Hey everyone I’m 17 and a senior and applying to colleges now! I know for sure I want to major in something with computers, as it’s been my passion forever. I love electronics, building computers, working on them, and working on electronics in general. I need some help narrowing down my major though. I want to for sure apply to UIC and that is my first choice. I’m not super good at math or physics and I know (at least at UIC) the class requirements include up to calc 3, physics 1 and 2 and some chem classes for the engineering. I have a few options that I learned about at the UIC open house and tours, and here are my choices (that I’m interested in).
Major in CS
Major in CE
Major in EE, Minor in CS
They all seem cool but I don’t want a super tough rigor. I don’t want easy classes but I mean some people were saying on reddit (where I posted) that they took 10 physics classes with their CS degree… I guess it depends on the university.
There’s no way around this fact…they’re all hard. It’s just the way it is. There’s physics in all of them, least in CS, but not enough to say it would make a material difference. CS is about coding. Nothing in your description sounds like that’s what interests you. difference
The thing is, Physics is just the opening salvo. They all get more challenging after that, just in different ways.
Based on what you’re describing , I’d choose CE and prepare to work hard.
Here’s my take as a BS and MS CS plus a couple engineering degrees. In CS once you’re done with Calc 3 you probably won’t see another integral sign for as long as you live (*). If you go EE and even CE, there’s a good amount of advanced classes that tend to require Calc. That means you’ll need solid math skills for 4 years. If you prefer CE it may be worth it.
(*) I last saw calculus during the Carter administration and never saw an integral since… then moved into a new position in January where we deal with computer vision. It wasn’t fun (who is this Rodrigues guy and his buddy Euler) at first (and where do I buy quaternions?) but eventually you figure it out, especially using Matlab and such. Thankfully that project is finished.
If you are confident of your math skills CE is the way to go.