New to college . . . programming -.-

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

well i would like to go into a stem field but with little to no programming classes to get my degree
i don’t know if this is possible . . .
please help the closest field in stem with no programming is
-civil engineering
-Physics
-geology
-Petroleum Engineering
-Management Science
-Mathematics
-Surveying
-Biological and Physical Sciences
-Computer Engineering(with hardware)

BTW my GPA is between 3.3 and 3.5

Also feel free to comment about any good colleges that might help me with these degrees^^(in the usa of course)

Thanks guys :smiley:

2

I would think geology and biology require little or no programming. But if you want to get a STEM degree because that’s where the jobs are, I don’t know that undergraduate geology or biology degrees are much in demand. It’s the STEM degrees you’re trying to avoid that are the valuable ones.

3

So really I need to do programming to get into most stem fields

So which stem fields have the least amount of programming??

4

In pure math you probably won’t be doing that much, if any, programming.

Management Science is largely programming.

I don’t know how it is in the S or T parts of STEM, but in most majors for the E, you’ll need to do a fair amount of programming. It might not even be that bad though; I’m an engineering major, and though I need to do some programming in my classes (which I don’t necessarily want to do, especially when I’m not working in MATLAB), there are still plenty of enjoyable opportunities to not code.

5

Chemistry, Biology, biochem, health careers.

6

What about them, @nw2this ? Are you saying that those are the ones with the least programming?

7

@thatrunnerkid

I am pretty certain biology, chemistry, and health related degrees do not require any programming courses.

S is a geology major and he will still take GIS and Python, I don’t think they are required but they are recommended for geology/earth science majors.

I can’t say for some of the other fields mentioned as I am not familiar with them.

8

My question: why do you want a STEM field with no programming? Have you done it and hated it or were bad at it? Or is it something you just don’t see yourself doing? If it’s the latter, keep an open mind. I hadn’t done any programming before I started college (as a neuroscience major, which I didn’t expect to have any programming involved), and I’m now doing robotics research. If you haven’t tried it, give it a chance before avoiding it like the plague.

9

@LoneWofl1892 As previous posters have mentioned, have you actually done any programming? If you have programmed before and don’t like it for whatever reason, I can see why. If you have not done a lot of programming, I suggest keeping an open mind.

If you major in mathematics, you can expect to do a little bit of coding (depends on the course). One of my math project-based courses involved a tricky recurrence function, in which I wrote a Java program to compute the function at many values to simulate its behavior. However, the vast majority of my pure math (non-CS related) courses didn’t involve any coding.

10

thx for advice but i avoid coding like the plague cause my dad had lots of stress while doing it at a few of his jobs

11

So you avoid something without having personal experience with it? If so, I highly suggest that you give it a shot, and really allow yourself to open up to it. You might like it. Or you might not. You never know until you try.

BTW, there are very many things that I like doing academically that my parents (especially my dad) never did and still do/does not, and many things that they like doing that I do not.

12

This is why it should be learned at school. When it’s properly presented, it’s not hard.

13

yea maybe but i saw all the stress of making a little mistake 1st hand

14

That could be applied to just about anything… Make an addition error in math, throws off your whole problem. Forget to account for something in engineering, your bridge fails or your plant explodes or your computer setup overheats or whatever. Even in humanities. Translate a word wrong and your whole sentence means something completely different.

15

@LoneWolf1892 Yes, but with good coding practices, you can greatly reduce the number of “stupid mistakes” (and the amount of time needed to fix them!).

Most modern compilers will check small errors before runtime, such as forgetting to put a semicolon or if you accidentally put “if (a = 1){ }” (instead of “if a == 1){ }”). Others are a little less obvious, such as using == to check string equality in Java, when .equals(“x”) should be used. Other mistakes can really bite back and take hours to debug (can commonly occur when doing multithreaded programming, but I’ve had them elsewhere), but there are many tools, methods, and tricks to help debug.

It’s also a good idea to have a plan before writing any code. Determine the best way for your code to run top-level, then work out all the details. Write method specifications. Write test cases for your code that cover all possible types of inputs. Avoid magic numbers. Follow these steps (and some others), and you will find coding much easier than you thought previously.