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Switcheroonie

Two of my good friends are changing their majors, both from computer engineering.  One is going to comp sci (which is like comp eng, except a lot more programming and a lot less hardware), and the other to something business-related.

I’ve been thinking of switching from comp eng to comp sci for a while now myself.  Mainly because judging from the fact that I program so much in my spare time, it’s probably a safe bet that I’d enjoy doing that professionally.  Another big draw of being a programmer is that thanks to the internet, there is often no need for a programmer to "go" to work.  These sorts of people often work from home a few days a week, or even most of the time.  And that would be fantastic.  Fanstatic is a funny way to misspell fantastic, by the way.

Anyway I love to program, as is evident from things like this entire website, my blogger script, and my musicbox.  I do enjoy engineering though too; the hardware side of things is very interesting to me.  But lately I’ve been wondering if pure programming interests me more.

Argh.  Well in any event, this summer -- in two weeks, in fact -- I have an amazing job as a computer engineer, the same one I had last summer at Unisys.  It pays incredibly well and it’s fun and the people there are super.  So for the time being I’m going to just focus on that.  After the summer, I need to just focus on graduating at all, whether it be compsci or compeng or whatever.  I’ve been spinning my wheels for 2 years here at UP and I’m so frustrated and tired of not doing well.  This semester is the 4th and last of this slump; I didn’t do much better than the last 3, but towards the middle/end I finally managed to get a little more disciplined and to study, so I’m confident about next fall.  I also realized that if you don’t come out full-force in the first 2 or 3 weeks of the semester, it’s incredibly hard to catch up.  Before, it always seemed like "eh, first couple weeks, no big deal...", but that period really sets the pace for you for the rest of the semester.  Konstantin said that to me a couple months ago and I realize now that it’s completely true.

Posted by Anthony on Apr 28, 2003 | 3 replies
Filed under: General

Comments:

01. Apr 28, 2003 at 5:57am by Anthony:

And another one of my friends just got kicked out of school, and a friend-of-a-friend dropped out (maybe only temporarily though) because the loans were getting to be too much.  Of our entire little coterie of guys from high school, there are only 2 that stayed in college including me.  That’s discouraging.  But it doesn’t make me want to drop out, thank God; it rather makes me want to press on.

02. Apr 29, 2003 at 6:24pm by steev:

good to hear you are sticking with it, i never realy went to college, well, i did for 1 semester, but its a long story on why/how i dropped out, but now, 5 years later, I will be starting back  up in the fall, and im not really sure what i want to major in yet, although, i was considering majoring in law and minoring in comp sci, or comp eng, but it just seems like a bit much, so i think i might just do the law thing, since the books appear to be a bit cheaper...  I bought books for my younger brother, who is finally going to college, he worked his way up from dropping out of high school and getting his GED and now going to college, and is considering quitting his job and just focusing on school and then getting a part time job, which I think would be awesome for him.  i don’t know if i can handle school, but i guess i won’t know till i go back, except that i am going to be having a busy schedule, because i can’t afford to quit working (gotta support my computer habit somehow ;)

03. Apr 30, 2003 at 9:53am by Anthony:

> i think i might just do the law thing, since the
> books appear to be a bit cheaper...

Now that is one heck of a way to decide your major  : )

That’s cool that you’re going back, though.  Most of the time, when people talk about going back, or taking a year off to work before starting college the first time, they say that you’ll never actually go back.  I dunno.  For me, there was never any thought that I might drop out; I don’t want to, nor could I afford to pay back my loans and eat without the kind of job that a degree will (hopefully) get me.  (And not to mention, supporting my computer habit...)

Argh, don’t even get me started on little brothers.  My little brother, who’s only 20, owns his own skateboard shop.  What a jerk.  Here I am paying gads of money for this degree, and Nick, skirting "higher education" altogether, says "I’m gonna open my own business."  And he does.  And it works.  Not fair!!  (But despite being jealous of it, I’m incredibly proud of him  : )

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