Hi, I’ve had this conflict on whether I should continue the path of Biomed or go computer science. All my life I’ve been so focused on medicine because it was kinda the only thing I knew, but recently, I took a trip to the west coast and had the opportunity to tour the Nike HQ. The guy giving us the tour was my bf’s sisters long time friend and he is a software engineer. He programs the updates and stuff for the Nike Running app and I thought that was so interesting. I would like to note that I’ve had this far-fetched dream of working for Google. Anyways, I thought what he did was so cool and thought maybe I could do something like that? I’ve never thought outside of medicine so idk if computer science would be okay for me? I would love to learn it and start programming and stuff but I’m still unsure. By the way, I’m an upcoming freshman with a biomed major at the University of South Florida.
Computer science is largely an applied math major, like an engineering major, that involves the study of computing, algorithms, data structures, etc. Programming is a tool used in computer science to apply these principles and concepts. If you enjoy and are good at math, and these things sound interesting to you, consider a CS major. It could certainly help you get that dream job at Google, someday, if you’re serious about it and good at it. Do note that CS and software engineering are different, in the same way that physics and engineering are different (science versus applied science). Related, and a person can make the transition from one to the other, but different.
You don’t necessarily have to make up your mind right away. You could take a couple CS courses alongside your biomed courses to get a feel for it. Moreover, there is plenty of room for people with CS majors in the area of biomedicine.
Thank you so much! I appreciate your reply! I guess I’ll figure it out because I actually do enjoy math and it would be pretty sick to maybe one day achieving my dream of working at Google! I might take some cs courses in the future and see how I like it. Your response really helped me out thanks again!
Biomed as in biomedical engineering? If so, you’re a trooper. My sister is a BME major at UCI and she says its pretty tough, but she enjoys it. BME also does some coding if that’s what you’re interested in, just not in the same languages as CS majors.
I am a CS major looking to transfer, and I may be biased, but I love it. If you’re truly on the fence start looking into hybrid programs (UCI has one but I think it’s electrical engineering and CS), or double major.
Since you’re only going to be a freshman you still have time to choose, just keep bothering your counselor for suggestions until you feel like you’ve figured it out. A friend at Berkeley majored in physics, but also decided to double major in CS (at the last minute) and graduated successfully with two degrees.
Yeah, the other thing is that there are very strong applications of computer science in biomedicine and health. Look up Epic, a company focused on electronic health records, or Doximity, a company that has created a social/professional network for doctors. There’s the entire field of bioinformatics, which is using CS and informatics in biomedical settings. There are fields like computational biology too. There’s the entire biotechnology industry. There’s a whole lot of places where CS and biomedicine intersect.