I still don’t know what I’ll major in or even what general field to explore in college (i.e., engineering, health sciences, etc.). I’ve taken tons of AP Classes and enjoyed most/all of them, which didn’t help me narrow things down.
This year I’m taking AP Computer Science. I’m doing well in the class and find it challenging but in a very enjoyable way. I love the style of thinking it promotes, I find it to be very rewarding, and I think I’m pretty good at it - better than everyone else in my class, except for a handful of people with pretty extensive coding knowledge.
Is it too late for me to head down the Computer Science path? Would it be foolish to enter college with literally no knowledge of computers, coding, programming, etc. except for the basic Java stuff we learn in AP Comp Sci? Because I really like it and could see myself working in that type of field/environment, but I feel like I’d be too far behind my classmates in college, who would probably actually have prior knowledge/experience.
So catch up on your own. You learn to write code by doing your homework. You learn to be a :programmer: by writing code when you don’t have to. You stare at your screen till your eyes start to bleed, and when you sleep you dream of pointer arithmetic.
@Oilymerase You may have to play catch-up, but it’s doable. I didn’t even take APCS at my HS even though it was offered, and I also only had basic coding ability, but I was able to get through most of my CS classes without much trouble. Sure there are some others that have coded for many years, or have IOI medals, but don’t worry about them!
AP CS is more than enough.
Colleges typically have entry level CS courses for those with no experience, although they may offer higher level entry points for those with more experience.
My daughter did this, with even less experience than you had. She took programming her first semester in college as it was a requirement for her math major. She knew she’d hate it, and wanted to get it out of the way. Guess what? She’s now a double major in math/cs. (And she entered the major where everybody else did.) Programming/coding is kind of the bottom of the major, the freshman level courses, if you will. Yes, those kids who have been “coding” in high school, elementary, or on their own, have a slight advantage in those lower level courses, but it disappears rather quickly.
I think you can major in CS if you want and not have to worry about playing catch-up.
Not all universities out there are the exact same but most don’t expect you to have much of any prior knowledge of programming for their intro level CS course. At my university, the professors assumed we didn’t know a single thing going into the intro CS course. If you have AP CS, that is plenty.