Design or Computer Science

College Majors
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Currently, I am a junior in high school. In 5 months, I will be able to apply for early decision to my top college, and can do so until November.

However, I am becoming increasingly unsure between Graphic/Media/whatever Design and Computer Science. Unfortunately, I can’t apply as undecided at my top school, but it has absolutely amazing programs in both that I would hate to miss out on no matter what path I choose. If I do the design route, I’d probably do New Media Design with a programming minor or maybe with a second major in Illustration. According to the website, New Media Design pays an average of 72k first year after college, which is pretty good for a design degree. If I did computer stuff, I’m not sure what exact major I’d pick since that particular college has a lot, but they tend to pay between 80k-95k first year after college.

Warning that I might get kind of dramatic in this.

See, starting when I was 11 I wanted to be an animator, but I eventually became more realistic around 12 and had my mind set on graphic designer. For a period of time, I did want to be a programmer because my technology teacher had pressured me into it, but I still wanted to do design. I even skipped accelerated math and science because I didn’t think I’d need them. Big regret. I can only take up to precalculus now and I feel inferior sometimes.

However, when I was 14 I began teaching myself some actual web development. I’m not an expert, but I know HTML, CSS and some JavaScript and can manage to make things look pretty.

I also joined robotics as a programmer. I guess learned some Java syntax, but other than that, it’s so boring. I’m literally only there because I want a scholarship. Pretty much my only somewhat meaningful contribution to the team is making merchandise. It’s pretty much impossible to learn what exactly the code does unless you study it for hours, which is super tedious and boring. It’s literally just me, this really annoying, horribly unhygienic girl, this really weird guy with blue hair, some other people I also don’t like, this really smart guy who’s actually pretty decent, and a mentor telling us what to do. Smart guy studies programming a lot according to the coach, and will put his hard ass calculus homework off to do it. Other than that, literally no one else knows what’s happening.

I always say I want to do computer science, but sometimes I wonder if I genuinely like it or if I just want money or think it sounds impressive. I have written some simple stuff in Java (cat years generator, hex code generator, etc.), which is legit programming rather than web design. I did enjoy it. I do like problem solving. I guess I know a few things, and I definitely know my work environment would be better than the one at robotics. At least I hope. Eugh.

But I have a few problems with computer science:

  1. It’s a little bit soulless- unless you are a super hardworking software engineer who manages to work in data science for a biotech company or work at NASA or something, your work won’t have a lot of direct impact on people. Sure, you could call graphic design soulless in this way too, but if you’re good it’s always going to grab attention or spread a message. I find a lot of large technology companies greedy and not wanting the best for their users. Twitter and Facebook are good examples. Also, from what I’ve seen so far, software engineers love to compete and bash each other and even look down on other professions, but I might be biased towards this. I’ve seen traditional engineers commenting stuff on people’s career TikToks like “oh em gee you work in architecture, my major in engineering is way harder than yours. Youre a snowflake crybaby” and I know they’re not joking because then they proceed to write phone-length paragraphs on why they’re right.
  2. Coworkers- I see so many horror stories from women about their coworkers. Men who don’t wash their hair, creeps, and rude people in general. The lawsuit that happened with Activision is also an example of this. Obviously, this isn’t all of tech, not even the majority, but those people make me shudder. I’ve heard from a lot of women that most of the girls in their program don’t end up in the field, and if they are, they’re not programming. I read a statistic somewhere that 1/3 of women in tech feel discriminated against on the job.
    I know graphic design has some characters but they tend to be more sad than awkward and sloppy (source is art class). Like don’t get me wrong, I’m a little awkward, but holy ■■■■, the kinds of things I have seen at robotics including things from others teams. I feel like I’m losing my faith in humanity.
  3. I don’t like math- I’m taking AP Physics C next year to challenge myself (yes, with precalculus) but I’m not a super huge fan of math. I tend to get 70s-80s on quizzes. Give me the choice to do math or not do math with my job, I’m not doing it unless it’s ridiculously easy, which is why I could never be a traditional engineer. This might translate to disliking programming if I did it all day every day, but I’m not sure yet. I know there’s not a lot of math in programming, but they tend to go hand in hand.

