<p>short version: I won't be able to make money right out of school as a psych major. Should I pursue c.s.? Not a great math student. Need two more years of pre-reqs at community college. Must find a way to escape from financially struggling family. I'm 24 and I need to be able to financially support myself. Don't want to spend four more years in school because I feel that I'm not gaining life experience living with my father.</p>
<p>I've recently been accepted into UCSC as a psychology major for the fall 2012 quarter. However, as the beginning of the quarter approaches I have reservations about pursuing the major. I have always been interested in psychology and intend to pursue a career in clinical psych. Initially the thought of grad school did not appear daunting and I looked forward to work that I would enjoy. Now though as my high school class has begun graduating, I've realized that many of my friends cannot find a job in this economy, especially those with majors like business, marketing, psychology and political science. This has deterred me from pursuing what I've always been interested in. </p>
<p>I graduated from a college prep in 2007 with a 3.3 gpa and a 1660 sat score. I feel as though I lacked the study skills and focus necessary to do as well as I potentially could have. I was often preoccupied by troubles at home. I received scholarships from some decent schools but did not attend at first due to mental health problems and later as finances became more of a struggle. I came from a single parent household and as the economy has continued to decline I feel more pressure to make money right out of school. Also, at home I feel like I have no support system socially as well as financially. I have been uninspired and underachieved at community college earning a 3.1 gpa in courses that were not difficult at all (I still have three F's I must repeat). I saw college as my way out of a dysfunctional family with financial problems but now I don't see that as a realistic option as a psychology major. </p>
<p>I do not want to spend four more years in college as I am anxious to graduate and move on with my life, but now I've begun to consider computer science as a viable option. The Baskin School of Engineering appears to be relatively strong and I feel that I may be able to land a job after graduation especially with Silicon Valley nearby. I have never been a particularly strong math student as I wasn't good with pattern recognition and computational problem solving. Therefore, I became discouraged and did not study hard in these courses. However, I did not having problems understanding mathematical concepts and have always been interested in the sciences and research. I am willing to work hard and achieve good grades in these courses. I would need to spend two more years in community college completing c.s. pre-reqs but I feel that I need to move away from an unstable living situation where I must constantly worry about having enough food, gas to put in my car and a place to sleep at night. Financially, I cannot support myself, but I cannot rely on my father to support me either. I would consider working and going to school part time but I still dont believe Id be able to do this working the unskilled jobs available to me. I am not gaining real world life experiences staying at home and as the years pass I feel socially stunted to a degree. However, I cannot find a way to financially make this happen. I cannot get a loan by myself even though my credit is good because I dont meet the minimum income requirement and my fathers credit is too low due to a divorce and foreclosure to be able to cosign for me. Other members of my family either do not have good credit and those who do dont want to risk cosigning a loan of any kind. My mother refuses to cosign saying that she doesnt want to jeopardize her retirement.
Lastly, although Im interested in science and tech will I really enjoy a desk job which mostly wont appeal to my desire to help others on an interpersonal level? I feel so conflicted. Oh and I forgot to mention, orientation for UCSC is on Friday.</p>
<p>I’d also like a chance to have a “traditional” college experience and feel that I’m becoming a bit old for that. I’d also prefer not to be that be that “creepy” older guy. I’d like to have a social life and possibly meet an attractive, intelligent young woman if my relationship of four years doesn’t work out. I’m not ready to settle down quite yet.</p>
<p>What do you mean “the resistance”? Computer science is one of the highest paid majors coming out of Berkeley, LA, etc. sure they will get tsken advanatage of with the abounding opportunities for IT, but companies like Microsoft, google, etc. pay pretty well.</p>
<p>Computer Science is a unique major, in the sense that the people who succeed in it are truly OBSESSED with programming. Nobody casually steps into a CS program and gets a job at a top tech company. My closest friend has worked at Google and Microsoft, but he’s been programming hardcore stuff for 10+ years. Even as a current Google employee, he’s spending a lot of time learning new concepts to keep up with the rapid technology. My dad is a software engineer, and he works 40-60 hours per week. Even during his spare time, he codes or reads programming books, because he absolutely loves what he does.</p>
<p>I’ve encountered many people who come into CS with the “yeah bro i just wanna make hella money” mentality. They’re the ones who don’t get past the intro course because they don’t have passion to learn and succeed in the subject. Assuming the person somehow passes the first few CS courses, what about the 3 semesters of calculus, linear algebra, discrete mathematics, differential equations, and physics/chemistry? Money, as a sole source of motivation, will NOT get you through these courses. Sorry, it won’t. You’ll need an insane work ethic to do well, but also a genuine interest to learn. Only a genuine desire to learn will get you past these classes. </p>
