobs (teaching crypto, etc), the government is pretty much your only choice for a full fledged career. Unfortunately, they don't exactly like to talk about who they hire and when so it's a market without very much information about it's strength.

But if you still are interested, it is a very intriguing field. You're going to want to ensure you have a lot of experience with programming. As many languages as possible, and a BS or MS in computing science would probably be required as well.

A good thing to do is try to look through job search websites or google for cryptography positions, and take a look at what the requirements are. That way you can see what the positions commonly demand. Don't forget about the university councilors, either. It's their job to help you plan out what courses (in strong detail) you will need for a specific field, so they're likely to know a lot better than any of us.

Good luck.

OK, thanks for the advice everyone. At the moment I think i will do the degree in maths and do a minor in computer science. From there it will leave some postgraduate courses open. Thanks again.

spyware wrote: [quote]stealth- wrote: In my person opinion, I think cryptography is a bad career choice.

Fuck careers, do what you like. I'm dead serious about this.

Fuck, careers. By viewing your life in such a limited way (education->job->job+family->death) you're missing out on the good stuff.

Careers are for losers.[/quote]

erm wrong, it's more like education->career->money->fun, career is worth the hassle

Cryptography is usually present in both the math and computer science departments, but as I understand it (at my university anyway) the computer science crypto courses are more in depth.

clone4 wrote: erm wrong, it's more like education->career->money->fun, career is worth the hassle

Righto. Contact me in ~25 years.

for your field you are looking to pursue I would suggest taking a Major in CS and a Minor in Mathematics. This will get you both ends of the cryptography. If you are looking at creating algorithms though you will want to go Mathematics as your Major and CS as your Minor.

It is 100% dependent on what you are looking to become in the future. If you want to talk more in depth about this hit me up :happy:

bostikpaste1 wrote: Everyone here has been talking about learning to program. I have tried to learn some programming myself but I often find I don't have the motivation to be self taught. If I wanted to incorporate this at uni, would i be better off in software engineering maybe?? If you aren't motivated don't even bother.

Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I was also wondering, what is everyone's opinion on a university that has the computer science department within the IT faculty as opposed to the science faculty. In my opinion computer science should be taught as a science. What is everyone else's opinion. Do you think it would be genuine computer science that's worth doing?

bostikpaste1 wrote: Thanks everyone for the replies so far. I was also wondering, what is everyone's opinion on a university that has the computer science department within the IT faculty as opposed to the science faculty. In my opinion computer science should be taught as a science. What is everyone else's opinion. Do you think it would be genuine computer science that's worth doing?IMO, you can't really compare CS with physics/chemistry/biology, it's very different from those three, so it should not be taught as a 'science' like they are. It belongs in the IT faculty, certainly, as it deals with IT all the way. As for whether CS is worth doing, that depends on the answer to the following question, 'Do I want to learn how to do computer programming?'. CS is mainly about that, at least at the Uni I did it at.

There are various fields with programming, but if you're interested in security, bear in mind that they will probably not teach you about security vulnerabilites like SQL Injection/XSS etc, as that would probably get the uni into trouble for training hackers (the black hat kind is what the public would be worried about, although a lot of people there may not see the distinction between black hats and white hats). If you're interested in security, particularly in securing websites against black hat hackers, then you'd want to do stuff like going through the challenges on this site, and relying on Google to find information (you're probably going to have to be self-taught for a lot of this, with the information you need obtained via Google).

This is an ancient thread.

spyware wrote: This is an ancient thread.Thanks for telling me. I think I saw this topic on the page of 'recent' topics, or it appeared to be fairly recent, so it never occurred to me to check the date of the last post. I can't believe it was 6 months ago. :|

Well even though it is a relative old topic, it is still an informative topic. Even i myself ended up reading the whole topic to get a better understanding on the path i am trying to pursue. So i thinking giving his opinion on a topic like this is understandable. Getting back on the topic though.

I would say that Math is by far the way to go. Enough said!