<p>So DD is on the verge of declaring a major in Computer Science. Started as a physics likely concentrator. She's asking what we think. What should we think? She's at Princeton. Also loves history. Those are the two classes she loves. Says CS with a certificate in American Studies.</p>
<p>Really don't know what I'm suppose to say to this. I think it's probably just fine.</p>
<p>Sounds like a weird mix. What does she want to do with it/them?</p>
<p>CS is a great major if she’s interested in it with excellent job prospects as far as availability and salary.</p>
<p>It’s not unusual at all for people to have varying interests so a CS major with a humanities minor is fine as long as she can fit the courses in within her timeframe.</p>
<p>There was a kid at Brown last year who dual concentrated in CS and Classic Greek and Roman Literature. I bet it got him some great interviews!</p>
<p>You’re on the right wavelength. Its not “probably” just fine. It is just fine. In fact, its likely way better than fine. Wait 10 years…you’ll see.</p>
<p>BTW, Bezos (amazon founder) started out as a prospective physics major and ended up with a EE/CS degree. It doesn’t seem to have hindered his progress.</p>
<p>My son is actually getting two degrees…BS in CompSci and BA in Classics. Professors love it and I expect employers will as well!</p>
<p>CS on average has good job and career prospects, but the industry is prone to wild swings, so some unlucky people graduated in the depths of the tech bubble crash about a decade ago. One strategy is to apply to graduate school and jobs in one’s senior year in order to keep both options open if the economic and industry situation looks uncertain.</p>
<p>Other than that, what were you asking for in particular?</p>
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<p>Knew dozens of CS majors at various colleges and in the workplace who double-majored with Philosophy. Less common double-major pairings were with comparative lit, religious studies, history, politics, etc. </p>
<p>Among HS classmates, few engineering/CS majors ended up double majoring in a humanities/social science field. However, unlike what I’ve found among some CC’ers here, doing an engineering/CS or STEM double major with a humanities, social science, or arts/music field wasn’t viewed as a “waste of time” or negative in any sense among those classmates. </p>
<p>On the contrary, we tended to have great admiration for those who can and were willing to do double majors such as EE and US history, MechE and Comparative lit, CS and East Asian studies, Chemistry(pre-med) and sociology, or Viola and Biology.</p>
<p>I wonder if people who do the hiring really care what the double major/minor/concentration is. So many people do double majors nowadays, it’s pretty common. I suspect she will get hired for her CS degree, not what she has with it. If she’s choosing another interest because that’s what she enjoys, that seems worthwhile.</p>
<p>On the other hand, is she choosing CS as a major because she has a background in it, and has taken several courses in high school and college? Tell me she isn’t picking it because she took one introductory class and liked it. I suppose it wouldn’t really matter much, if it is early in the game because she could change easily.</p>
<p>I would think every CS major on this board would tell you that it is easy to do well and enjoy introductory CS, but it gets very difficult quickly. I’m assuming that Princeton has a serious program that includes plenty of high level math. Many people can enjoy the first CS class, but find that they do not have the ability or interest to continue on. It is an extremely tough major, even for the impassioned…but the light at the end of the tunnel is plenty of high paying job offers. Women do very well in this field, but there are a high percentage of women that drop out of this major. I’m not trying to be discouraging, and I hope you know this already.</p>
<p>Congratulations to her! She’ll get to take classes she likes AND be a high-end recruit later on. Win win.</p>
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<p>What is usually regarded as a “waste of time” is a second major purely for pre-professional reasons, other than a few specific synergestic combinations, or just to have a second major, as opposed to just taking courses of interest in the second subject.</p>
<p>Some also express a negative view on students in engineering or CS taking a second major in business, as that is seen as a signal that the student is not really committed to engineering or CS and just wants to use it as a stepping stone into management as quickly as possible.</p>
<p>But if the student has enough actual interest in the second subject to take enough courses to make a major (in something other than business), then it is unlikely that anyone will see it as a negative (although many will not notice or care about the second major if they are recruiting the student based on one of his/her majors).</p>
