<p>Hello. I am a sophomore in college and I am struggling to decide whether I should double major in physics and computer science. The only problem with this is it might set me back a year because although some courses overlap, it may require me to stay an extra year to get this double major degree.</p>
<p>My question is, would my career opportunities increase because of the double major, and what kind of fields could I get into with those two majors. I'm thinking of maybe modeling problems in physics, like the beginning of the big bang using computer simulation??</p>
<p>Should I only major in physics and finish on time, in four years? Will I still make similar income? Because it is expensive staying an extra year at a UC.</p>
<p>Thanks!!
CyberShot is invisible</p>
<p>I’m a CS/Physics double major, and can say with confidence that it was the right decision for me. I, too, enjoy modeling problems, and that can be involve both Physics and CS to varying degrees.</p>
<p>That being said, staying an extra year is a downside for sure. There will be pros and cons to any decision you make. Would it be worth it to me? Well, it would depend on how much. I’m finishing mine in the regular four years, but if I were to stay an extra year I would have to think about it. As far as opportunities go, I would say not to double major just for opportunities… do it because it’s what you want to do. That being said, I have received some interest from more science/engineering type firms because of my added background in physics (though they were primarily looking for CS types). They said it was because CS types who could understand the domain a little better were more valuable.</p>
<p>Income? Same as opportunities. There are tradeoffs.</p>
<p>To Auburnmathtutor:</p>
<p>I am also very interested (and decent at Physics)… but I’m really hesitating to double major because while I would be able to take lots of courses I like (Quantum, Relativity, GR, Lagrangian&Hamiltonian Mech), I would also sacrifice course space and be less “specialized” in my engineering major.</p>
<p>In your opinion, do you think your jobs opportunities would have increased if you chose to take courses in EE/CS instead of taking supplemental courses in physics?</p>
<p>I am able to double major in 4 yrs without too much hassle (I might have a few semesters with 5 classes at a time), but then, I’ll only be doing the bare minimum of each majors, and will forego the opportunity of taking grad classes and specialize in different fields of EECS (Photonics, Quantum Optics, circuits&devices… there’s literally a gazillion courses to take in EECS at my school).</p>
<p>Why not just major in the one you’re more interested in and minor in the field you’re a little less interested in. It’ll give you plenty of time to take grad courses in your major’s field, and let you only take the courses you care about in your minor’s field. That way you won’t have to worry nearly as much about double counting credits, fulfilling distribution requirements, and how to come up with money for that extra year of school.</p>
<p>Faraday:</p>
<p>I don’t think it necessarily affected my employment opportunities overmuch. That being said, I have taken some advanced coursework in CS, done some CS research projects, and done some extra stuff as well. For CS, I don’t think lacking a few advanced CS courses is going to be much trouble.</p>
<p>Then again, I didn’t double major for career opportunities. I wanted to do it one way or the other, and how it might affect a future career didn’t factor in. The way I look at it is that (a) jobs you can get with a BS can pretty much be done by any technical major + on the job training, and (b) I’m going to grad school to specialize anyway. Might as well take some classes for fun now while I still can. I think a lot of people on this forum couch things in terms of career too much. Learning should be for learning’s sake, and if it gets you money, all the better. At the very least, worry about money once you’re out of school. If you’ve done well and learned enough, you’ll do fine later on.</p>
<p>RacinReaver:
True, but then again you may be missing out on something you don’t even know you would enjoy. If I were just hand-picking physics courses, I may never have taken, for instance, Quantum Mechanics, but after taking that class (and enjoying it thoroughly) I realize that someone cannot seriously say they have an undergraduate education in Physics without having studied QM. Ditto for any of the other basic courses. Also, at my school, the minor and major differed very slightly… scheduling was a pain at times, but on the whole it was about the same.</p>
<p>(plus, for those who insist on being interested in money, being a double major qualifies you for scholarships in that department, and trust me, there’s plenty of money to be had in physics departments, at least over here)</p>