Prior to this point, I was majoring in Electrical Engineering, but it didn't leave me nearly enough time for my love. We were growing distant to each other, and barely knew each other anymore. Yes, Computer Science and I, formerly inseparable, had grown so far apart that we only had the occasional fling.
It's not that I was doing bad in Electrical Engineering. I had the highest GPA of the EEs at my school, and one of the highest in the engineering school in general, but I ever class I grew more longing for the warm glow of a monitor, a soft touch keyboard, and the weird technical jargon that only those involved with computers can understand. It's not that I didn't find the electrical side of Electrical Engineering interesting, it was more the engineering side I did not care for. I preferred learning and applying theory to the almost mechanized design practices in my engineering classes, nor did I like that about half the curriculum was devoted to time consuming but otherwise menial tasks, such as writing progress reports and other skills a manager may value in his employees. I performed well at these, but my affairs with these tasks just felt soulless.
So now I'm having myself a bit of a menage a trois with the physics and comp sci majors. They're not to everyone's tastes, but I find them quite attractive. Indeed, the three-way looks to be showing its advantages almost immediately. Upon switching majors, the comp sci department head immediately recognized me from a CS class I took last year (my freshman year). It was a sophomore/junior level course, but apparently my tendency to go well above and beyond the project requirements really impressed him. I doubt he was quite as impressed as I was at seeing other people's projects however, I really don't understand how someone could produce 3x the code and have a third of the functionality. Anyhow, upon my appearance he immediately sent out a recommendation to a physics professor who needed research assistants to do computer analysis of astronomical data, and I was hired almost as quickly. I don't think I want to do anything related to astronomy in a future career, but it's interesting, and I imagine will be good (and interesting/exciting) practice of both my mathematical/physics abilities and my programming ability.
I'm happier already. Not sure what kind of jobs a CS and Physics dual major can go for (heh, maybe electrical engineering), but I'm definitely looking forward to what seems more like open-ended problem solving than the more rigid and mechanical processes the engineering curriculums seem to follow.
It's not that I was doing bad in Electrical Engineering. I had the highest GPA of the EEs at my school, and one of the highest in the engineering school in general, but I ever class I grew more longing for the warm glow of a monitor, a soft touch keyboard, and the weird technical jargon that only those involved with computers can understand. It's not that I didn't find the electrical side of Electrical Engineering interesting, it was more the engineering side I did not care for. I preferred learning and applying theory to the almost mechanized design practices in my engineering classes, nor did I like that about half the curriculum was devoted to time consuming but otherwise menial tasks, such as writing progress reports and other skills a manager may value in his employees. I performed well at these, but my affairs with these tasks just felt soulless.
So now I'm having myself a bit of a menage a trois with the physics and comp sci majors. They're not to everyone's tastes, but I find them quite attractive. Indeed, the three-way looks to be showing its advantages almost immediately. Upon switching majors, the comp sci department head immediately recognized me from a CS class I took last year (my freshman year). It was a sophomore/junior level course, but apparently my tendency to go well above and beyond the project requirements really impressed him. I doubt he was quite as impressed as I was at seeing other people's projects however, I really don't understand how someone could produce 3x the code and have a third of the functionality. Anyhow, upon my appearance he immediately sent out a recommendation to a physics professor who needed research assistants to do computer analysis of astronomical data, and I was hired almost as quickly. I don't think I want to do anything related to astronomy in a future career, but it's interesting, and I imagine will be good (and interesting/exciting) practice of both my mathematical/physics abilities and my programming ability.
I'm happier already. Not sure what kind of jobs a CS and Physics dual major can go for (heh, maybe electrical engineering), but I'm definitely looking forward to what seems more like open-ended problem solving than the more rigid and mechanical processes the engineering curriculums seem to follow.
