<p>Hi, I'm currently a HS junior, and am looking towards a career in AE. I'm also interested in CS, and know that the fields do overlap. Would it be smart for me to get a double major in both? Would that look good on applications, or should I just get a masters in AE? </p>
<p>Then there is always the possibility of double majoring, and then continuing on to get my masters in AE, although I'm uncertain as to how long this would take.</p>
<p>Anyones input would be appreciated; I'm just trying to weigh all my options before decision time my senior year.</p>
<p>Thank you,</p>
<p>Christian</p>
<p>Before anyone answers: do you know what computer science actually entails?</p>
<p>Yes if the major is anything like the AP class. No if it’s different</p>
<p>I’m assuming you took the AP class this year so you took the Java version. The AP class is not even the tip of the iceberg. You learn absolutely nothing preparing for the AP test. The AP class might cover a fifth of your first CS intro class. I’m not even exaggerating. Starting off learning Java is like trying to become an AeroE by learning how to paint a jet.</p>
<p>In actual Computer Science, you will learn Java if you choose, but you will also learn the way that a computer works. You’ll learn lower level languages such as C which is astronomically closer to the hardware than Java. You’ll learn how operating systems are made and how this affects your program design. You’ll learn about systems and networks and tons of other things that you didn’t even kind of understand beforehand.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to make you feel bad or anything, I just can’t even believe that APCS is actually an AP class. I had more challenging problems to solve in BASIC than I did on the AP exam for APCS. So god damn stupid.</p>
<p>I realize that I didn’t answer your question in my comment. Experiment with some C or something over the summer and see if you enjoy it at all. CS and AeroE would be a good combination for knowledge purposes, and in my opinion, it would look better on a resume for a job. That statement is contingent with the idea that you are looking for a job involving programming for AeroE. If not, it doesn’t matter to the employer that you know CS since the two fields don’t have any overlap in terms of actual material. The overlap lies in the fact that you use programming knowledge from CS to solve AeroE problems. You don’t actually learn any of the same information in those two majors.</p>
<p>If you want to sit at a desk and be an AeroE then you should just take AeroE. If you want to sit at a desk and be a programmer for AeroE, then you probably should still only take AeroE since you can learn a programming language without wasting your time majoring in CS.</p>
<p>Major in AE, minor in CS</p>
<p>Are you interested in any part of CS other than programming? If so, what? If not, consider taking only a few courses on what interests you… since your real passion is in aerospace, look for things like numerical analysis and methods (“numerical” followed by any math topic will involve writing programs to do calculations), scientific computing/programming, and maybe the general-purpose in-major sequence (Java or C++, possibly Scheme or something more exotic).</p>