According to the U.S. News & World Report’s most recent rankings from 2020, the University’s computer science undergraduate program is ranked fifth in the country. Due to the high demand for admissions and transfers, the CS program was closed to on-campus transfers for students admitted to the University as freshmen in Fall 2022 and beyond.  

In 2013, in response to the growing popularity of their CS programs, the University approved the CS + X interdisciplinary programs, with the first freshmen matriculating in Fall 2014. Coincidentally, the Grainger College of Engineering’s CS program also received a record-breaking number of applications that year. 

Initially the program consisted of just four options. Today, the program boasts of 12 concentrations — anthropology, astronomy, chemistry, economics, geography and geographic information science, linguistics, philosophy, animal sciences, crop sciences, education, music and advertising — housed under the Colleges of Liberal Arts & Sciences; Agricultural, Consumer & Environmental Sciences; Education; Fine and Applied Arts; and Media.

Freshmen also began applying to two additional CS + X programs starting Fall of 2023 — CS + Bioengineering and CS + Physics. These initiatives mark the start of the Department of Computer Science’s partnerships with other departments within the College of Engineering.

The phrase “CS + X” emphasizes the significant distinction between majoring in CS and minoring in X versus majoring in CS + X. 

Mahesh Viswanathan, professor in Engineering and associate head for academics, said the “requirements in X for the CS + X degree are more demanding than the requirements for a minor in X. Students in the CS + X are required to complete the entire core of both the CS and X majors.” 

Additionally, he noted that some of these programs have special blended courses that CS + X majors need to take.

These majors teach the intersection between CS and other academic disciplines, the Department of Computer Science website said. 

According to the website, the program provides students the opportunity to develop a solid foundation in computer science while also receiving instruction in the arts or sciences of their choosing. This allows students to bring their computational skills to fields where they are increasingly in demand.

As of last fall, the integrated CS program with the highest enrollment of 156 students was CS + Economics, Vishwanathan said.

The success of the CS + X programs also inspired the X + DS program, which offers interdisciplinary data science majors. 

Allison Daemicke, sophomore in LAS who transferred into CS + Statistics, explained that she chose CS + Statistics over CS in Engineering because she preferred the integration between the two subjects.  

She said the major allows her to go in many different directions such as computational statistics, data science, machine learning and software engineering. 

“While I have (less) requirements for the CS … courses I have to take, it doesn’t really harm my job aspects since I am getting the same education from the same core classes as a computer science major,” Daemicke said. 

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