<p>My son wants to major in computer science as he's always been pretty good with computer skills, programming and math. He even designed the website for his athletic teams high school a few years ago. Speaking of athletics....he also played a few sports in high school and enjoys pick up games in the work out center in college.</p>
<p>The problem is he is concerned about fitting in with the other CS majors. Many students are the "stereotypical computer misfit" (according to him) and is thinking about changing majors because of this. He is doing well in his class work and there is no reason to believe he will begin to struggle or that this isn't a good choice.</p>
<p>He says there are a few 'normal' CS majors-- I tell him as long as there are a few what is the problem? It's also good to mingle with students that have other interests. What do you think? Should he change his major becasue of this or is that just crazy-- I think it is crazy.</p>
<p>If you want to do something for the rest of your life, why would you let something like your classmates get in the way? The typical university has lots of other majors and many different kinds of students and he should be able to mix and mingle with other students if he doesn’t like the way CS majors work and play.</p>
<p>In college and the workplace, there are often forced interactions with people that are different. It’s not bad to learn this as early on as possible.</p>
<p>We pretty much knew S2 would be a CS major from 2nd grade on. I t is his passion. That doesn’t mean he’s a geek or doesn’t have tons of other interests. As the mother of four, oldest of whom just graduated with a major in the Humanities and 2 more behind S2 also looking at Humanities/liberal arts majors, I only with all four had a CS passion. S1 has a job, but it pays squat and many of his fellow liberal arts classmates are still unemployed nearly one year after graduation (this coming from one of the top ivies). Meanwhile, S2 has made fantastic money every summer doing what he loves, interned out in Washington last summer, and again this summer, and probably will be able to choose among job offers.
A passion is a passion, and a CS background will be immensely useful even if he later goes on to a different career. Tell him to forget the stereotype and worries and do follow what he loves. He will find plenty of friends at college - be they other CS majors ofr not.</p>
<p>I’ll admit my son is one of those geeky misfits your son is worried about. When I was in college I made most of my friends from the residence halls. I was an art major, but gravitated to scientists for dating. So I think he should just look outside comp sci for his friends.</p>
<p>However, and this is a big however. Your son has a point. My son got a major internship partly through the help of the Carnegie Mellon network. If he hadn’t been friendly with his fellow majors he might not have found a second internship the summer his first one got canceled at the last minute due to the tanking economy. There’s a certain amount of group work on problem sets too I believe. Finally there is a possibility that when he goes job hunting he may find himself at a firm with more geeky cs types than he would enjoy.</p>
<p>Has he even started college yet? He may not even like being a CS major. It’s a far cry from making websites.</p>
<p>Yes, there are more nerds in Computer science than in, say, English literature, but there are plenty of other types of people too. Your son might even find he likes some of the nerds once he gives them a chance!</p>
<p>You’re right, Seminole, it is crazy. After high school, I quickly realized that most of the “cool kids” didn’t even go to college and were working at low paid jobs. At further high school reuniouns, I realized that those who most would consider successful were not the popular crowd, but those who were quiet or geeky when they were younger.</p>
<p>Consider it an advantage. If he really loves CS and this is his passion…if he is an athletic, personable, out going person—who can control his disdain for those who aren’t, he can probably do quite well in the field. Changing his major because he thinks there are too many geeky types in it would be an absolutely ridiculous reason to change the trajectory of his life. Make friends in other majors, join a frat, make friends that play the same sports, but learn to work with others he thinks are geeky, because those often may be the ones who pull him through the tougher classes.</p>
<p>You know, yesterday me and my youngest son (very non-geeky) spent some time at Best Buy. After we left, I said, “Wow, is every single person that works there a complete geek?” And he said, “Well, so what? They were all really, really nice.” Your son might realize, though there may be more geeks in CS than your average major, they are generally very nice, which counts for alot.</p>
<p>As others have said, even if there is an above average number of stereotypes in the major, that may be to his advantage at a job interview later – the more stereotypical types may face the “familiarity breeds contempt” type of situation at job interviews.</p>
<p>Computer Science is a major- not the only facet of a person. Remind your son he is multifaceted and not all facets will match those of anyone else. There is a reason colleges contain many majors instead of there being separate schools for each of them. Your son is part of a whole campus and should partake in the activities that appeal to him. Peer pressure/fitting in is HS, not college.</p>
<p>Who cares what he does outside of his coursework? He doesn’t need to spend his time with people in his major. If he loves doing the work he should continue with it. Perhaps if he checked the website info given by those in grad school or professors he would be amazed at some of their passions. Individuality comes out on those pages- pictures of rock climbing or other totally unexpected activites show up along with the academic record. He could check the websites at some of the top schools in the country if his school doesn’t show the fun stuff about TA’s and faculty.</p>
<p>Good replies everyone and thanks. The key is to make friends with different walks of life and it is ok ‘to be different’. God knows the nerds or geeks (whatever?) were probably an outcast for years in high school. If everyone was the same it would be a very boring place.</p>
<p>Personally, I think he will stay with the major and learn that important fact that he will have to rely on people that are different in order to make the grade (work together on assigments, etc). </p>
<p>And just FYI- he is very friendly to other CS students that do fit the nerd/geek stereotype. Being a jerk in life gets you no where.</p>
<p>Well, I have to admit I don’t know what exactly he means by ‘misfit’. Does it just mean they don’t do organized team sports? That might be a relatively safe generalization, but I don’t agree that it makes for misfits, in the larger scheme of things.</p>
