Hey guys, I’ll be starting sophomore year at Cornell in the Fall and am contemplating which major I want to pursue. In freshman year I took a couple CS classes (Programming in Python, Programming Java along with Data Structures etc) and a couple of prereqs to ORE (Linear Algebra, Multivariable etc). I discussed with my major advisor that I wanted to do CS, but I realized after taking my Java class that I’m not really that great with CS, and moreover I’m not super interested in learning how to build applications etc. I’m more inclined to theoretical and applied mathematics, model building and the sort; I’m not really good with thinking with a “CS mind”.
Switching majors isn’t really a problem since my reqs leave me in good standing to major in either one (fortunately). Workload isn’t an issue as well; I’m not sure how workloads in both majors will compare, but I’d rather choose the one I’m best suited for rather than an ‘easy way out’ (although I don’t think an easy way out exists in any major). It’s just that CS doesn’t seem ‘fun’ to me; I worked countless hours on projects and studying and can’t really get the material ingrained in my brain, while in the ORE prereq classes I found the content interesting and applicable to real life situations.
Thanks for reading my tirade haha. So I guess my two main questions are:
- What can I expect from higher level CS courses vs higher level ORE courses? From what I've heard from upperclassmen, advisors etc, CS courses will become more project based and independent, and content like systems organization and algorithms will be studied in depth.
- If I don't feel confident in CS at this point (taken 2 programming classes and have been introduced to algorithms, data structures etc), would ORE be a better fit?