<p>I am currently a freshman studying finance at my college. I don't have much direction going on in my life and am not set on sticking with finance. I feel like I'm on a bit of a lost track and I'm hoping some subject will jump out at me from the general eds I am taking this year. But, as of now I am in business.</p>
<p>I took a free online computer science class in the summer and enjoyed it. There was no credit and it was very basic. I have virtually no knowledge of coding or programming - basically what comp science is. However the subject seems fascinating. It seems much harder than finance but maybe I would enjoy it more.</p>
<p>My problem is that my current school has an extremely weak computer science program. Almost no one majors in it. I have glanced at other schools comp science programs and transfer requirements. Most require physics, chemistry, and advanced calculus courses to be considered for transfer into the computer science major.</p>
<p>I have not seriously taking chemistry or physics since I was a sophomore in high school. Also, I don't exactly see why computer science majors must take these courses since they don't seem to really involve the programming work. But I'm not arguing. I'm already a semester done in my first year of college and took basic courses. I don't think one of them will even count as transfer credit to any college.</p>
<p>Realistically is it too late for me to explore and transfer to a different school to be a computer science major? I can't afford to spend too much extra time and money in college and I feel like I already put myself behind by not taking the correct courses that may possibly be needed to be in computer science. Also since I have very limited knowledge of the subject and many comp science majors have learned programming in high school, is it even worth it to try and pursue this?</p>
<p>Honest answers would be appreciated. Should I stick with business or give comp science a go? If it would be worth it trying to do comp science, what would be my best path to do so?</p>
<p>It seems really hard to choose. Clearly what you are interested in is computer science. That’s the route you should go.</p>
<p>A weak offering is really bad though. I think you should consider working on the basic requirements (maths, physics, and chemistries) and transfer after. Meanwhile, you should pursue some computer science courses so you do not fall too far behind.</p>
<p>My answer is always to go after what interests you most. I received some backlash from family and friends for wanting to go to journalism school because of the perception that the field is declining beyond repair, but I really loved it and decided to go for it. After graduating from the University of Missouri this May, there is no way that I regret my decision to chase after my dream. I wouldn’t be happy at all if I decided to go into a more lucrative career field just for the money or job security.</p>
<p>With that said, if you are truly interested in going after a computer science degree, go for it! With only a semester of college under your belt, it’s not hard at all to switch majors or transfer your credits from one school to another. I’d agree with CORNandTOOTHPICK and say that if you are going to take classes at your current university next semester with the intention of transferring for the Fall 2013 semester, I’d look at as many basic classes as I could as well as a possible intro to computer science class that can be transferred to a new college.</p>
<p>What kind of universities are you looking at for a computer science degree and where are you looking?</p>
<p>What schools have you been looking at? What kind of cost constraints and state of residency do you have?</p>
<p>Some good CS degree programs are less engineering focused and do not require physics and chemistry, or less of it. Examples include Stanford, Berkeley L&S CS, and UNC Chapel Hill. However, CS degree programs typically require calculus, linear algebra, and discrete math at least, as well as introductory CS courses.</p>
<p>I suppose mainly University of Illinois because I am an Illinois resident and I know their program is highly respected. I would love to look at CMU, Michigan, Northwestern, and others but I do not think it would be possible financially.</p>
<p>Go for it, if you’re ready to take a lot of math. And CS isn’t coding/programming; they’re just the tools used to illustrate/implement concepts in CS.</p>
<p>Oh I was under the impression CS was programming. Anyone mind giving a newbie a quick breakdown of differences between CS vs Computer Engineering? And what jobs come from each major? I know IT is much less intense and more just knowing how to fix computer problems.</p>
<p>I think I am up for taking a lot of math, although it makes me nervous. I was only in regular calculus in high school and I struggled a bit. It’s not that I dislike math, I just find it tedious and hard to focus on doing things that don’t appear to have any practical use which I find to be several calculus concepts.</p>
<p>However, I’ve never heard of a program that required you to do the whole lower division physics series before. Are you sure you’re looking at computer science and not computer engineering? Usually they just require some science classes (your choice: physics, calc, or chem - or some mix of the sort). </p>
<p>CS is the study of computation. Once you start studying algorithm efficiency and take a discrete math/data structures class, you’ll find out programming is just that thing you do on the side and almost an afterthought. For instance, if you have a buttload of data that needs to be retrieved as quickly as possible, what would be the best sorting method to employ? Okay, now go put it into code.</p>
<p>Hey look, we have a bunch of nodes that are joined in this particular configuration. What’s the fastest way to get to node x from node z? Okay, code that and try not to blow up the computer. </p>
<p>CS deals primarily with software, while CSE deals with hardware/software. I don’t find circuits interesting, so I went with CS.</p>