I’ve taught myself programming since I was 14 and I’ve learned a lot watching lectures online. I have iOS apps on the store and have made a few grand making apps for people over the summer. I’ve been an intern at a local company too. My two interests have always been CS and economics (I also trade stocks/ETFs), so I figured I’d double major CS and Econ or minor in one. When talking with admissions counselors, I found out that I can’t “test out” of many CS classes I already know about (programming basics, OOP, Big-O & algorithms, etc), so I would have to spend a lot of time on things I already know just to get a degree. Going to college and paying a lot of money and not learning as much or getting my money’s worth doesn’t interest me. I also believe that with my current portfolio and experience I could get a job as a programmer. There are still more advanced CS topics I’d like to learn about, although they aren’t vital for a career. Should I just get a degree in Econ and/or BA, while taking it upon myself to learn about CS? Really stuck on this one.
If you attend a college where the CS major is not overcrowded (so that they do not restrict CS courses to CS majors) and where the CS courses do not strictly enforce prerequisites, you can major in economics and take the more advanced CS courses as electives based on your previous knowledge.
However, it is best to go through the course materials and try the final exams of the courses you would skip to check whether you really do know all of the material taught in those courses.
Great response! Thanks
Here are some CS course materials at a university. You can use them to check your knowledge or self-study.
https://inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/classes-eecs.html
CS 10 is an introductory course for those with no previous computing experience.
CS 61A, 61B, 61C, 70 are the frosh/soph level courses for CS majors.
CS 1xx are the junior/senior level courses.
CS 2xx are the graduate level courses.
Also note that economics and business are not the same, although some colleges’ economics departments offer business-oriented course work.
It’s sounds like you are a great coder. But there is probably lots more to learn in CS classes.
Even if the basic classes may cover a lot of material you know, there are advantages to learning from the ground up. It will be a review in many cases, but a lot of self-taught programmers fall victim to bad code design patterns and practices that make their code unreadable to others. Your internship probably helped to avoid that, but of course it’s hard to say from an online forum.
It will also make sure your base doesn’t have gaps. I would highly recommend looking for a dual CS/Econ/Business major.