<p>Hopefully this post dosent seem self-centered at all; just trying to give as much info as possible, any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>Hello! I'm 22, and I've had ongoing trouble deciding between wildlife/marine biology and computer science. Whenever i want to decide biology i feel like i'm being stupid, and whenever i want to decide CSCI i feel like the dream job isn't realistic. Here's my pros and cons list of each, wondering if these are valid concerns?</p>
<p>CSCI pros:
I'm not crazy about sitting at a computer, but I'm a geek when it comes to playing web app education games. I can't get enough of stuff like vocabulary.com, Duolingo, ixl.com and would play them all day if i could. I'd be very passionate about designing and producing those web games/apps. Theres better pay too.
cons:
back pain,
chance of getting stuck in a career that isn't education game related.<br>
The work environment is repetitive so time would seem to pass very fast.
Less travel.</p>
<p>Wildlife Biology pros:
Working outside or working inside with life would feel natural and enjoyable. The schooling and work has lots of expeditions and mini-adventures that would create alot of work-related memories and make time pass slower. I feel like i can relate to biologists more than business folk.
Wildlife Biology cons:
Extremely high job competition,(some people say its like trying to be a rockstar?)
8 years of school with huge debt,
Little pay</p>
<p>Are some of these industry concerns real?
Is it more important to do something your passionate about, even if that thing is an obsession that will probably leave me unhappy but fulfilled(CSCI). Or to choose something simple and settle for a nice peaceful career like wildlife biology that would be enjoyable but less fulfilling.</p>
<p>What should i do; i change my mind like 20 times a day.
Thanks for any advice</p>
<p>You can start off college taking the introductory courses for both majors, then choose based on interest.</p>
<p>Also, if you decide on one, that does not exclude the possibility of taking additional courses, a minor, or second major in the other subject. However, that would be more doable at a school which offers a non-engineering-based CS major (engineering-based CS majors tend to have additional physics and math requirements that reduce the elective space for additional courses, a minor, or a second major in some other subject).</p>
<p>I’m only a senior in high school, but this thread caught my attention. Isn’t computational biology a thing? If there’s not a specific major for it, could you major in Biology, minor in computer science, work in the field of computational biology and do educational game programming/ development on the side? </p>
<p>OP, you list a potential problem with bio as being 8 years of school debt. I assume you’re talking about undergrad + PhD. If you are accepted to a PhD program, it should be funded and also provide a stipend. It is true, though, that wildlife bio is a VERY tough field; there just aren’t a lot of jobs out there.</p>
<p>What point are you at in your education. You said you’re 22 - are you just starting college now or do you already have a degree. If you’re just starting, you probably don’t have to decide immediately; take classes in both and see which are the most interesting.</p>
<p>I do agree with ucbalumnus that computational biology might interest you. It’s still a tough job market and you would likely have to go to grad school if you want to go into the sciences and be more than a lab tech. But the skills are more marketable than wildlife biology. My boyfriend just got his degree in biology & math and plans to use that to go to grad school for computational biology.</p>
<p>I’d go for computer science and force yourself to love it or at least endure it. Getting a biology major and either collecting carts at the grocery store or working in a lab for Aerotek or Kelly for $12 an hour is less fun than any of the cons you list for CS.</p>
<p>I’m sorry, but did a chemist murder your parents and a biologist drive the get away car? After skimming over your previous posts, you seem to really dislike the pure science fields. I mean, you say that</p>
<p>“biology major and either collecting carts at the grocery store or working in a lab for Aerotek or Kelly for $12 an hour is less fun than any of the cons you list for CS.”</p>
<p>But what about the people with chemistry or biology degrees that go on to get MD/PT/PhD/PA/OT/pharm? They all make much more than $12 an hour. And aren’t you afraid that the same with that happen to chemistry and biology bachelor degrees will happen to CS? There are more and more people getting CS degrees, how do you know the jobs will keep up? If the companies are willing to outsource chemist and biologist jobs to China, why wouldn’t they be able to do the same to CS? </p>
<p>@Honkington - sschoe2 has a tendency to show up whenever someone suggests a career in the sciences and tell them it’s hopeless.</p>
