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Ask HN: Not getting anywhere in my major, make the switch to Computer Science?

2 points by vortexh ↗ HN
Hey everyone, I'm in a situation right now that I feel is just disappointing for me. I'm currently majoring in Bioengineering and while I thought it was going to be interesting to me I discovered that my real interest lies in Computer Science (algorithms, hardware and software interaction,and the mathematics behind programming all the way down to the circuit board). I just don't have any interest in my current major but I'm concerned that by being a Junior in college I've missed many chances to have made the switch earlier. I want to learn and make my life meaningful and I don't think that's going to happen with Bioengineering. I feel I would have a better background in Computer Science and branch out, if I wanted to, in Machine Learning and actually solve problems with the knowledge that I have gained in my undergraduate career. I just feel that there is something waiting for me out there and I just need to make the jump to get out of this depression that I'm in. So much of the world revolves around code and that is something I find deeply interesting after having been exposed to it by some undergraduate teaching assistants who have a background in Computer Engineering and Computer Science.<p>Anyone have any general advice for me?<p>Oh and if the financial situation concerns you, I'm lucky that New York State has supported me with grants that I'm not paying anything to go to college (except for the summer class that I took a while back) so money is not a big concern on my end.

4 comments

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jaredly
You're definitely not "too late" to make the switch, as long as you're ok with staying in school a few more years. I would say definitely jump over to CS, get to know some professors and their research interests. College can be invaluable for making those connections and experiencing cutting-edge research. source: I'm currently a cs undergrad doing some awesome machine learning research :)
bavcyc
The school I attended had Bioengineering which was more ag-bio engineering. It is something I'm looking at learning more about specifically the gene/biology coding aspects.

My $.02 is that you are in a good position to learn computer programming as it applies to sensors (ag/biology) and to learn how to process/mine/filter large data sets.

I'd talk with a professor or two in your major and see how many computer science classes you can substitute along with seeing what you can learn on your own.

vortexh
I've learned a decent amount about sensors and just started to get into neural networks, specifically the Probabilistic Neural Network for binary classification problems. Can you point me in the right direction for internships with what you are doing?
brudgers
Though it's not often discussed much today, one of the uses of a college education is figuring out what you are interested in...and what you are not interested in.

Sure some people know what they want to do when they are juniors in high school, but many people experience a lot of intellectual growth during the next four years it takes to reach junior class at university, and in some cases it would be a tragedy if their values and interests had not changed.