<p>What I’m saying is, if OP is switching to CS because he likes it, then awesome. I fully support that. But if he has no interest in the subject, he’s going to have a very miserable career. He will hate every day of work, never progress as a programmer, and only weigh others down. There’s already tons of bad, passionless programmers out there, and the field doesn’t need any more.</p>
<p>Exactly what theresistance said. I’m not in CS/software engineering myself, but most of my friends are, and they eat, sleep, and breathe programming. You can’t pry them away from it, no matter how you try, and they’re constantly learning new coding languages, completing programming assignments, and applying to co-ops to gain more experience. When they take time away from coding, they play video games and comment on how what they’re playing relates to their coding. There’s a lot of related math talk, too. They’re some of the smartest people I know (and I don’t just say that because they’re my friends), very capable at what they do, and even still they’ve found it difficult to get co-ops at times.</p>
<p>They’re your competition. Everyone I know through them is exactly the same way. That’s the field you’re going into, and that’s the mindset you’ll need to get by. They love their major, but you need to make sure that you can love it, too.</p>
<p>Yeah, I love math (like I do it obsessively), and I am definitely becoming that way with programming… But I, and OP, likely has a late start (Im sixteen and im only adept at Java)… am I at too much of a disadvantage?</p>
<p>Nah. My one friend pretty much started in undergrad, and now he’s just as competent and obsessed as the rest of them. theresistance and I are just trying to give you an idea of what you should expect from the field, so that you don’t expect jobs handed to you just because you have a CS degree.</p>
<p>Haha… I doubt that works woth any field xD. And trust me, im one of the hardest workers and easiest learners ive ever met (thought my self from geometry to calc III (including algebra II, Trogenometry, etc.) In three months and Java in a,month I definitely feel competitive you just made me panic a bit lol.</p>
<p>Exactly. Starting a bit later isn’t bad. You hear about kids programming since they were 6. If you think about it, all they were doing was printing some stupid **** like “Hello, World” on the console or making insignificant games. That doesn’t count as programming, IMO. </p>
<p>Some concepts of programming you’ll be able to understand only when you’re a little bit older. I can’t imagine many teenagers understanding C++ pointers, linked lists, dynamic memory allocation, binary trees, sorting algorithms, etc. After you’ve had exposure to lots of abstract material like Calculus and Linear Algebra, you start to think about things logically. I personally started CS at 19, and I’m doing alright. There are people starting at 25, 27, 30, whatever. There’s no such thing as being at a disadvantage. If you put the work in, things will always work out.</p>
<p>EDIT: You taught yourself from Geometry to Calculus III in 3 months? Sorry bro, I don’t buy that.</p>
<p>Look, believe it or not… I did. My school didnt offer them so I brought three books from the library:
Geometry by some text book publication place rhat I cant remember the name of, read it in a week (like a high school text book). Bought a trigenometry and algebra two book… Took me a while but I got it done. And then I got calculus an intuitive and physical approach by Morris Kline which starts at derivitives and ends after multivariable calculus. Thats about all I did. Sure, my knowledge of the calc books are rather rudimentary but it lays the foundation quite well and no, I cant recite every trigenometric identity from memmorry but I can recognize them and derive them. Ive already been in UI and Web development at UCSD, so thats a plus.</p>
<p>cekelly - Why are you not taking math classes for geometry and algebra 2? There is no need to self teach this stuff when it’s provided at any public school for free. </p>
<p>Intuitive calculus is very different in rigor versus real calculus courses for science and engineering majors. Rushing through 3+ years of math at a very simplistic level is not proof that you have what it takes to survive CS. Plug and chug of a derivative doesn’t prove anything.</p>
<p>I dunno if this person enrolled in community college early, but I basically taught myself Algebra - Trig and tested into Calculus I at my community college. I think the test was called the COMPASS and it basically determines if you need remedial courses. You have to pay for them and they don’t transfer to anywhere. I can’t tell whether this person is a community college student because when I was at community college there were always younger people than me (sometimes 12 year olds) in my classes in Differential Equations, Calculus, or Physics. </p>
<p>Honestly, the dedicated student could learn enough math to get through Algebra & Calculus I in probably a solid two months. Maybe even Calculus II. Depends on how talented and how obsessed you are. I know there was a story I read about Riemann returning a math book the next day after having mastered all of its contents and showed the person he had. But those people only come around every once in a while.</p>
<p>Honestly, sometimes people are just talented. I thought my first exposure to programming (C) was a joke. I’m teaching myself C++ at the moment since it’s “preferred” for one of my upper-divison math classes. My friends at UC Berkeley program like mad. They took all the same math and physics classes as I did, though. I’d expect it to be easier for those more mathematically minded anyway.</p>
<p>On the other hand, a few friends in my first physics class were horrible at Calculus and Physics but beasts at Discrete Math and Linear Algebra. They had no problems programming.</p>
theresistance and I are just trying to give you an idea of what you should expect from the field, so that you don’t expect jobs handed to you just because you have a CS degree.</p>