<p>Hey guys,
I've been doing some soul searching lately, and I'm starting to realize that maybe pursing computer science maybe right for me (after taking a few CS classes). The problem is, I'm already a sophomore in college and I don't have the time to major in CS. How likely do you think my chances are of making it into a CS grad school? Perhaps majoring in something like physics?</p>
<p>Thanks.</p>
<p>Talk to an advisor, and ask how long it would take you to graduate if you switched majors after this term is up, given the CS classes you’ve already taken.</p>
<p>I agree to first look at switching. Go to the department and talk to an advisor asap. Taking summer courses might help you graduate on time. My daughter decided to do CS during sophmore year when she took the 2 semester sequence for majors. She couldn’t do the straight CS major I dont think, in that time, not sure, but the department offered a mathematics & computer science major that used alot of her credits from physics and math.</p>
<p>I think without CS undergrad you will have a hard time, though not impossible. You might be fine on the advanced math, but you won’t be on all the other stuff, the theory too. The grad classes are pretty difficult, generally</p>
<p>I don’t know why you don’t have time to major in CS but might be able major in “something like physics.” Or are you saying that you’re already a physics major?</p>
<p>The best way to determine what courses you need to get into a CS graduate program is to visit web sites of programs where you might apply. Most will list requirements. They might say that you should major in CS or a related field – physics and math would both be related – but that you’ll need to have taken some upper level courses in CS. At the very least, you should take operating systems, data structures, programming, and linear algebra.</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew is right. Check what the CS admissions requirements are for grad schools you may be interested in, often they will admit non-CS undergrads if you have a similar technical/engineering background and know how to program somewhat. Usually they will require you to take a few undergrad level CS courses though.</p>
<p>The GRE CS subject test would also help a lot if you come from a non-CS background. It’s not an easy test.</p>
<p>Thanks for the help everyone, I will definitely look at grad school requirements.</p>
<p>BrownParent, I found a major titled “Mathematics of Computation” here at my school (UCLA) and I think this is somewhat similar to what your daughter majored in. Is she doing something in the cs field now as a career? Or if she’s not, did she find CS to still be an option if she wanted to pursue it?</p>
<p>Momwaitingfornew, the CS major at UCLA belongs to the school of engineering where there are vastly different requirements from other majors such as math or physics (belongs to the Letter and Sciences department). I’ve been a part of the Letter and Sciences department for 2 years now and fulfilled a lot of their GE requirements, and I would have to start over (more or less) if I chose CS.</p>