How to choose your college course?

[mariannepua]

Hi guys, I'm now in 3rd year of high school. I really need some advice on choosing your own college course. My mom told me to take up Computer Science. I don't want to take up medicine, education, liberal arts and other college program. My only choice is Computer Studies, but what will be my work after I take up Computer Science and finish college? Please help me, thanks. :)

 

[Null_]

You'll probably be working with computers...just a guess. :) Mainly programming.

Here is a lot more information than I could tell you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_science

 

[physics girl phd]

I'll add a little here: While it's good to look into what jobs you could have for a given major, I wouldn't be sweating it too much. Depending on the source/study, an estimated 50%-80% of college freshman switch their major at least once ( I did). Also, while asking for, caring about and respecting your parents views are fine, don't do these two things: (1) take your career track from their opinions of what you should be, or (2) take your career track to go against them in some way (i.e., if you really want to be a doctor, but don't want to "be like mom", who is a doctor).

After that warning, to directly answer your question: One computer scientist major I knew in undergrad (note: he switched out of physics after I switched in, but we still had many friends in common) started his career path as a "help-desk" type of person at a company, moved into programming at a second, and now is a "senior level software engineer" at yet another company (coordinating the efforts of junior- and entry-level programmers to develop more complex software).

 

[brownin]

Before you choose computer science as your college major, make sure you have the interest and aptitude for the field. A CS program is quite complex and includes difficult courses like discrete mathematics, algorithms, artificial intelligence, etc.

Once you complete a CS degree, you can choose to work as a software engineer, programmer, database manager, network administrator, etc depending on your area of interest. You can take a look at the http://www.collegeamerica.edu/information-technology/bachelors/computer-science-programming-emphasis" offered at CollegeAmerica for more details on their coursework.