<p>I need some advice. I'm a junior undergraduate student and am currently majoring in psychology but with the current job prospects being extremely low and my interests shifting to computer science after a great class I took in cognitive science, I want to maybe add a second degree in computer science. I am about 8 hours away from completing my psychology degree but still need at least another 30 hours or so to graduate. I have always excelled in math and science, and love working with computers. </p>
<p>How hard would it be to add a second major this late in my college career? I'm also getting married in the next year and my fiancee is a second year electrical engineering major, so he's got another two years at least. We also have great jobs currently and live in a stellar location, so financially everything is okay for us to go to college for longer.</p>
<p>Will employers see this shift in majors as a bad thing? Or am I just completely crazy for having this weird shift in interests? </p>
<p>Not crazy at all. Take it from an 07 Psychology grad, and current engineering student! Unless you want to go to grad school with psych, there is not too much you can do with the specific degree. CS on the otherhand is a great degree and seems to have many job prospects from what I hear. If it would take you another year to get it, you are way better off now than going back to get it. Especially since once you have a bachelors you are no longer eligible for grants, only loans…</p>
<p>The answer is specific to your school and what courses you have already taken.</p>
<p>You need to look at the curriculum for the new major and check:</p>
<p>a. How many courses are required that you have not already taken.
b. What the longest prerequisite sequence is of courses that you have not already taken.</p>
<p>These will determine how many (if any) extra semesters it will take to complete your degree with the new major or double major. Check also whether your school limits the number of semesters, courses, or credits you can take (some public universities do this to keep students from using up too much in-state tuition subsidy).</p>
<p>Employers will not generally see it as a negative if you complete the new major.</p>
<p>Thank you guys so much for your replies! This makes me a little bit more comfortable. I went ahead and emailed the Associate Head for my school’s CSCE department…I’m kind of nervous! </p>
<p>I’ve checked the hours, and it’s probably going to just be a one to two year process…with summer school. I’m totally down for that! </p>
<p>Would you guys recommend doing a BA or BS? I’m currently doing a BA with the psychology degree…Would it look better to have a BA and a BS? Or can you even have two BAs?</p>
<p>Again, BA versus BS depends on what the course and curriculum content of each is at your school.</p>
<p>For a computer science major, you likely want to include the junior and senior level courses in algorithms and complexity, operating systems, computer networks, software engineering, databases, and security to learn concepts most commonly used in industry software jobs. Additional courses on other topics (e.g. graphics, computer architecture, compilers, etc.) can help in specific areas of industry software jobs.</p>
<p>I as well changed my major from accounting to CS. I was a junior in accounting when I changed, and it added just 1 more year for me, mostly because I already had an AA Liberal Arts degree and I take pretty high number of credits hrs each semester. It may be tough to double major but I all depends on your choice, and since you said you have enough resources and time, you may as well just double major.</p>