Wanting to change my major to CS

[thelegendary2]

Hello everyone, i'm currently in a community college studying a major i wish i would of never even invested my time in. I should of never rushed into college. I never actually stopped and thought about what i really wanted to do. I was honestly pressured by my mother, who i love dearly, to go to college. Nonetheless, i'm working my ass off, and i'm maintaining a 3.5 GPA. I'm going to finish these two years just so I can graduate to a four year university and actually study what i want to do. I'm thinking of studying computer science because as a kid i always loved computers. I remember doing some "hello world" exercises on Visual basic 2005 haha! I never actually thought of doing it though, until now. I heard its very difficult and requires alot of math, but i'm willing to do this! I'm seriously thinking about switching over to computer science and giving it my best. I know it's going to be hard, and im not very good at math, but there is always something enchanting about doing things you hate. I'm here because i want the opinions of others. I'm currently studying Criminal Justice because I always wanted to be a Police Officer, and i already took the test, but I do not want to put all my eggs in that one basket. I also don't even need criminal justice to be a police officer, only 60 credits. I appreciate the advice!

[Sensei]

The all good programmers that I met, know how to program computers a long time before going to university (if they ever went to... studying is learning how to learn.. if you learned already why to waste time for paper.. ? IT companies here are more likely hiring programmer that learned programming by himself, than those after university.. Most of job offers are with comment "no study required, you will write application in test day")

 

Buy some books about C/C++, .NET Framework, install free Visual Studio Express from MSDN, and write programs.

Instead of searching for some ready application on net, make it by yourself.

You will see whether it's for you or not.

Edited June 22, 2014 by Sensei

[Ophiolite]

Sensei, you appear to have an incorrect idea of what computer science is. While it does include programming in its remit, it is much broader than that. Wikipedia says the following:

 

Computer science is the scientific and practical approach to computation and its applications. It is the systematic study of the feasibility, structure, expression, and mechanization of the methodical procedures (or algorithms) that underlie the acquisition, representation, processing, storage, communication of, and access to information, whether such information is encoded as bits in a computer memory or transcribed in genes and protein structures in a biological cell. A computer scientist specializes in the theory of computation and the design of computational systems.

 

You have given what may be good advice for someone who wishes to be a programmer, but which is largely irrelevant for one who wishes to be a computer scientist.

 

@the legendary2: do you wish to be a computer scientist, or a programmer? I hope you can see it makes a vast difference.