<p>My one who is just now headed for college says now that she plans to major in computer science. I am shocked by this. But she has insisted on this for a month now. The reason I am surprised is she has rejected technology for a long time. Maybe it was just a phase, but we used to joke that she was going to join the Amish. </p>
<p>I actually thought she was going to major in math, chemistry, physics, or even neuroscience, or linguistics-one of her other main choices for majors.</p>
<p>Now she is registered as a computer science major. I am a bit surprised. </p>
<p>I am wondering if anyone else's students majored in something totally unexpected? Or if this is more likely just something that will pass by and she will perhaps end back up at one of her original choices.</p>
<p>Most likely she will change her mind. Most kids do. If she doesn’t, it is certainly very possible to combine an interest in computer science with an interest in linguistics, for example.</p>
<p>Yes and no. Oldest had researched and picked out a course of study that seemed to be a very good fit. Changed her mind before midterm of her first semester. May be changing it again with just a year to go! </p>
<p>The younger, who is only just now registered for her first semester, did surprise me. She’s still planning on one major but all of a sudden thought she might add a second in art and put herself in two art classes first semester. Of cours,most kids change majors. Who knows where she’ll wind up!</p>
<p>My sister changed her major from Econ to French as a senior. She still graduated on time, since really she was just switching around her minor and her major, and her post-grad plans were not dependent on her major, but it was certainly a surprise.</p>
<p>At my college, computer science is the most common major and often the default for students who are somewhat unsure what to declare. It certainly has relevance to the fields you mentioned as her original choices. My school offers a combination major for computer science and math (as well as for computer science with biology) and computation is an integral part of neuroscience at many schools. Computational linguistics is a very popular field right now.</p>
<p>My math-minded daughter decided to pursue nursing. I never expected that. But I can see how her near-perfect memory for numbers could help in nursing. She’s just not a very compassionate person but maybe that will come with maturity. My other daughter did not surprise at all - medieval literature. That’s so her.</p>
<p>My daughter said she wanted to be an engineer when she was twelve. When she was fifteen, she said maybe computer software engineer. By the end of her senior year of high school, she was set on computer hardware engineering. We’ll see how well it holds out through college.</p>
<p>I majored in computer science and I’m not very techy either. Gave up interest in anything tech related sometime in high school. </p>
<p>I also majored in Industrial Engineering, which is pretty much right up my ally in terms of what my parents should have been able to guess I’d be interested in. Could have been Economics instead but my dad wanted me to do engineering. </p>
<p>Neither of my kids changed their majors. My oldest figured it out when he was seven, my younger one when he was applying to colleges. (Though when asked at that point he said he was undecided.)</p>
<p>Older son majored in Celtic Studies and Literature and is now a Computer Engineer with a major company- go figure! Middle child, my daughter, was no surprise-a Vocal Performance major in undergrad and now grad school. Younger son is “a puzzlement”: double major in French and Bio-medical Engineering. How that turns out remains to be seen…</p>
<p>I am not really sure what I expected my daughter to major in when she started college. She has known for a long time that she wants to go to med school, so I guess I expected one of the sciences. She is more of a chemist than a biologist and we all knew that she was so done with math before she even left for college, so I guess I was not terribly surprised when she announced in the spring of her freshman year that she was taking no more math and there went the idea of a Chem major.</p>
<p>She has ended up a Spanish major with a public health minor and has all of the premed classwork done. She will graduate next spring, then start her med school applications while taking a year off. On the surface that may be sort of surprising. She complained all through high school about how bad her Spanish teachers were and how she did not learn one thing from any of them. She even dropped AP Spanish 5 at the end of the first semester her senior year. I knew she liked Spanish and was good at it. It took her having a semester abroad in Costa Rica her sophomore year for her to figure out she liked it and could be good at it.</p>
<p>S1 applied and was accepted as an Engineering major in the fall of senior year. By spring, he had decided engineering was not for him. He changed his major to Natural Resources Management. </p>
<p>S2 never changed his major (Criminal Justice) but in his senior year of college decided it was not for him. Too late to change and wasn’t really sure what he would if he could. So he graduated and has a good job that has absolutely nothing to do with his major. Who knows? The degree might come in handy one day.</p>
<p>My dd went off to college saying she’d never become a teacher (she and I are teachers) and she’s spent the last year teaching - elementary kids! She’s always insisted that she doesn’t even like little kids! Now, she’s thinking of majoring in English and teaching ESL. She’s still a freshman, so who knows? But it was a surprise. We’re happy she’s exploring what makes her happy.</p>
<p>I’ve told this story many times on CC, but here goes: D is a pragmatic young woman who went off to college as a music-loving emo kid who only wore Converse tennis shoes, skinny jeans, and tee shirts from obscure indie/emo/punk bands. She thought she’d like to study some kind of business (that pragmatic streak) but not accounting, because accountants were boring soul-dead drones.</p>
<p>You can see where this is headed: she’s now a CPA at one of the Big 4 accounting firms. </p>
<p>No, the surprise was they were able to get jobs in their chosen-for-passion-and-not-economic-stability fields after graduation. And (for the most part) love what they do every day.</p>
<p>My college career was a lot like powerball. Will she pick a major today? What will it be? How long do you think she’ll stick with it?</p>
<p>Everyone was surprised by my majors (why stop at just one?) including me.</p>
<p>Needless to say, my current job has little to do with my majors. One major gave me analytic and problem solving skills but it’s not the same field or industry.</p>