Bachelor of Science in Information Technology - System Administration

at Shorelight Group - University of Massachusetts - Boston USA

History courses don’t simply introduce past eras of the world:  they teach students to write, research, and argue effectively.  History majors gain the skills for a wide range of successful careers, from teaching to law to environmental science to business management. Small classes, student camaraderie, internship opportunities, and faculty mentoring in the History Department create a stimulating and rewarding undergraduate experience.

The Political Science major allows students to study political institutions, processes, policies, and problems in a manner that is both practical and evaluative. Students will develop both factual and analytic knowledge permitting them to evaluate political phenomena at the local, national, international levels. Courses typically draw on current data, historical studies, and theoretical approaches in an effort to formulate standards for the appraisal of political life and the performance of political institutions. Scholarship in political science touches on virtually every aspect of our encounters with other people — not merely how societies are governed but also the consequences of political structures, processes, and beliefs for human welfare.

The English major invites students to engage in the study of literature, composition, language, and film. English majors learn how to write well, read critically, develop research skills, and work hands-on in digital environments. The English major allows students to create print, visual, and digital texts across a range of genres including poetry, fiction, and nonfiction.

Through a diverse range of course offerings, the English major develops a student’s abilities to engage with the world while also cultivating a variety skills, including:

• Analytical writing
• Critical interpretation
• Original inquiry and research
• The ability to develop, discuss, and debate complex ideas

Program Highlights

• Choose to explore an area of concentration: Creative Writing, Professional and New Media Writing, or Race, Ethnicity, and Literature.
• Choose to pursue initial teaching licensure in the English Teaching program.
• Work side-by-side with professors and fellow students in small, discussion-based classes on a diverse range of topics.
• Participate in extracurricular activities, ranging from the Sigma Tau Delta Honors Society to the Literary Theory Reading Group.
• Be prepared to enter the workforce, with a one-credit mini-course on “English 457: Careers in English and Preparing for the Job Market.”
• Engage with a dynamic and accomplished faculty. The English Department hosts vibrant events—such as guest speakers, creative writing readings, and contests—that are free and open to the UMass Boston community.
• Participate in The Watermark, a journal of literature and artwork created by UMass Boston students.

UMass Boston's Department of Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures (MLLC) offers a diverse and engaging curriculum, with courses focusing on language, literary, cultural, and film studies. Our well-rounded faculty, made up of prolific scholars and dedicated teachers, is committed to creating a strong community of language learners, critical thinkers, and responsible global citizens, who are well prepared for the professional demands of today’s global markets. The department offers language courses in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian, and Vietnamese as well as a wide variety of courses exploring the cultures of the Arabic-, Chinese-, French-, German-, Italian- and Japanese-speaking world taught in English.

The standard major in philosophy provides a general and comprehensive knowledge of the basic historical and systematic themes in philosophy. It will give a sound training both for those who anticipate going to graduate school or those who simply wish to acquire the broadly applicable skills of critical thinking and academic writing.

The majors in ethics, social, and political philosophy and in philosophy and public policy are intended for students who have a specific concern with questions of value as they apply to individuals, society, and public policy. These majors, in different ways, provide a broad outlook on these problems and attempted solutions to them, but should not in general be considered the best preparation for graduate work in philosophy. These majors, will, however, serve as a good liberal arts base for careers in government, the law, or social service.

The Information Technology major offered through UMass Boston's College of Management is designed to offer pathways to highly-demanded careers in IT for both high school graduates and students of Massachusetts community colleges. Our small classes ensure personalized attention from IT faculty while our ties to the Greater Boston business and technical communities add an extra dimension of learning to our program of business information technology education. The IT major offers an “applications-path” format for students which includes a core of technical knowledge (nine courses), an area of specialization or track within IT (four or five courses, depending on track selection), three professional electives in an application or domain area (preferably outside of IT but within business), and two wrap-up courses (project management and IT capstone), in addition to general education requirements.

The IT major is project-based.  Every exercise assigned throughout the BSIT is designed to be of the kind that a student might encounter in his or her work: collaboration, competence, and outcomes assessment are the hallmark characteristics of the program.  Students will learn how to use IT to solve real-world problems within the context of a field in which they wish to work. Graduates will be familiar with, and be able to apply, the following core information technologies to solve business problems:

• Programming
• Networking
• Databases
• Web technologies

System Administration Track
The Information Technology (IT) major is a jointly offered program between the College of Management (CM) and the College of Science and Mathematics (CSM) at the University of Massachusetts Boston. The BSIT consists of a common core of ten courses, a track of four to six courses in a particular area of specialization (the system administration track requires four courses), a common capstone course, and three professional electives.

The Computer Science Department offers a BA degree in Computer Science. It provides a similar education in the theory and practice of computer science with more of an emphasis on outside humanities. Either degree can be used as a basis for many jobs in industry or for graduate work in computer science and other fields. 

Our goal as a program is to engage UMass Boston students actively with Anthropology's long-standing attention to issues of cultural diversity and to economic stability in both Western and non-Western regions combines with the discipline's holistic, evolutionary, deeply historical, critical, and cross-cultural approaches to offer students powerful resources for understanding current trends that affect their workplaces and their communities.

The first step in becoming an anthropology major is to enroll in Anthropology 105, 106, or 107. These courses provide an overview of the various subfields of anthropology, and all majors are required to take all three courses, although the order in which they are taken is up to the student. One of these courses, and in some cases all three, are prerequisites to nearly all upper-level anthropology courses.

Preparing environmental policy and management professionals, our nationally-recognized BA in Environmental Science program integrates policy, management, and law with the natural sciences. Students gain practical experiences at the intersection of science and policy through coursework and real-world problem solving in our senior capstone course, internships, research, and cooperative education programs. Majors may focus their studies on policy and management (Policy and Management Track), policy-earth systems (Earth and Hydrologic Science Track), and policy-marine systems (Marine Science Track).

• Students will be able to apply the scientific method and design appropriate experiments to answer environmental science questions.  
• Students will understand the contributions of laboratory, field, and survey data collection and analysis for approaching environmental science problems.
• Students will be able to analyze and critique environmental questions across multiple natural and social science perspectives and research approaches.
• Students will demonstrate analytical and quantitative proficiencies to analyze environmental and/or social science data.
• Students will understand the system interactions and feedbacks between human activities and social institutions and the natural environment.
• Students will be experienced in communicating their learnings both in writing, visually, and orally, and for specific and general audiences.

The biochemistry major at the University of Massachusetts Boston is jointly administered by the departments of biology and chemistry.

The curriculum generally follows the recommendations of the American Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB). This is a rigorous and well-rounded program of study designed to accommodate the needs of a broad spectrum of students seeking a terminal or non-terminal bachelor of science degree in biochemistry.

Students completing a degree in biochemistry will:

• Learn the fundamentals of chemistry and biology with emphasis on organic chemistry, analytical chemistry, physical chemistry, genetics and cell and molecular biology.
• Gain a deep appreciation of the theory and laboratory practices in modern biochemistry and a solid understanding of the interaction among metabolic pathways from a systems biology perspective.
• Learn and apply the principles of scientific ethics with regard to use of sources, generating and reporting of data, and collaboration with colleagues.
• Develop an understanding of environmental responsibility.
• Upon graduation, be prepared to practice as a professional biochemist, whether in further study or in the workforce.