<p>You can get a taste of CS by reading this introductory CS textbook and trying the examples and exercises on your own computer (the Scheme language interpreter is free):</p>
<p>[Welcome</a> to the SICP Web Site](<a href=“http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/]Welcome”>http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/)</p>
<p>A gentler and broader introduction to CS course whose course materials you can use for free can be found here:</p>
<p>[UC</a> Berkeley EECS | CS10 : The Beauty and Joy of Computing | Summer 2013](<a href=“http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/su13/]UC”>UC Berkeley EECS | CS10 : The Beauty and Joy of Computing | Summer 2013)
[CS10</a> Home Page](<a href=“http://www-inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/~cs10/archives.html]CS10”>CS10 Home Page)</p>
<p>closetohome1 – I feel for you. My father immigrated to this country knowing no English; put himself through medical school and married a nurse (my mom) so all they knew about jobs was medicine. I’d tell them I didn’t want to be a doctor – I liked business – and they’d scratch their heads and say, “Well, then I guess you could be a radiologist.” There was no out. No other acceptable career. In my family of 5 kids, 2 are nurses and one is a doctor. Only 2 of us escaped.</p>
<p>If you are interested in Cornell, I suggest you look at the “AEM” (Applied Economics and Management). It’s a very well respected program.</p>
<p>I went to a liberal arts school fully intending to major in pre-med. I did the freshman pre-requisites, then ending up changing to a double major (because only a double major would satisfy my father as being as rigorous as being pre-med) in art history and economics. </p>
<p>After graduation, at one point I was making as much as my two brothers combined. I’m not saying money or income is everything, but it was an eye opener to my father. I think he finally begrudgingly acknowledged that maybe medicine wasn’t the only path to success.</p>
<p>@classof2015 i am really interested in cornell. It’s probably get everything i’d want in a school (aside from the lack of basketball, which i could learn to live with). I think it suits my interests. if you don’t mind me asking, did you have trouble finding a job after graduating? what is it you went on to do? you don’t have to answer if it’s too personal but any information helps!</p>
<p>Happy to tell you - hope it helps - I interviewed for a few Wall Street jobs; didn’t get any; then I eventually had 2 job offers - one at Sotheby’s (auction house) where I really felt I could combine my love of art with an analytical approach to what it was worth. My other job offer was as an underwriter at an insurance firm, which I turned down. After 2 years of cataloging jewelry for auctions, I went back to school and got an MBA. I wanted to start a family (my husband was an artist so his income was sporadic) so I answered an ad in the NYTimes for mortgage sales. The ad header was $$$$$$$. Even though I don’t think of myself as a salesperson and I’ve never been good at math, I did really well there. 13 years later, I started my own mortgage company with a partner. It’s been rough, but I think we’ll survive.</p>
<p>Careers (at least mine) don’t really follow a straight path. I think Cornell would be a really good place for you - enough breadth and depth to explore many fields.</p>
<p>Get a good book or two on career planning to learn more about different careers and how to find a path that will suit you. One book I like is [10</a> Best College Majors for Your Personality: Laurence Shatkin: 9781593578633: Amazon.com: Books](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1593578636]10”>http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1593578636)</p>
<p>@Classof2015 that sounds very interesting and im glad you are doing well now!</p>
<p>thank you for the suggestions. i guess along with all these issues i have my own insecurities to deal with before going through such a commitment. I was a bit of a slacker the first half of high school before really picking it up, i feel somewhat inferior to the typical cornelian even though i feel its a great fit for me when it comes to academic programs.</p>
<p>OP, your parents and me and DW possibly share many of the same values and prejudices. In our case, we never insisted that the kids only do something involving medicine for exactly the reason you stated - it’s reasonable that some of us dislike biology and dissections. However, there were a variety of areas that we exposed them to, and made it clear that they would have our full support in any of these fields. There were other areas that it was understood we won’t want them to go to college for, but it was perfectly OK to dabble in as hobbies.</p>
<p>It’s quite possible your parents feel similarly- ie. they would like you to go to medicine, but there may be other alternatives that are OK, while others which they find unacceptable. Discuss this with them and work out some alternatives.</p>
<p>@Dad<em>of</em>3 i am planning on doing this for sure :)</p>
<p>There is a great cartoon that shows life is zigs and zags, not lines. Try not to be too rigid and go with the flow a little. I know it is hard with your parents worrying, and you worrying too. </p>
<p>I have also read that over-planning can actually close off opportunities: you miss them as they pass by, because of the premature focus.</p>
<p>Cornell has some great psychology classes. Look at Clark U. too, or Lesley. Study what you want as an undergrad and then think about grad school, which could be management, for instance, enhanced by your undergrad studies in social psychology. Just one hypothetical path among many. There are many possibilities. Go to school, try some things, and decide later. (By the way, a newish medical field that pays well is physicians’s assistant, which you can also look into in a few years after graduating if the medical thing is appealing at that point.)</p>
<p>SUNY Binghampton has a good reputation and is a great deal financially for residents. </p>
<p>For private school options, have you done initial legwork to know whether you are chasing need based financial aid (FA) or merit scholarships?</p>
<p>You can’t be a doctor If you can’t stand needles or blood. Even if it was the “in” job, you know you won’t be able to do it well. Explain this to your mom and I guess she will understand :)</p>
<p>If you want to be practical, I think a major in psych is pretty useless. It’s hard to find a job with it, and even if you do manage to find one, the pay is not great. A job requiring a major in tech or business would be quite lucrative though! My suggestion is that if you do like tech/biz you should major in either or both or do a major/minor in those. Business opens many job opportunities that offer very high pay. If you really like psych but wanna be pragmatic, just do a double major or minor in psych.</p>
<p>
I take it you are in high school. I’m guessing you have only taken 1 or 2 basic classes in the fields mentioned above. As students take more classes and become exposed to more possibilities, a large portion change their mind during college and switch to a different career path from what they had planned it high school. Some switch to careers that they didn’t even know existed, combining elements of their high school foundation interests. You don’t need to have your whole future planned out now.</p>
<p>It sounds like “making good money” is important to your parents. Medicine is far from the only career that does this. Many of the fields you listed also qualify. For example, MBAs and most tech fields have 6-figure median mid-career salaries. However, if you are really intent on doing something related to medicine, there are ways to combine medicine with any of the fields you listed – biotech, medical devices, psychopharmacology, psychiatry, healthcare administration and management, etc. Or one could simply do a undergrad degree in whatever while also completing pre-med requirements, then apply to med school or pharmacy school after graduating. Of course if medicine doesn’t interest you, I wouldn’t recommend choosing any of these. You don’t want to find yourself spending decades in a career that makes you unhappy, in an effort to satisfy your parents’ interests. You don’t need to figure it all out now. As a HS student, you might look at whether the colleges offer majors in the fields that interest you and how difficult is to change majors. Some colleges have open enrollment where you can easily switch back and forth to different fields, while others require applying to a different portion of the school.</p>