Picking a Major (and wrangling interests)

micronationalist
Fri, 29 Jul 2016 07:20:55 +0000

Salutations to all of you

I’m an incoming freshman at Texas A&M (College Station), and am having a bit of a dilemma. I have for sure decided I want to major in Computer Science. I intend on concentrating in artificial intelligence / human-computer interaction, but feel the desire to expand my learning beyond that, and as such have run into a stumbling point.

Simply put, my personal options are all over the map.

I had first considered many, MANY different fields (potential double-major or minor), but narrowed this a bit by looking at the types of courses offered as well as asking myself if I would be satisfied doing a major project/research in the field. As such, I’ve narrowed it down to the following things (in addition to CS):

Psychology
Statistics
Visualization
Urban and Regional Planning
Business*
Russian*

I’ll attempt to explain my reasoning as well as potential qualms about each option.

Psychology: I’m very interested in the workings of the mind, and aside from the intellectual (stimulus? satisfaction? I’m not terribly sure what word I would use here), I feel it would be beneficial to have an in-depth knowledge of the human mind and intelligence in order to better understand artificial intelligence / human-computer interaction (and provide a different perspective).
Qualms: Would a major’s worth of knowledge really be that valuable in the aforementioned field? Or would a minor or even a few electives suffice? Or, as a third option, is this knowledge I could simply learn myself (through books, etc.)?

Statistics: I have heard that CS (and especially my field of interest) is heavily reliant on statistics, and as such I feel a strong background in stats would be incredibly beneficial. I have read several CS grads talking about how they wished they had taken more stats classes in college.
Qualms: (Similar to psych, and most of my other options) Is a major overkill? Would a minor or a few electives suffice? Or am I misguided in thinking stats is that crucial in CS?

Visualization: I am very much into creative arts, and feel a visualization major would be a perfect compliment to a CS major (CS giving me the more scientific/analytical side and Visualization being the more artistic side). Further, I feel this would provide a different perspective to CS.
Qualms: Is all of the studio work too much work in addition to the already work-intensive CS major?

Urban and Regional Planning: This one is completely different than the others, but I am considering it mostly because it takes several of my non-CS interests (politics, sociology, geography, some architecture, some history) and combines them into one major. I could envision combining CS and U&RP in the future as well.
Qualms: Like I said, it’s relatively unrelated. Although a major (or even a minor? I don’t know) might be considered a bit much for something that is an interest, I don’t know if this is a field in which I can just pick up a book or two and become versed in (if I’m wrong, please correct me).

Business: This is something I’m only considering as a minor. From some people, I’ve heard this provides a nice little bonus if I ever wanted to start my own business, but I’ve also heard (from other people) it’s pretty much useless. I was just wondering if anyone here could speak to one or the other (or provide a different opinion entirely).

Russian: This is also something I’m only considering as a minor. I would like to minor in a foreign language (to get a background in a language other than English), and I have a particular interest in Russian history (as well as a particular dislike for learning Romance languages), so I figured this would be an intellectually stimulating choice. Can anyone speak on behalf of minoring in a language (or Russian specifically)?

I apologize for my lengthy post, but I’m fairly confused/concerned about what to do. I’m told that once I start college I’ll be able to take classes and find my real interests, but given the suggested course plan I received, I don’t see where I would take these. Any help/advice/commentary on my listed options/other options I hadn’t considered would be extremely appreciated. Thank you all very much.

(Also, I’m not sure if it helps but I’ve seen others post similar information so…
-I’d like to graduate in four years if possible, and am willing to take classes over the summer
-I intend on getting my Masters degree once I obtain my Bachelors
-I have about 30 credit hours already going into college from AP Tests. These are not counting either of the calculus tests since I will be repeating those despite earning the credit)