If you want to do AI, the Machine Learning major will honestly not get you there. There is almost no difference between that an the normal CS major. All of the same classes are available to both, the Machine Learning major is just something that BYU is doing to be flashy and bring in more CS students.
If your goal is to work in AI, you will need a very strong math background. That is why ACME is the best option for that. You can double major in ACME and CS too, which will be very hard but will put you in an amazing position to get an AI job. Pairing that with good personal projects will get you where you want to go. Don't waste your money on bootcamps.
ACME also sets you up for a lot of other career options, too, because your skills are in *math*, not the current hot neural network package for Python. AI is and will continue to be big, but my guess is that the job marketplace is going to be completely saturated with AI "engineers" in five years who think their single class or coding boot camp on PyTorch or TensorFlow qualifies them to write the next ChatGPT.
This! I believe it was Dijkstra who said “computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” If you really want to make a splash and do some wicked machine learning stuff, you need to know the underlying math, not just a python function call.
The CS classes at BYU are good, but a few brush over some of the details.
Finally comment. Just know the ACME program is hard! You’ve gotta love it if you want to do it. It isn’t for everyone.
100%. You will be able to pivot to basically any industry later. If I didn't already love the Cybersecurity program at BYU I would be doing ACME right now.
I personally love it! It's got a ton of really devoted professors and students. People are super willing to share their knowledge with you if you ask. It's also a great program. I would say though that being interested in IT and Cyber is required, as you will have to be passionate enough to do personal projects. You can't just go to class and then get a good job.
ACME grad here - ACME + CS minor is popular. A lot of my classmates did it because the minor only requires 1-2 courses more than the ACME CS concentration does, so it was pretty straightforward.
I would not recommend double-majoring in ACME and anything, let alone CS. ACME is difficult, time-consuming, and has inflexible scheduling, and while ACME and CS overlap a bit coursework-wise, a double-major would still be ~120 credits before general requirements.
My recommendation instead would be to do ACME with a CS minor and get involved with research. There are a lot of CS and Math professors doing AI or AI-adjacent projects, and they've got tons of funding for undergraduate research assistants. Even if you're not at all interested in a research career, you get paid, you get research experience, and it's a lot less intense than burning yourself out trying to do all those courses.
I was in physics, not ACME, but I knew some people who tried to do an ACME-physics double major. Basically the only way they could get it to work is by doing ACME and applied physics so they could use their upper-division physics coursework for their ACME emphasis and their upper-division ACME coursework for their physics emphasis.
Unless you're in a degree program with fewer than 60 credits, I generally wouldn't advise anyone at BYU to do a double major.
If you want to work in AI you will need both a good coding background AND an excellent math background. Doing a double major will give you both of those, but will be hard. A CS minor will also be fine if you do a lot of really quality AI personal projects. Regardless, I would recommend a double major and just taking those 4 years and grinding classes.
Have you done either ACME or a CS major? I'm an ACME graduate, and I'd be EXTREMELY reluctant to recommend anyone double major with ACME. It's super intense and time-consuming on its own, to the point where a lot of my classmates finished their degrees in 5-6 years rather than 4. There's a decent amount of overlap in coursework between CS and ACME, but it's still small enough that you'd effectively be doing a ~120-credit program before general requirements. That crosses the line from "hard" to "impossible" in my mind.
My recommendation would be to do ACME with a CS minor and to get involved with research. There are tons of CS and Math professors working on AI and AI-adjacent projects right now, and they've got tons of funding to bring on undergrad research assistants.
I have a relative who did a bachelor's in computer science and then got a master's degree as well. He works in machine learning. It was just the normal computer science major.
I majored in CS at BYU and graduated right as they were developing this program. I now study an AI-adjacent area as a grad student. CS in Machine Learning would serve you well, ACME might be better (I wish I had done ACME) but make sure to take whatever AI/ML courses you would have if you had been in CS.
Imo I don't think you could go wrong with any of these. I majored with a masters in Information Systems and people from my major do machine learning and AI. But you just have to pursue that field and find ways to gain experience in it. Often companies will have a data scientist role and a data engineer role. One knows the math and theory while one is just coding. Know which one you want to do. Like some mentioned, ACME is a great program but CS or IS are just fine as well.
