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My advice is just choose the place you'll feel happiest at for 4+ years. Think carefully about social support in terms of positive family and friend interaction
by logjam 14y ago
My advice is just choose the place you'll feel happiest at for 4+ years. Think carefully about social support in terms of positive family and friend interactions.
Choice of schools doesn't matter much - how interested and excited you are to learn is the critical factor, and the environment and your own situation influences that heavily.
You can get an outstanding education at any of those schools, regardless of department.
Whether you get a B.S. or B.A. won't matter. Don't forget to broaden your education and follow your interests wherever they lead - learn a foreign language in depth, take many humanities classes, take science classes outside the engineering track, learn how to write, draw, teach, etc. Enjoy yourself and the hard work will just naturally flow.
I studied engineering and biochemistry, but the classes outside my technical majors proved more valuable over time than anything else.
- student_ 14y agoThank you for the advice. I appreciate it!
- mjmahone17 14y agoAlso, don't be afraid to change your major (though this might be harder to do in the UC system than I'm used to). Just because you think you love programming doesn't mean you can't be a great linguist, or chemist, or etc. Especially if you get through the first year or two of CS classes, you'll be capable of being an incredibly sought-after commodity in pretty much any field (including history or anthropology), because you'll be able to attack problems others don't have the same tools for. And absolutely, unless you want to get a Ph.D, a BA vs a BS doesn't really matter (and I'd argue research matters more): one just means the top part of your T-shaped knowledge is wider.
- fakeer 14y ago>>Just because you think you love programming doesn't mean you can't be a great linguist That's the best advice among all these comments, OP (IMHO). I still wish I had done my UG from a country where it was possible.
- th0114nd 14y agoIf you do like his advice, I would not choose Caltech if the option presents itself. I happen to like it, and I don't know if other students are just "whiny for fun," but I hear a lot of complaints about everything under the sun that is germane to the institute. Moreover, CS is a very theoretical option. I'll be finishing my sophomore year this spring and I don't feel as though I really have the programming chops to really be useful in any sort of internships. My case is a little different though, I didn't think I wanted to option in CS until the beginning of the winter quarter.