<p>When my mother was on the admissions committee at a top medical school, she despaired over all the identical applicants who’d never taken a non-science class they weren’t forced to take. She was far more impressed by students who did well in science AND humanities, especially those who’d done a difficult unrelated major like Classics while acing premed courses at the same time.</p>
<p>I think you should be happy. She’s got a major with good prospects AND she’s well-rounded. She may or may not combine her interests into a job, but both studies should serve her well as an educated person. CS desperately needs more women. I hope she’s not put out by the dearth of women in the field.</p>
<p>Thanks for the feedback. She is just saying her two favorite classes this semester are hands down the CS class, followed by the history class. Her college doesn’t allow a double major so she would get a minor or what’s called a certificate in American Studies. She says she likes the whole vibe of the CS department, the projects and what she calls the “architectural” sense of building something in the projects. </p>
<p>We’re advising that she hold off declaring a concentration yet but go ahead and keep taking the courses next semester for this direction.</p>
<p>Dennis Hwang</p>
<p>Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, he moved to Korea when he was about five years old.[2] His hometown was Gwacheon where he “had a very normal childhood”.[2] He went through public schools, spending six years at Gwacheon Elementary School and two years at Munwon Middle School, before returning to Knoxville and graduating from Bearden High School.[2] His doodles during these years were frowned upon, but are now his source of income and pleasure. On a return visit to Knoxville in 2003, Hwang was awarded an Appalachian Arts Fellow Award at World’s Fair Park by then-mayor Victor Ashe. Ashe proclaimed, “Mr. Hwang’s work is impressioned hundreds of millions of times each week, and reaches all corners of the globe. He is arguably Knoxville’s most persistent artist.”</p>
<p>He received a degree from Stanford in arts and computer science.[3]</p>
<p>He does the Google doodles.</p>
<p>I think that’s fine. My impression is that a lot of kids at these big-cheese schools take what seem like odd combinations. We interviewed a guy from Stanford yesterday. Some of the majors at Stanford I have to read up on to even know what they are. 
Frankly, from schools like this sometimes it seems like the major is secondary when it comes to employment, etc…</p>
<p>But I’m with you. It’s fine, but isn’t she just through one semester? Unless she’s always expressd interest in these subjects and has more exposure than one class, I’d at least take another class or two before settling down. I don’t see the rush.</p>
<p>Princeton is actually a really good school for CS, so she’s at a great place for that. However, that being said, it’s very computer ENGINEERING based and not computer SCIENCE based, so she should be aware of that. It’s more about the hardware and less about the software. </p>
<p>I don’t think the history concentration is odd at all. Any liberal arts background is great when combined with a science. It shows that they can think with both sides of their brains! :-)</p>
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<p>Princeton’s actual CS requirements are here:</p>
<p>Bachelor of Arts degree: [Undergraduate</a> Announcement](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/ua/departmentsprograms/cosab/]Undergraduate”>http://www.princeton.edu/ua/departmentsprograms/cosab/)</p>
<p>Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree: [Undergraduate</a> Announcement](<a href=“http://www.princeton.edu/ua/departmentsprograms/cosbse/]Undergraduate”>http://www.princeton.edu/ua/departmentsprograms/cosbse/)</p>
<p>The CS course requirements for the two degree programs are the same, and allow the student the option of taking more hardware-specific courses or not (at least two courses are required in the “systems” category, but only three of the eight courses in that category are hardware-specific). The difference is that the BSE degree requires “engineering” requirements like physics courses; the AB degree does not require those courses.</p>
<p>Neither CS degree program is ABET-accredited. This is not generally an issue per se, unless one wants to go into patent law.</p>
<p>I think in watching my younger one sort through her direction, it does matter to these kids what the vibe of the departments are . . . the sense of where they fit in terms of personality and just clicking with the advisors, grad students, other students and (oh yeah!) the professors. She says her professor of this huge class of hundreds of kids is incredibly approachable.</p>