I’m still a high school student, so I have a ton of time left to make up my mind, but I’m wondering whether or not to double major in math and computer science? What’s it like to do that? Is it a ton of work, or do many courses overlap?
I’ve been interested in Computer Science from a young age. I taught myself to program in Lua every summer since 2nd grade, and was designing games by the time I was in 6th grade. I learned to code in terminal and command prompt in 7th grade, learned Python in 8th grade, Java in 9th grade, and then HTML/CSS/Javascript in 10th grade (on my own). Since then I’ve passed AP Computer Science A with a 5 easily, won 3rd place at my first Hackathon, designed my own website, and am currently in USACO silver. I continue to have a strong interest in computer science, and hope to do it as a career (I’m particularly interested in AI and Quantum Computing).
In recent years, I’ve also been developing a super strong interest in math. I’ve always been good at math, but through math competitions and a few math research opportunities (through Crowdmath), I’ve slowly developed an interest in math. My abilities in math far surpass my abilities in computer science now, and I’m expecting to qualify for USAMO and make MOP this year. I’m starting to worry about how strong I am in math, especially since it isn’t what I want to do as my main career. I’ve always considered math to be my extracurricular, but I enjoy math so much that I can’t see myself not majoring in it in college. Because of this, I’m strongly considering double majoring in math and computer science. What are your thoughts on this?
Eh, I would’ve definitely majored in mathematics and physics, but that’s because I had zero interest in computer science until after I graduated.
Not really quite sure why you had to express to us your childhood background in the subject of computer science. As someone who has worked as a software engineer for the last few years, none of that is going to matter. I’m sure you’ll do fine a computer science program.
In the real world, you’re going to rub shoulders with people in the best of places who came from self-teaching off tutorials online despite getting a computer science degree at X reputable university and they could be just as good, if not better than you.
The brightest computer programmer I ever met was a high school graduate who discovered code after working in the mail-room of an insurance company when they were doing things very inefficiently and was able to find a better way through coding. Now he’s a manager at a analytics company.
I myself graduated from Cal Poly Pomona and have recruiters from high profile companies recruit me (even currently). Your work experience should be a shining example to these companies as where you graduated from almost doesn’t matter anymore after you have worked for a little while.
You’re going to meet people who graduated with a 2.9 GPA from Podunk U and work at Google after some good work experience. There is no one single path that guarantees you get from X to Y. You can get to Y in many, many ways.
I’d suggest doing one major and adding it on later if you really must pursue both subjects. You need to give yourself some time to enjoy your college experience because after you leave the real world will hit you like a truck. I’d definitely use college as an opportunity to learn as much as you can, do what you can in your youth that you won’t get to later, and spend time with lots of people because it becomes more about smaller relationships and you won’t have access to many people the same age anymore. Time management will be key in order to have a social life and get a good education to land the good tech internships.
I wouldn’t have majored in mathematics if I had given computer science a chance in college. I just didn’t care for it then. I’m working on my master’s in computer science right now, paid for by my employer.
Go for it! If you’re really serious about computer science and you don’t just want to code all the time, math is going to be essential. I’d even go so far as to say that the math is more important.