<p>@Keilexandra: I don’t know if I’m necessarily a genre writer these days. Certainly I enjoy it, but over the past three years I’ve come to realise that I use genre writing as a crutch, focusing on the fantastical more than the relatable. I suppose…unless my professors explicitly forbade me from setting a scene in 2080, I’d be all right.</p>
<p>@midmo: Yes, I do sound like that, don’t I? It is true I consider myself a writer first, and although I do have an affinity for math and the normal sciences, I certainly don’t love it the way I love writing. (If you’ve heard of NaNoWriMo…I’ve been doing that for three years now.)</p>
<p>The reason I want to study CS is because I truly, truly enjoy dabbling around with computers and code and building things out of binary, and imagining what the future of the internet might be. I taught myself a lot of web design & development skills (this is actually what got me into CS in the first place; I just wanted to build cool websites) and I’m working my way through some of the MIT CS-related lectures available on iTunes. I kind of like the idea of having enough programming knowledge to be able to build cool stuff, because I drive myself crazy every month coming up with a great idea for some application or website or online tool that is always out of my scope, although I seem to be getting closer these days.</p>
<p>In any case, I am definitely a novelist type. This is not something I can make a career out of, but it is something I am pursuing in any case. I need a day job that I love, which will incidentally allow me the financial freedom to pursue less reliable interests.</p>
<p>If a dual major is going to be that tough (and I expect a CS curriculum will be quite challenging on its own), how about a minor? I don’t need the degree so much as the opportunity to explore.</p>
<p>Oh, and another question, just out of curiosity: midmo, what’s the male/female distribution like in your son’s courses? At my high school right now it’s rather dismal.</p>