<p>I was the opposite - my dad pretty much insisted I become a CPA, but when I protested he said he’d consider an architect. I went to college orientation and came home signed up for Computer Science (80’s) and he had a fit. Computers were a passing fancy and I was wasting his money. He did let me continue - but it was a lot of pressure since it was hard and I was always worried about grades or finding a job and him having the “I told you so” hanging over my head. Years later he admitted I made the right decision. My son is also going into computer science, but I’ve tried to get him to consider options. But he pretty much decided years ago that is what he wanted. But he has time to decide for sure while he gets his general classes out of the way. Good luck! </p>
<p>Either course will turn out fine for you, except that it won’t be easy to do well in CS if you’re not liking it going in. In either case, you’ll be in a field that a vast majority of people self-select out. And you’ll find that you’ll be smarter than many of the ones who self select into the areas, too. </p>
<p>I like the idea of exploring things when you get there, if the curriculum allows it. Test yourself a little with the introductory course for CS and see what you think. College is a time when your views are likely to change at least a little bit about what makes sense for you to do , and about what you like. </p>
<p>This thread reminds me of an older lady’s story to me once that she told me proudly:
She wanted to be an accountant but her older sister was paying for college and her older sister wanted her to be a lawyer, so she became a lawyer. Worked in the legal department of an office.
She had a daughter who was passionate about piano and wanted to major in music.
Guess what the lady did? She said no and made the daughter take accounting.
#-o </p>
<p>@megpmom is right Unless you are going to a school which REQUIRES you to declare a major in any binding way (or severely limits change of major - and it sounds like you should not go to a school like that). Why decide now? Remember that most college students change their major - on average at least three times.</p>
<p>I changed majors into Computer Science after taking introductory courses and liking it - you might do the reverse or find a third major that you like even better and that has good job prospects. Until you have taken at least one or two courses in the major - no need to stress much about it. You should make sure that you go somewhere that allows you to easily change major.</p>
<p>Many schools, like Rice, don’t even want you to declare a major until later in your sophomore year (except for Music and Architecture).</p>
<p>My son in his freshman year - at least half his courses could be useful if accounting or economics or engineering or computer science so you don’t have to “waste” much your freshman year if you change your mind among these.</p>
<p>wis 75, sorry, you missed my point entirely with your comments: “MiamiDAP- becoming a physician is not the most prestigious thing a person can do with an interest in biology and good academic ability” D. and our family never eve looked for any kind of presitge, not in attending specific school, not in pursuing specific careerr. In case of career, we are looking for the perfect match to personality (not only academic standing, that would be too shallow) and job market. While D’s personality would match well (maybe not as well as to physician careerm but still well) to a career of Mrine Bio, the job market was simply not there. The second aspect was primarily the source of my push towards the Med. School. If it was the opposite, if Mrine Bio proffessionals had better job security than physicians (hard to imagine, but just for the sake of argument), we would have never mention Med. School to our D. She would have been already a Merine Bio person, instead of being a 4th year Med. Student who just discovered going thru Acting Intern rotation that she feels very very good about her chosen field, she absolutely loves it, loves run the team, admitting patients, ordering medications, everything. She never mind Research, done several, just completed big project, wrote manuscript (she is the First author) and while she enjoed the “management” aspect of it (as she was a lead), there is no way under the sun she enjoyed the research as much as she does taking care of the patients (which she actually suspected way back in HS). Dealing with people is what she was born to do, many have noticed this about her. Forget presitge, at least we did many decades ago.</p>
<p>Thank you all for your replies, it really means a lot to hear these encouraging posts coming from parents. Unfortunately, my mom calls me a “bad kid” for not wanting to pursue computer science or anything related to medical. She constantly brings this topic up for discussion and then just belittles me for telling her that I want to pursue accounting/finance. I made it clear before that I do not have an interest in the science fields. My mom had forced my sister to go into medical… so my sister went to pursue a degree in pharmacy. She couldn’t keep up with her grades and she had to switch majors to accounting. My mom regards me as the smartest one in the family and that is why she expects me to achieve more. However, pursuing a degree is not about the prestige or the money (the only 2 factors my mom believes to make one a successful person… shallow i know). She has already said that she won’t pay for my tuition no matter what field I choose so isn’t it my right to pursue a degree that I want if I’m going to end up paying for it all? I’m just really stressed enough as it is and my mom is only making me more stressed. I’m going into my senior year by the way. </p>
<p>Um, don’t you have other family members or family friends? No one your mother knows who’s an accountant (besides your sister)?</p>
<p>Where does she get the idea that majoring in CS is “achieving more” than being an accountant? Aren’t median software developer and accountant salaries roughly the same? </p>
<p>Given that, though, how do you know that you won’t like CS if you’ve never taken a class in it?</p>
<p>How are you going to find the money to pay for school? </p>