Hi all,<p>My good friend's daughter wants to go into computer science, and she's academically a high achiever (4.0+ GPA, high SAT). She wants to go to college, so this is not a question about whether she should. She's going, and wants to pursue either computer science or math.<p>Given that, she's seeking advice on what the best degree would be for her that would get her into a CS career and making good money.<p>I advised AI or cognitive science at a good school, but I admit that the question stumped me a little.<p>Appreciate your insight. Thanks in advance!
> "...a CS career and making good money..."<p>Doing what? "CS career" is rather vague and "good money" isn't guaranteed. She could be writing web pages / web frontend (oversaturated), web backend (oversaturated), mobile or desktop applications (oversaturated), systems administration/IT (oversaturated) or be in some specialty like embedded systems/IoT or AI systems development. If the answer is "I don't care/whichever gets the most money", steer her away from a CS career entirely; that is a recipe for washing out after a few years.<p>[EDIT] If you want to go a bit further, give the child a Raspberry Pi 4, tell them to create a small web page with a simple backend (easily doable with today's frameworks and the plethora of tutorials online) and then ask them to reflect on whether that's what they want to be doing for several more decades. That's what 90%+ of programmers do.
Personally, I think if she has the talent and endurance for it, she should go for Math. She will easily be able to pivot to the other fields you mentioned and she will be prepared for quant or other financial fields etc.<p>On CS; my daughter just graduated this year with a degree in computer science from a fairly well regarded university. She wanted to do this from high school, partly because her parents and many family members are in the industry and also because her generation have thoroughly internalized the idea that arts/humanities are a pathway to nothing more than a career at Starbucks. They are also well aware of the student loan crisis.<p>Yet the number of girls who graduated with her was only about 2/3 of the number who entered the program. It’s not from lack of support. As soon as her high school realized they had a potential “Woman in STEM” they went into overdrive with activities and events to the point where I joked we should get a restraining order against her guidance counselor. Colleges also strive to be “supportive” and “welcoming”. But what I kept hearing from my daughter and her friends was that the vibe in the computer science department (sex ratio about 4:1 male) was “weird” and “creepy” None of them said they had been harassed or singled out or anything major like that, they just felt out of sorts and this was a factor in switching majors for some of them. It’s rather unfair; I’ve met some of those boys and let me just say the patriarchy is in big trouble if this is its’ future. They were unabashedly nerdy though. If your friend’s daughter is a normal American girl and not willing to learn new operating systems for fun, talk about bitcoin or find continuity errors in anime series etc. she may feel uncomfortable or lonely. Of course she can socialize outside the department in that case but it’s something to consider.<p>Anyway that’s my 2 cents. I wish her the best of luck.
Comp sci and math degrees are always welcome in programming jobs, and having a bachelor's in one of these can be a leg-up in getting hired.<p>Most importantly, if she wants to be a programmer she should start being one now, writing and releasing software and building experience and portfolio items.
I think the answer should depend on the school itself, i.e. what is the quality of the math department vs. the cs department? In my case I went with math, and it served me well. I don’t think one or the other will ultimately exclude a motivated person from pursuing their (cs related) passion.
Recommending AI or cognitive science over math or CS for her given her interests is insane.<p>Math and CS are timeless and directly related to what she wants.