Background: I am currently in an associates degree program for computer science (at a 4-year institution) since I want to transfer from this university to another and some of the ones I want to apply for don’t allow for me to take more than two years of school if I want to transfer there.
I want to switch to physics when I transfer and I am wondering if that would look bad or not on my application if I had a bunch of computer related stuff and decided to switch to a different major instead.
Have you taken the introductory / freshman year and possibly sophomore year physics courses?
There is a lot of computer science in physics. I used to work at a nuclear physics research facility and computers are used extensively to analyze data and to adjust the main facility. I also had a tour a few years ago of a large radio telescope and while the big radio antenna is much more obvious than the computer systems, there were a LOT of computer systems to analyze the data that the radio telescope collected.
To me computer science and physics is a very good combination. It would make sense to major in one and minor in the other. I do not see any problem here (assuming that you already have a good start on the physics courses and can complete the sequence in time to graduate).
And yes there is also a lot of mathematics in all of this (which was my major).
My CS degree at my current school requires math for physics and physics for scientists and engineers. So I guess things can work out. Thanks for the response.
Is getting a bachelor’s degree where you are an option? This could be combined with a master’s somewhere else (if you have not run out of money and the desire to study hard).
The school I’m at offers bachelors degrees and masters degrees too, but the universities I’m considering transferring to either won’t let you transfer if you’ve gone to school for longer for two years or won’t let me get a bachelor’s degree in physics since they don’t award second bachelor’s degrees. I want to study hard definitely, but money might be an issue over time. I am eligible for financial aid thankfully. And maybe I can apply for some scholarships. I want to find some universities that are well regarded and have decent financial aid. I’ll see how that goes. Thankfully I just started college. I’m asking so many questions now because I have plenty of things to consider and I want to get these questions out of the way sooner or later.