BS in Chemistry - Getting a Master's in CS for career path change? Advice needed!

Graduate School
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<p>I’m in some dire need of advice. This is kind of long, there’s a Tl;Dr at the end! (:</p>

<p>I guess I should start with my situation first!</p>

<p>Medical school was the goal since 6th grade. I’m not kidding! My first anatomy class stole my heart and sealed my fate for as long as I can remember. What I didn’t know at the time was that I fell in love with ophthalmology, and realized much later that a residency in this specialty is extremely hard to obtain. But that didn’t matter, I was convinced I was destined to be in the medical school, and I conducted myself accordingly.</p>

<p>Fast forward to sophomore year in college: I’m ahead of the ball on pre-requisites for medical school due to credit overloads and summer courses. My brother, who was getting his BS in mechanical engineering at the time had studied abroad his sophomore spring semester and loved every second of it. I decide to give it a shot, as all the classes I’d take abroad would transfer back into general education/ elective credit. So I went to Japan for 4 months and to this very day as I live and breathe it was the best thing I’ve ever experienced. </p>

<p>Back in the country now and I just started the Fall 2012 semester as a junior. Maybe it was studying abroad, or maybe it was my brother’s success of finding a great industry job right out of college with his degree, but I keep waking up this semester feeling I’m not on the right path anymore! </p>

<p>I’ve done my homework. I’ve been on this career path for many years now. The experience of medical school is different for everyone. But there are some concrete realities. Maintaining family, friend, and love interest relationships become difficult. The amount of time it takes to complete medical school is also a big concern for me (I’ve seen the many debates on ‘I wasted the best years of my life’ vs. ‘medical school was the best years of my life’). And of course the enormous debt at the end.</p>

<p>I don’t mind criticism; I myself am pretty surprised and embarrassed with this case of cold feet. I just can’t imagine how much of a nightmare it is for students completing their later years of medical school and hating it, but being stuck due to the investment in it. </p>

<p>It’s too far in for a complete major change. Oh, I’m a chemistry major by the way. However, the decision to major in chemistry was largely to complement the medical school choice. Don’t get me wrong: chemistry was always my favorite subject because I was great at it. But there lies the next problem: the choice of career path in chemistry if I wasn’t to do medicine. The current employment rate for chemists with a BS is ~30% full time. If I recall correctly that number doesn’t climb too high even for chemists with PhDs. The other problem is that I never anticipated going directly down a chemistry career path (no really, medicine was ingrained into my goals up until this point). I can’t really find myself being interested in repeating processes in a lab, whether it’s me doing them or being a lab assistant with a BS degree. </p>

<p>I commend you if you’ve read up until this point!</p>

<p>So, over the years I took an interest in programming, having dabbled in computers when in high school but never taken any formal classes. I have 3 semesters (and a summer) to try and go for a minor in CS. It has always been a dream to land a programming or tech job at Disney or Pixar (HUGE Disney fan) and if that means getting in at the bottom of the ladder and climbing up, I don’t mind! </p>

<p>That being said, if I graduate with a BS in chemistry and a minor in CS is it worthwhile to try and go to graduate school for a Master’s in CS? Will I survive it with just a minor?
I know that some universities offer a CS Master’s program as a career change itself, for people who have never dabbled in CS before. Would getting a minor help my chances of getting directly into a CS Master’s program? </p>

<p>Oh and one more thing to add: up until now I’ve only amassed extracurricular hours pertaining to medicine: volunteering, shadowing, pre-professional clubs etc. Will these be worthwhile to graduate schools of CS? What sort of things should I be getting involved with now that I’m planning this career change?</p>

<p>Thanks so much guys!</p>

<p>TL;DR: Current junior with major in chemistry on the road to medical school. Thinking of jumping ship on pre-med and minoring in CS in hopes of getting into a Master’s program for CS for a job in programming. Am I insane?</p>

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<p>I think, if you really are certain that you would prefer to pursue a CS career over med school, then sure - start taking more CS classes and get a minor if you can. I would also recommend working in a CS lab or doing an internship that involves a lot of programming; you’ll get more experience in the field, and an additional letter of recommendation. If you’re worried about getting into a CS masters program, I would look at specific program websites and see what their undergrad course requirements are. Take all the pre-reqs if you can, but even if you can’t, they may admit you anyway as long as you take the pre-reqs within the first year of your study (you may want to contact specific programs about this beforehand, though). I think as long as you can handle upper-division CS classes, you should be prepared for the Masters coursework. </p>

<p>Also, is your reason for getting a Masters because you think it will make you look better to employers, or because you truly want to take more CS coursework? I know plenty of people with programming-type jobs who did not get a masters in CS.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the input! The graduate school route in general is just to gain the higher level CS knowledge. I’m probably not likely to get accepted to programming jobs with just a minor in CS. Getting internships with just a minor sounds dicey as well.</p>

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<p>Oh I forgot to ask! At this point what should I be doing in terms of extracurriculars? Should I drop all the pre-med related things immediately?</p>

<p>Thanks!</p>