<p>My boyfriend and roommate both graduated with biology degrees this spring. My boyfriend got a job within a few months of graduation working for an academic research lab and plans to go to grad school in the future. My roommate had multiple job offers before graduation and now works for a pharmaceutical company with a starting salary over $60k/yr.</p>
<p>@nanotechnology That is great for your roommate and boyfriend, but the fact is that @sschoe2 is right, generally speaking, and they seem to be the exception rather than the norm. I think it’s not only misleading but irresponsible to suggest that most students–even stellar students–will have $60k/yr jobs lined up for them after graduating with nothing but a BS in biology. I was also a biology graduate–a stellar one–and have literally not heard of anything of the sort until reading your post. Do you mind if I ask you what your roommate’s job entails? Is it sales?</p>
<p>Jobs in academic research labs or other kinds of labs are far more common, but I doubt your boyfriend is pulling anywhere close to $60k for that type of position (though please correct me if I’m wrong). Anyway, a couple anecdotes are just that–anecdotes–and it’s a little disingenuous to suggest that even a significant fraction of science grads are getting decent gigs like this.</p>
<p>@Honkington I don’t think sschoe2 was referring to people with graduate or professional degrees beyond a bachelor’s in biology/chemistry, as these advanced degrees are almost necessary for someone with a BS in biology/chemistry to get a decent job. As for your question of “aren’t you afraid of the same thing happening with CS?” I’d have to answer with a resounding “no.” Quite frankly it’s kind of a silly question. Simply put, computer and programming skills are in demand now and will continue to be in great demand for the foreseeable future. It’s not comparable to biology; biology is a vast field, but any particular BS-level job in biology does not, for the most part, require much actual experience or knowledge of biology. Programming, coding, and computer skills on the other hand, do require some actual experience and practice beyond the rudimentary basics.</p>
<p>You could hire almost anybody, including non-science majors, to do the work most BS-level biology lab workers do (a simple matter of training), but you could not hire a biology major to do the work of a programmer/coder/CS grad unless they had significant experience in the area.</p>
<p>I do know exceptions to the rule, who managed to make an excellent career out of biology, but frankly most of them are a fair bit older than you are (and the market has gotten worse) and they all had a job lined up for them before they even went to graduate school (because that’s why they went in the first place). Don’t go into a major just expecting that you will be unaffected by its poor prospects; either you won’t have a job or you will be forced to accept a less-desirable one just as a matter of supply and demand. </p>
<p>I absolutely understand what you mean that science majors are more relatable than CS majors - while most don’t like to admit it, engineering/computer science majors are seldom particularly pleasant people. And that is definitely important, because being able to get along with others is an important part of life. </p>
<p>Personally, I would say that you should try to squeeze both in and double major; maybe take a course in advanced calculus or scientific computing on top of that. The dismal career prospects are very real, but it’s not worth doing something you have minimal interest in just for the money either. Unless you have a lot of credits already completed, you’ll probably have to spend some summers filling the requirements, but it’d be worth it.</p>
<p>@AuraObscura - It is harder to have a career in biology than in CS with a bachelor’s degree. I’m not denying that. (See my first post on this thread.) My cousin and his wife both have wildlife biology (or similar) degrees and worked in summer national park positions, but struggled to find permanent jobs. They both ended up going to grad school, one of them for teaching.</p>
<p>But I am trying to counter what seems to be a fatalistic attitude that being a biology major dooms you to permanent unemployment. In particular, sschoe2 tends to come in and claim that no one ever succeeds with a science degree.</p>
<p>(btw - my roommate is doing biochem research, not sales.)</p>
<p>Well, from what I’ve seen of sschoe, he seems mostly concerned with the prospects of majors after graduate school. Life is pretty nice in the pre-graduation years; you get to do neat research work, and you earn a modest living that is adequate because you are still young. But after graduate school, you’d expect a stable salary so that you can raise a family and have a somewhat comfortable life, even if not a particularly wealthy one. But that just doesn’t really happen. There are far more PhD’s than there are decent jobs for them. And that does make things difficult. After a while, living a crummy life tends to make you lose interest in science. That is what sschoe is trying to say, and I think his interpretation is quite spot-on from everything that I have seen. There are many neat BS-level “fun” jobs but they really don’t turn into anything that you can make a living on.</p>