i believe that i have to take at least 2 more CS classes before im allowed to switch, i appreciate that they care about me, but i just have no passion for CS at all and im bad at it. I did really poorly in my first math class as well as my first CS class, and im doing really poorly in my calc class
I can understand your parents reservation on changing from a major that is perceived as more marketable to one that will likely require much more study/school for professional employment (or leave you underpaid without a masters).
I paid for one of my sons to attend university and put no requirements around major and he graduated with a liberal arts degree just as the economy tanked. After years of minimum wage jobs, he came home and is now at the local university studying nursing. Based on this experience - we’ve explained to our two younger sons that they can major in whatever they want to as long as they have a STEM or business major as well. We’re hedging our bets this time as only have 8 years until retirement looms. The goal is to have everyone launched successfully - off the payroll!
Not all STEM majors have good or well-paid post-graduation job prospects. Biology is the most popular STEM major, and it is more similar in post-graduation job prospects to other majors which do not have good major-specific job prospects.
Also, not all employers look that highly on non-elite business majors.
It appears as if the OP was a poor fit for computer science from the get go, based on his SAT Math score and no AP Calculus (AB/BC) course during high school. Apparently the OP took MATH 215 - Pre-Calculus twice and failed CPSC 120 - Introduction to Programming (CSUF - total enrollment 39K). These 2-classes tend to be very large classes at a lot of universities and the OP probably got lost in the shuffle. Failing an introductory course for computer science doesn’t mode well, even for someone who wants to minor in computer science. Some universities have also curtailed non-computer science majors from minoring in computer science due to the high demand being placed on the CS department and/or the competition for advanced CS courses.
What concerns me is that psychology happens to be the most popular major at a large number of universities (as high as 23% or more of the total undergraduate population). These universities are “pumping-out” a large pool of psychology graduates each year and it is not clear to me that the job market can absorb a significant portion of these graduates. The perception, real or imagine, that psychology is an “easy” major might be the driving force behind its popularity at these universities. IMHO, going forward, the OP needs to factor those realities into the decision making process or risk joining the ranks of the 45% of underemployed/unemployed college graduates who end up living at home with their parents post graduation. Unsurprisingly, a large number of psychology majors have to seek out another undergraduate professional degrees in order to become “employable”, which can result in higher student loan debt and high opportunity cost. The decision to pursue a BSN will require taking nursing prerequisites, which would take 1 to 1.5 years and 1.5 to 2.5 years for the actual BSN degree (total of 2.5 to 4 years).
If OP didn’t get a B- or higher in all his math/CS prereqs, it does bode ill for the rest of the major, when it really gets tough. Even more so if those classes were failed.
With such a record, graduating will take much longer than 4 years and is unlikely to yield “good” jobs.
In short, OP is suffering for no good reason…
Psychology with more-than-usual classes in statistics and some in biology/neuroscience/forensics could be a good compromise in terms of balancing your interests and your parents’ concerns for the job market.
Actually, depending on the college, those fields may not yield the best results. In addition, not everyone can “hack” STEM. Some students (like OP) try and try but can’t get sufficient results. A low GPA in STEM doesn’t result in good job offers, especially when many classes have been failed and retaken.
Some STEM majors (biology in particular) are about as useful for careers as Egyptology. It’s not the major, it’s what you do with it - did you get an internship? get involved in research? seek out opportunities in your field as were available on campus or in your college town? get an off-campus, selective summer “gig”?
Many employers, especially the “big names”, aren’t especially interested in a general business major, seen as a weak major (since it requires less reading, less writing, etc., than a “regular” major). Finance, perhaps with lots of math, opens many possibilities, but no better than simply statistics, or a CS minor, or a foreign language with a good internship…
Exceptions in STEM would be accounting and engineering, but these would require 5 years and it’s almost impossible to have another major alongside… not to mention the vast majority students, especially in engineering, have to switch out or drop out due to failing grades.
In short, this stipulation is well-meaning, but may cause the very problems it’s trying to prevent. Good requirements could include freshman year, get a resume in shape and register with Career Center, perhaps have some kind of light part time job; Sophomore year, get an on campus job related to area of interest, could be work for sports team, college paper, for a professor, college brand’s shop… and start looking for internships…
Having an internship is probably THE most important factor to post-college professional success, much more so than a specific major - outside of nursing, engineering, accounting, teaching, most jobs require general skills and what matters to an employer is that the student mastered those skills, took a few classes they consider “markers” (such as statistics), etc.
Extracurriculars that display leadership, either through sports or through clubs, charities, etc. They also allow employers to guess at your personality and they help you “stand out” from all other applicants. Intramurals rugby and a fraternity, or Various types of yoga and volunteering at shelter, MUN and shadowing at the courthouse all help “round out” a professional profile.
OP: what statistics, biology, and psychology classes have you taken? How well did you do in them? Were you ever in a small-ish class taught by a professor?
The AF offered me tuition to study math. I declined.
They then offered tuition to study architecture. I declined.
And so on.
Their money, their option. My money, my option. This has been useful to know ever since.
Of course you can study anything you want. A BS in CS ought to keep body and soul together well enough to have enough left over for graduate study in whatever you like. Take the long view.
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PSYCH 101 - A
BIO 101- A
Geology would be my second choice after psych. I just have absolutely no passion for CS at all not to mention not very good grades for a CS major
Well, the difference in achievement should prove that either you can have a stellar major, or you can struggle with a major that’ll take you 6 years to the BS and which may result in no job because you struggled so much (not to mention that it gets harder, and harder, and harder, so that struggling in Level1 classes is a very poor omen for the rest of the classes; you haven’t even gotten into the really difficult stuff, the stuff even kids who had A’s have trouble with). Right now, you must be at the bottom of the CS group, so no access to internships, no working for a professor, etc.
Take another Psych class and a statistics class next quarter. See if you like them. Seek out professors and see if they need a research assistant (you’ll do grunt work at first, like input numbers, but if you prove reliable and smart, it’ll lead to better opportunities… and this kind of work is ALWAYS positive on your resume, leading to internships etc.)
Geology is a great major, lots of career prospects especially if you can add hydreology as a certificate or minor.
So you could present your alternatives: I/O psych with statistics or computational math as a minor, OR geology with a certificate. Both would be MORE likely to lead you to a good job due to better oncampus prospects and better grades, which would open up internships (without a 3.0 and good grades in your major, your odds of getting an internship are low).