Computer Science Majors: how much free time do you guys have

<p>Do you guys have a lot of free time or are you guys swamped with work 24/7 like everybody keeps telling me</p>

<p>It depends on how many CS classes you take per semester and the general difficulty (as well as your prior experience with the topic at hand).</p>

<p>My personal experience is that any more than 2 CS classes per semester and you’ll begin to start sleeping in the computer lab.</p>

<p>Assuming a sane schedule, I’d say it’s no more time-consuming than a science major (biology, physics, and so on).</p>

<p>I’m interested as well. I dont mean to hijack this thread, but how could you compare the free time to that of an engineering major? (I’ve heard engineering students do not have much free time)</p>

<p>I’m taking an intro CS course (digital logic systems), and the course work is moderately easy, but certainly time consuming. In addition you’ll most likely have a lab like you do for many science classes. The only labs other than CS courses in the future for me will be Physics I: Mechanics and Physics II: E&M. All of that in addition to some higher math courses and you’ll definitely not make it without enough coffee, aspirin and junk food. </p>

<p>If you go to a school where CS is in the engineering department, like UCLA, you can count the amount of sleep you get on one hand.</p>

<p>@Darthpwner
That’s discouraging because I wanted to go to UCLA</p>

<p>I mean it really depends on the person. I get distracted easily so that’s not a good thing for me but you can probably handle the time management better.</p>

<p>I’m taking 18 credits, all senior/junior level courses, work on weekends but I still find time to laze around. If you’re like me that leaves everything to the last absolute second, you’ll go days straight without sleep when everything piles up but afterwards…you get 2 weeks of heaven to procrastinate again before the next major lab/test comes up (of course there are trivial things in between that don’t take too long to do). You’ll find free time, trust me. </p>

<p>Last semester I majored in chemical engineering and was up till 5 am at least 2 days a week studying. The amount of free time in hours I had per week was slim to none. I switched into computer science this semester, and, there have only been 2-4 nights that I’ve been up past 3 am studying for tests. Plus I have time to have a girlfriend and participate in clubs. Engineering seems to me to be much more rigorous, at least chemical engineering is.</p>

<p>If you’re a good student striving for an A, then Computer Science can be one of the most time consuming majors. Some of all projects take 20+ hours to get a single set of test cases to pass. If you wanna major in CS, the one thing you need to be is dedicated to learning or you’ll drop out like fifty percent of people in a CS class.</p>