And here are my problems with design:

  1. Money- it’s riskier than other professions, that’s for sure. Still, not entirely useless, but I’ve heard many graphic designers say they regret their degree. Sometimes I feel like a degree would help me if I wanted to do it, though.
  2. Not a lot of technicalities involved- it’s purely creative with some marketing knowledge. I feel like I’m going to regret not studying something technical, but at the same time I don’t know why this is. Maybe I’m just jealous of people or something. I don’t know.
  3. Not a lot of respect- it doesn’t deserve a crap ton tbh but I kind of wish I was more well suited for something more respectable and helpful to people than both of these but unfortunately my attention span is so low that I wouldn’t trust myself with that kind of job, or maybe I just have low confidence. All I know is I hate customer service and blood. Psychology could be possible I guess but I would like my generation to stop pursuing psych degrees. We have enough. Thanks.
    Also like, I feel like I can push myself harder, but can I?
    Am I weak for doing what I like?

Anyways, the reason I’m posting this is because a few days ago I had an epiphany. I realized just how little I had been making art. I almost felt like it was the reason I was unhappy, but I don’t know. I’m trying to get back into it now that robotics season is ending.
Maybe I just need to stop overthinking. But no matter what, I do enjoy art and design and people tell me constantly I should do it as a career, but I’m not sure if I should take the risk or not. I feel like I’m missing out on something either way. My parents are encouraging me to choose design.

1 Like
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It sounds like your heart is really more with design. You could go with design, and just take some extra coding classes if you felt you wanted more technical knowledge. I don’t feel design is a risky choice.

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I think another part of it is is that I care too much what people think. Still kind of unsure but thanks.

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Caring a lot what other people think is something that will ease up as you work hard in your chosen pursuits, succeed, and gain confidence in yourself.

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It looks like math isn’t your favorite subject so I’m not recommending Georgia Tech but what if you looked for programs that combined both?

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Would not recommend AP physics C without calculus.

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I’m not allowed to go out of state or even too far away in-state, but it’s not like my mom will have control of that when I’m an adult. Still, she’s guilt tripping me. She’s a helicopter parent. Most of the colleges I suggest she turns down or feels is unsafe.

The college I want to go to has similar degrees but I hear they’re not as good as being a full-on design or cs major, except game design, which I’m not interested in. I think you may have to plan them out better or something. So that’s always an option I guess. Besides, I’m not really looking to work in Silicon Valley anyways.

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Also another thing. New Media Design teaches you user experience/web/mobile/vr/a bit of game design. It’s mostly relevant to technology but you only have to take two coding classes. You can always minor in web/movile dev though.

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Everything in your original post suggests that you don’t really like programming and CS. And in an era where computing technology touches almost every aspect of our lives, this sentence suggests you haven’t really explored what computer scientists do:

Therefore my advice is to pursue your passion for design. You’ll do well and will enjoy your work.

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It’s not that it doesn’t have an impact: I think it has had a negative impact.

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Also the other thing: I wouldn’t say I dislike it, but I definitely dislike the people in it.

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If you think most CS jobs have little or even negative impact and you don’t like most of the people in it, why would you even consider a career in it?

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I don’t know. I used to think the opposite but now I’ve changed my mind.

14

Also money. And I like the logical thinking of it I guess.

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If you don’t like your job and your coworkers, you’re highly unlikely to do a very good job and you’ll feel miserable being with the people you dislike. If you aren’t doing a good job, money isn’t likely to be there. Besides, no amount of money can get you out of that misery.

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At the same time though, I feel like I’m being too negative. Idk.

17

I think you can be a good economist – they often say “on the one hand yadayada”, “on the other hand, yadayada”.
I think you should just flip a coin.

1 Like