Is Computer Science (or insert-major-here) for me?
The leaves are falling in bright amber, and as the weather gradually gets a little colder and the late nights working on CS assignments get a little longer, I find myself thinking back to the time when I declared my majors. As much as people might say otherwise, I'd like to think that your choice of major doesn't have a great effect on your life.
You're an IR major who decided that coding was a valuable skill to pick up later on? Take a few CS classes, or join a bootcamp! Not sure if you should major in Spanish, after all you've learnt in high school? Take a few classes, see how it goes, and decide later. The point is, pursuing a major (in and of itself) can't be thought of as a huge commitment, barring exceptions like getting access to interesting STEM research, or wanting to apply yourself in new and interesting areas. (please excuse the realist tone in this post ><, I suppose most of my opinions are inspired from the Great Unbundling of Education [google it!])
Back when I was a freshman, I remember CS and IR being really popular majors, and while I suppose that's still the case, after some reflection, I've decided to pen down a framework that I would ask a younger me when I was on the crossroads of CS or some-other major.
1. Learning vs Exploring
Learning means to intentionally find a niche in which you could excel in and potentially love! Exploring is to put yourself in a state of goal-less learning, where the things being learnt serve no purpose other than intellectual entertainment.
Now, think of learning & exploring as two separate x and y-axes. Are you learning, or exploring? Either is fine, but both is best. If it is neither, it's time to figure it out! Don't be afraid to ask your peers or mentors for help in this. The art of refining this self-development graph takes ages, and is a continuous process. Everyone does it and it's great to have companions figuring it alongside you!
2. What's useful in the future?
Whether or not you are a CS major, it's common knowledge that 10 years in the tech industry is a long time. When one learns linearly, how can they keep up with the exponential growth of technologies and things to learn? A quick tip: find out what feels interesting to you, and dive a little deeper into it. Apply yourself and learn to enjoy the process (sometimes it feels natural, other times the joy is an acquired taste. Learn to differentiate between what feels like a chore, and what feels like a challenge to step up to). Most importantly, it is with the joy of learning that one might have an idea of what kinds of skills may be useful in the future.
(Hopefully this makes sense to non-CS peeps too!)
3. Make friends
While a very odd point to make, I think it finds its place here, because the Tufts community can be a marketplace of ideas if you explore it! I've made many friends who have been very outspoken on their major choices and why they've decided to choose A over B. More importantly, friendly conversations are the safe space in which we might ask more and explore new things.
Hope you've found this framework useful!
Photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash