What to major in college...

[Einz]

Ok, I'm confused as all heck now. I'm leaving for college in three and a half weeks and I have no clue what I want to major in. I would guess something with engineering/computers or whatnot, I have no idea exactly what. Good thing I don't have to decide until beginning of sophomore year. I guess what I'm trying to ask is, what did you all major in? Do you love what you're doing? Do you regret it? Any advice for a stupid freshman heading up to Boston? Thanks in advance for anything, including flames

 

[Turin39789]

hehe im interested too, but I have 60 hours under my belt

 

[Balt]

I didn't know what I wanted to major in until my first semester. After taking a wide range of courses I decided I wanted to major in International Affairs.

As such, I will likely have a distinguished career at McDonald's.


Seriously, though, just take some stuff to get rid of the requirements and find something you're interested in (and hopefully something you can make a paycheck with).

 

[notfred]

I'm majoring in Computer Science, and I have a job that is in the same field. (Webmaster, US Geological Survey, California Water Resources Division). I love my job, it's the best job I've ever had, and I find most of my classes interesting (well, not the GE ones). I make enoguh to support myself and pay my rent, while still going to school full time.

 

[Bignate603]

Major in girls.

 

[Einz]

hehe, I'd love to major in "girls", but where I'm going, I doubt there's many girls worth majoring it

 

[Davegod75]

comp E or EE are big, and the traditional Comp sci is still strong

 

[alee25]

where are you going? MIT?

 

[Synoptic]

Well, you will surely figure it out. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer since my freshman year in high school, then I dropped that halfway through my first semester in college. I am now in Computer Science, not to be a programmer, but this way I will have a better understanding of a computer and it's internal workings. Then off to get my masters in MIS. My main concern is to not be a simple tech for the rest of my life, but I digress, Computer Science is fun, and some universities even have tracks that are a little less programming intensive with focii (?) on different aspects of the computer.

 

[Chaotic42]

Theoretical Physics.

That's my dream major.

 

[bmacd]

don't worry about your major or minors now...just get your feet wet and have some general idea of what you'd like to try. You'll eventually find what you want to major/minor in, be it now or 10 years from now.

-=bmacd=-

 

[Balt]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Theoretical Physics.

That's my dream major.

Gordon Freeman?

 

[Chaotic42]

I want to be a front runner in the standardization and dissemination of quantum computers.

My spelling sucks though

Edit: To answer the original question, I majored in CS, minored in Russian. I dropped out because I was 16 and knew too much to be in school (yeah, sure). I went from McDonalds up to News Director/Net Admin of a radio farm. Do I like it? Eh, it's ok. Fun people.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

Underwater Basket Weaving

 

[Hooobi]

I'm thinking nanotechnology is the next big thing... not sure what you'd major in though.

Good thing about any computer degree is, if you don't really want to work in the industry, you can go to law school for 3 years after and expect to make six digits when you finish.

I wish I had a computer degree

 

[gotsmack]

just take a widrange of classes your freshman year to find out what you like.

remember to take econ

 

[zephyrprime]

Take a bunch of different courses and then select a major that you like AND are good at.

 

[FuZoR]

lol , im also in the same sitituation

1st semester im just taking core classes

i dont know what i want to do... sigh
:-(

 

[Semidevil]

Originally posted by: Einz
..... I would guess something with engineering/computers or whatnot,

see, you just answered your own question. Comp Engineer silly!


acutally, do what everyone else says. Explore. Take your core english classes, along w/ some foreign language, business classes, art classes, etc etc during your first year. Whichever is fun, pick that!

If all else fails, jsut take Chemical Engineer w/ a Pre-Medical. haha

 

[Orsorum]

Economics. It's the sport of angry, anal, upper-middle-class white men with too much time on their hands.

 

[Semidevil]

also(dang, where is teh edit option), any engineering cirrculum is really close to other majors. At my school, engineers need to take almost as much math as a math major, so if you change your mind halfway, you have that math degree to think about.

What I"m saying is that you can start w/ one major, and then see what happens and change if needed. You won't have to start over if you change, so it's no big deal(unless your changing from like a Engineering major to music major or soemthing.

Don't worry, one thing will lead to another.

 

[Bkas]

Depends on the college. Some majors have pretty crappy professors and you may be turned off after the first one or two classes (but they usually get better when you get into the higher stuff).

As for something like CS, my mom has been doing CS-related stuff for 20 years (and she's quite good at it); she, however, is very bored with it (and very tired of it). She sort of hates sitting around looking at code or doing systems analysis and stuff. Of course, she's working for the state government.

Like others have said, just take a few varied courses first couple of semesters to see what you like. I'm starting as a frosh this year as well, and I've gotten enough AP credit to where I have plenty of room to try other stuff out.

 

[Bkas]

Originally posted by: Balt

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Theoretical Physics.

That's my dream major.

Gordon Freeman?

Too much Half-Life, dude. Too much.

But, this being a tech forum, I wouldn't be surprised if that's his reason .

 

[Bignate603]

Originally posted by: Synoptic
Well, you will surely figure it out. I wanted to be a mechanical engineer since my freshman year in high school, then I dropped that halfway through my first semester in college. I am now in Computer Science, not to be a programmer, but this way I will have a better understanding of a computer and it's internal workings. Then off to get my masters in MIS. My main concern is to not be a simple tech for the rest of my life, but I digress, Computer Science is fun, and some universities even have tracks that are a little less programming intensive with focii (?) on different aspects of the computer.

I think computer engineering, like somebody else suggested would give you more of an idea what's actually going on in the computer. CS would be more coding then how the hardware works.

 

[Chaotic42]

Originally posted by: Bkas


Too much Half-Life, dude. Too much.

But, this being a tech forum, I wouldn't be surprised if that's his reason .

Was he a theoretical physicist? I think that Max Plank and Schrodenger (sp) are the people I look up to most in the field. I want to do something positive for science.