<p>I am sure that if your son knew my son, who is about to graduate with a CS degree, he would think he is a stereotypical computer geek/nerd. Why? Because the cs major demands an extremely large amount of time and dedication, if you want to do it well, and if you really, really love the field. So, at this point in his life, my son probably strikes a lot of people as single-minded. Is that what your son means by ‘misfit’?</p>
<p>The reality though, is that son has a drop-dead beautiful girlfriend (for several years), follows politics closely, loves to travel (leaving for extended trip on another continent as soon as graduation is over), had a humanities minor along with the cs/math majors, and–get ready now–was the prom king in high school. (I guess stranger things have happened, but I don’t know about them.)</p>
<p>So, perhaps your son doesn’t really know all those cs students he thinks are misfits. </p>
<p>I disagree a bit with some of the previous posters. A lot of cs/software engineering work is done as a team. It is my impression that this field does demand spending a lot of time with others who are working on the same or similar problems. It also demands a heck of a lot of dedication, because the hours are long and intense. So, if your son really doesn’t like spending time with other cs types, and doesn’t love the field enough to stick with it no matter who he works with, it might not be the right field for him.</p>
<p>I was a cs major back in the dark ages when machines were machines…anyway, I have been working in the field for several decades now, and one thing I can tell you is that coming out with a CS degree doesn’t mean nerd central or that everyone in it is personality deficient (pick your favorite stereotype). First of all, a lot of the jobs in the field require human interaction, that while there is more then your share of the stereotypical CS guy who doesn’t interact well, resides with his/her code, etc, a lot of people in the field are not like that. People who project manage, people who are p/a’s, etc have to interact with others, and it is hard to fit in when you are off in nerd space for those roles…the geeky, introverted nerdy type occupy their own space, in other words, but there are plenty of people from other backgrounds/interests, so don’t just it by what he thinks it is. In other words, he wiill probably fit in with most of the people who work in the field, the computer obsessed nerd stereotype is only a fraction of the field, and once they get out of school and have to work with others in a real environment, they soon learn life is a lot more then computers:)</p>
<p>CS majors may be by some standards “geeky”–but other CS majors think they are way interesting. Ask my 3 sons…</p>
<p>If your son doesn’t share their passion for algorithms, problem solving, the merits of one language over another, and so forth, perhaps CS isn’t for him. As someone said above, it’s about more than designing a web site.</p>
<p>Hey there. I’m going to be a freshman CS major in the fall, but I thought I’d offer my perspective anyway:</p>
<p>Quite a few CS majors will be stereotypically “geeky”, and your son will probably end up interacting and working with many of those over the next few years. But there are CS kids that do defy the mold.</p>
<p>I’m a fairly liberal-artsy kid aside from my strong interest in technology (I do quite a bit of creative writing and artistic stuff in my spare time). A CS girl I know is fairly gregarious and social and definitely not the image of a shy, quiet recluse that the stereotypes are fond of suggesting CS majors are. I know CS kids who are really dedicated to their sports and spend their weekends biking around (read: they go outside).</p>
<p>I have a healthy skepticism for most CS-major stereotypes. There are indeed people that fit them. There will also be plenty of people who don’t.</p>
<p>Besides, he can always cultivate a social circle outside of the CS department (although he should still be totally comfortable with having a large number of CS friends). I think he’ll be fine, as long as he ends up attending a school that isn’t just an engineering/CS-focused school, but also has strong departments in other areas (art, English, business, &c) and a relatively even gender split (which might signal for him an oppressively geeky campus).</p>
<p>This was somewhat of a concern for me when choosing colleges (I wanted one where I’d find English/art/theatre/music/bio geeks, not just your standard computer geek). Interestingly enough I’ll be matriculating to a school that has a really geeky reputation, though…but there will be many, many other kids interested in different pursuits and fields, and I’m pretty comfortable and happy in an übergeek environment.</p>
<p>I’ll turn the stereotype on its head: I have a 6"3.5", 260 lb. four-year defensive lineman who was debate team captain, a full IB diploma student (plus 8 APs) and posted Shakespeare and Tennyson in his sports locker (and he’s a black belt).</p>
<p>Man, he hates being called a dumb jock.</p>
<p>I also have one of those math/CS geeks. You’ll find him playing ultimate frisbee, and he has not lacked for dates since getting to college. Social skills in CS will get you far. He’s the best networker in our family, and I’m not talking about the cables under the computer desk.</p>
<p>As a parent of two, very different CS majors, I have to laugh. Just how many CS majors does your son know? </p>
<p>It’s kinda like thinking all the British are tea drinkers or that all Americans are Rambo (when we traveled to India, the waiters in one restaurant were keen to know if all American women were like Pamela Anderson on Baywatch. I sat there in my bifocals and orthopeadic shoes and said we American women did come in an assortment of styles . . . ). </p>
<p>The kid can be undeclared for awhile . . . lots of choices at first.</p>
<p>I’m going to sing the same song here. Only it’s about a female.</p>
<p>My daughter taught herself html programming at age 10 to improve her website in the Neopets game, and she never stopped learning programs after that. She entered MIT highly proficient in Java, C and C++ and now – four years later – she’s programing in GEANT4 as a researcher in particle physics. </p>
<p>Now, whatever images you have after reading these sentences, set them aside. She’s also an artist. She loves to sail, ice-skate, dance, climb mountains, cook, shop for shoes, talk with friends, travel, and she’s been in a steady relationship with a really wonderful boy for 3 years. </p>
<p>CS folks come in all shapes and sizes. Enjoy the diversity.</p>
<p>SeminoleTom - I’m afraid your son could use a good kick in the butt. Sorry to be so blunt, but I’m not saying anything that you haven’t already figured out.</p>
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