My major is Accounting. I am finishing my junior year this semester. I go to a local commuter school around my neighborhood. The problem is that I hate accounting and anything accounting related. The only reason I got this far is because I was encouraged by my brother to finish. But at the beginning of my junior year I began to realize that if I hate accounting now, how am I going to tolerate 30+ years? I would like to pursue computer science instead because I have always been interested in artificial intelligence. I feel that I have what it takes to get accepted to a top 20 computer science program. I don’t really care about the time and energy I have wasted already because the way I see it, it is better to take more time to get a fulfilling career than to spend doing something you hate. Should I finish my accounting degree or pursue computer science. By the way I am 25 years old.
I think you already know the answer to your question and are looking for validation for switching your career focus.
If you absolutely hate accounting then you are quite right; why continue? So, the question becomes where fo I transfer to, how do I pay for it and do I have the grades to make the transfer.
How much do you know about computer science? Do you have any coding experience?
IF you switch to computer science, you’ll likely be stuck in school for another 4 years. Unless you already have the prereqs done
OP won’t necessarily be in school for another four years. The general education requirements at most colleges are pretty similar; you’d basically have to begin with the CS courses. With careful planning, you could probably finish in 2-3 years.
But why do you need to transfer anyway? Does your local commuter school have a CS major? If you want to change your major to computer science, why not just do it there? You don’t need to go to a top 20 computer science program to get a job in the field.
If your passion is really telling you to go for CS, then try. I started my CS major with only a basic, semester-long course in my junior year of high school, and I’ve been doing very well. If the CS major shares any courses with the Accounting major, though, that would definitely help timewise.
The reason why I asked about your coding experience and knowledge about computer science is because I don’t know how much you are really interested in computer science. You said you’ve always been interested in artificial intelligence, but that is only a part of computer science, and you didn’t say anything about liking writing and debugging code and making projects, which makes me wonder if you are really interested in computer science or just going into computer science because you hate accounting and need to major in something. So if you haven’t already, I recommend you get some coding experience (by learning online and/or starting off with one intro conputer science class before really committing to the major) just to see if you would like coding and do some research on the computer science major and careers to see what you are getting into. If you don’t like accounting, then don’t pursue it anymore, but make sure you really take time to think about what major you want to pursue because you don’t want to change majors only to find out you don’t like that major neither and need to change majors a third time.
In my opinion, if you are the type of person who likes problem solving and/or solving puzzles, it is likely that you will like coding because the process of writing code and debugging it requires a lot of thinking and problem solving skills.