Mathematics or Computer Science (Programming)

I think we've gone a bit off the point of the original post.

Mathematics is a broad area and could lead you into actuarial, finance e.g. option trading, economics (econometrics) and any number of other areas apart from computing.

To me mathematics would always stand to you.

I found the following article an interesting take on programming re outsourcing and redundant knowledge capital.

[broken link removed]
 
Its not useful to generalise theres lot of very different types of programmers. Some use maths a lot but most don't.

Jobs that require a lot maths tend to be more specialised. You could do a BSc in one and do a MSc in the other.

A good programmer depends on the context. It maybe someone who solves a business problem quickly, perhaps without using any programming. Or it maybe someone who can solve complex programming problems regardless of the time taken. In a science/research context.

I know of one person who did Maths as their degree then a MSc in Computer science specialising in encryption. (I think). That said he worked as a regular programmer.
 
"Programming" is a very big catch-all term and the nature of the job is changing as the technology is changing. A lot of stuff is web-based nowadays which means there is a database back-end and this is a return to client-server as programming was done before the advent of the PC. And a typical project involves the integration of a lot of different technologies and this is where a computer science degree can be of more benefit than mathematics. But maths is a good broad foundation for a lot of things.
 
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