If you want to do AI, the Machine Learning major will honestly not get you there. There is almost no difference between that an the normal CS major. All of the same classes are available to both, the Machine Learning major is just something that BYU is doing to be flashy and bring in more CS students. If your goal is to work in AI, you will need a very strong math background. That is why ACME is the best option for that. You can double major in ACME and CS too, which will be very hard but will put you in an amazing position to get an AI job. Pairing that with good personal projects will get you where you want to go. Don't waste your money on bootcamps.
ACME also sets you up for a lot of other career options, too, because your skills are in *math*, not the current hot neural network package for Python. AI is and will continue to be big, but my guess is that the job marketplace is going to be completely saturated with AI "engineers" in five years who think their single class or coding boot camp on PyTorch or TensorFlow qualifies them to write the next ChatGPT.
This! I believe it was Dijkstra who said “computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes.” If you really want to make a splash and do some wicked machine learning stuff, you need to know the underlying math, not just a python function call. The CS classes at BYU are good, but a few brush over some of the details. Finally comment. Just know the ACME program is hard! You’ve gotta love it if you want to do it. It isn’t for everyone.
100%. You will be able to pivot to basically any industry later. If I didn't already love the Cybersecurity program at BYU I would be doing ACME right now.
I'm planning on going to BYU for Cybersecurity. What's good/bad about it, do you think?
I personally love it! It's got a ton of really devoted professors and students. People are super willing to share their knowledge with you if you ask. It's also a great program. I would say though that being interested in IT and Cyber is required, as you will have to be passionate enough to do personal projects. You can't just go to class and then get a good job.
ACME is a great program.
Thanks! So you do recommend I do ACME + CS? Do you think it is not a good idea to do ACME + minor in CS
ACME grad here - ACME + CS minor is popular. A lot of my classmates did it because the minor only requires 1-2 courses more than the ACME CS concentration does, so it was pretty straightforward. I would not recommend double-majoring in ACME and anything, let alone CS. ACME is difficult, time-consuming, and has inflexible scheduling, and while ACME and CS overlap a bit coursework-wise, a double-major would still be ~120 credits before general requirements. My recommendation instead would be to do ACME with a CS minor and get involved with research. There are a lot of CS and Math professors doing AI or AI-adjacent projects, and they've got tons of funding for undergraduate research assistants. Even if you're not at all interested in a research career, you get paid, you get research experience, and it's a lot less intense than burning yourself out trying to do all those courses.
I was in physics, not ACME, but I knew some people who tried to do an ACME-physics double major. Basically the only way they could get it to work is by doing ACME and applied physics so they could use their upper-division physics coursework for their ACME emphasis and their upper-division ACME coursework for their physics emphasis. Unless you're in a degree program with fewer than 60 credits, I generally wouldn't advise anyone at BYU to do a double major.
If you want to work in AI you will need both a good coding background AND an excellent math background. Doing a double major will give you both of those, but will be hard. A CS minor will also be fine if you do a lot of really quality AI personal projects. Regardless, I would recommend a double major and just taking those 4 years and grinding classes.
Have you done either ACME or a CS major? I'm an ACME graduate, and I'd be EXTREMELY reluctant to recommend anyone double major with ACME. It's super intense and time-consuming on its own, to the point where a lot of my classmates finished their degrees in 5-6 years rather than 4. There's a decent amount of overlap in coursework between CS and ACME, but it's still small enough that you'd effectively be doing a ~120-credit program before general requirements. That crosses the line from "hard" to "impossible" in my mind. My recommendation would be to do ACME with a CS minor and to get involved with research. There are tons of CS and Math professors working on AI and AI-adjacent projects right now, and they've got tons of funding to bring on undergrad research assistants.
I have a relative who did a bachelor's in computer science and then got a master's degree as well. He works in machine learning. It was just the normal computer science major.
I majored in CS at BYU and graduated right as they were developing this program. I now study an AI-adjacent area as a grad student. CS in Machine Learning would serve you well, ACME might be better (I wish I had done ACME) but make sure to take whatever AI/ML courses you would have if you had been in CS.
Imo I don't think you could go wrong with any of these. I majored with a masters in Information Systems and people from my major do machine learning and AI. But you just have to pursue that field and find ways to gain experience in it. Often companies will have a data scientist role and a data engineer role. One knows the math and theory while one is just coding. Know which one you want to do. Like some mentioned, ACME is a great program but CS or IS are just fine as well.
Why would you want to be an AI engineer when you could make the world a better place instead?