Since I was young I thought computer science was the major for me. I love technology and dreamed of creating my own software but now that I’m in college and taking the courses, I really hate doing work in that class and struggle. It seems that the dream fascinated me more than the actual profession. On the first day my prof said only 15% of us will max graduate with degrees in comp sci and now I know why. I planned my life out with that profession and the salary and big house but feel stuck now. Being steadfast with it so long I don’t know what else I want to do. I’m in my first semester and my brother who had the same thoughts went through with it and he has a dual degree in comp sci and engineering now. Comp Sci basically gave me a set schedule and all my classes are connected. Is it too early to judge or should I just switch for the second semester? I originally made fun of it but the struggle of being undecided in college is too real.
What don’t you like about it?
Have you gotten a tutor/gone to office hours?
What courses are you taking that you do like?
Along similar lines to what @bopper said, is there anything about it that you do like? There might be a similar major that has the aspects you do like without the aspects you don’t like, or at least not as much as CS has them.
Computer science definitely has an initial learning curve; I certainly struggled at the beginning, and here I am now as a senior. But, you shouldn’t hate it to begin with. Struggling at the beginning is normal and expected to an extent; hating it is not. So if you actually hate your work and aren’t just frustrated from struggling, then I would suggest switching while you’re still early on. As to what to switch to, it depends on what you like and don’t like.
If you’re just frustrated because you’re struggling and don’t actually hate the material, do tutoring and office hours as bopper said. If CS is the right field for you, you’ll overcome that initial barrier and won’t struggle nearly as much within a couple classes. Though if you’ve taken a few CS classes and are still seriously struggling, I’d start to consider that it’s not the major for you. Either that or you need to take a good long look at your studying habits if that’s still the case at that point.
In any case, use any free classes you have to explore other interests to determine where you might potentially switch if CS doesn’t work out.
One thing to note - while your major might influence your salary, it isn’t the only determining factor. It’s really your job that does that. There are many non-technical (or what I like to call “semi-technical”) jobs that have higher salaries that would enable you to have a big house and a nice salary.
However, if you’re a freshman, you’ve been in college for at most a month and a half. Everything new is hard before it gets easy - you can’t expect it to just “click” immediately. The questions are
- When you struggle, do you actually get it right eventually or do you struggle fruitlessly?
- Do you find that you like the work once you do get it?
- Do you actually hate the work itself or do you just hate struggling for it?
There are certain things that I could just “do” pretty easily. In late high school, I discovered a whole new set of things: things that I like but only am good at with time. Example: I’m pretty good at statistics and math but I’m not a genius at it; I have to sit down and work at it to get better and figure stuff out. However, I enjoy the process of doing so, and I can always get it if I put in the time. Like after school, I’d sit down and take a couple hours to do my calculus homework, but it was my favorite homework and I didn’t mind setting aside the hours to do it and saved it for last. And once I got the concepts, I had them DOWN because I had spent so much time on time.
That’s important. If you like the work, and you do eventually get the right answer - it just takes some effort and time - that’s okay, as long as you don’t have to spend inordinate amounts of time doing basic things (because that means you will spend even longer getting the complex stuff.
That said, I suggest a two-pronged approach: keep trying hard in the classes you are already in while exploring some other majors that interest you. You can still make computer science a minor if you take some classes in it and switch; coding skills are useful in ANY major and most fields.
I’m a biology major because I changed it from Adol Ed with a concentration in English. my school has a 6-year PharmD program, but they would not let me transfer into it as I did not apply to it and was coming into school with 9 credits. I wanted to go into med or pharm cause I was scared of being unable to get by with a meager teacher salary.
Skip to the end of my first ever semester. I’m more than miserable. I hate chemistry. I’m really trying too. I tried tutors, no help, the recommended questions in the text, nope. Nothing. It’s like no matter how confident I am it goes down the drain come test day. I know it might not have an effect, but two test were within two weeks of another, and in the time before during and after those tests it turns out I had an infection going untreated because it was misdiagnosed as a cold. I took those two tests with 100+ fever. so it threw me off. big time. I just try so hard and even kinda get it, and it just goes poof when I take tests. It’s frustrating that just those two bad days I was having are what’s reflected in my grade.
I have an A in an Edu class they never took me out of when I changed my major, and A minus in theology, a possible A-/B- in biology and no more than a C+ in chemistry though I think it’s probably a worse grade than that, with a total of 15 credits. I was going to give being a bio major another shot, but I’m scared my GPA won’t be able to handle another semester of poor work in chem.
I’ve got no idea what to do. I feel like my selfishness when it came to money if being punished, to be very honest. I’m also getting a lot of hassle from my family and SO (engineering major) for wanting to leave bio. They try talking me up, saying I’m so smart and I can do this, yet also criticise me for not working hard enough. It just makes me feel worse and worse every day.
I’m stuck. I don’t know what to do. I hate the sciences, I love my books. I’m a bookworm at heart. But I’m scared that field isn’t gonna be able to let me support myself in the long run when I’ve got a family of my own to care for.
So, I feel you depressedgenius. It’s rough. You need to find what makes you happy and really soul search. I didn’t think before i change from my Edu major, and look what it did to me.