Computer Science Major - What Should I Know?

College Majors
1

I’m a current senior, and I’ve started my applications, but I’m still stumped on a major. I’ve recently considered majoring in Computer Science, and now I can’t get the idea out of my head.

Here’s where I’m coming from. Feel free to skip to the questions.

My basic plan was to pursue a major in something like Business, while chasing some acting and modelling along the way. If I don’t break into that or don’t enjoy it, I would head to Law School or join the FBI.
I’ve always wanted to get SOME form of Computer Science education, but because I’m playing up the more artsy-fartsy aspect of my personality (President of Theatre Club, high English test scores, strong writing skills) I’ve felt like STEM majors are off limits to me. That being said, my school offers so much in the STEM department that most of my classes are in this field. I took and succeeded in AP Chemistry and AP Calculus A/B (B+ in both and a 4 and 5 on the AP Exam, respectively) despite my brother’s death in the middle of my Junior year. In fact, he’s a large part of the reason why I want to pursue a computer education; he used to teach me how to play his favorite video games so he wouldn’t have to play by himself, and it really sparked my interest in the subject. I also took Intro to Java last year and absolutely LOVED coding (I’ll be taking Comp Sci in the Spring). My teacher said I had a knack for it, and I found it both super interesting and really relaxing (I came in during lunch to work on programs to calm me down if I got stressed out).

Here are the questions I have:

Would my emphasis on skills in English and the Arts help or hurt me if I pursue Computer Science?
Does my love for Java offer any indication of a possible interest in Computer Science?
Can I still minor in something artsy/Englishy if I major in Computer Science? Would that help or hurt me?
Do I have to love math (I don’t, but I’m still good at it) to major in Computer Science?
Is there anything else I should know?

I’ll also add the fact that I’m a girl, 4.18 W GPA, top 5% of class (We don’t report rank), and 1460 GPA (750 R/W and 710 Math) because stats stats stats stats stats.

2

English and arts can certainly be helpful in computing. In industry, artistic skill can be helpful for those doing user interface design, computer games, animation, and other computer graphics applications. The ability to write well is generally helpful for everyone (although literary analysis may be less generally applicable). Creative writing can be helpful if you are developing computer games.

If you like programming, that is a good sign, but programming is far from the only thing that computer science is about. You may want to go through http://cs10.org to get more of an overview of what computer science is like.

Yes, you will have breadth requirements and free electives to take English and arts courses. Since you mention law school, you may want to consider patent law, though you may have to ensure that your course selection includes the needed non-CS science and sufficient CS courses as prerequisites for the patent exam.

Being good at and liking math (including logic and proofs, which you might have had a taste of in high school geometry) is helpful in computer science, since similar types of thinking apply to both fields. Some of the computer science theory courses (some of which tend to be required or strongly recommended for computer science majors) are basically math courses.

3

Thanks so much for the information! Are you a computer science major? Or are you just generally super knowledgeable XD