I just graduated

[Kacey Green]

I just graduated high school! :mrgreen:

[dh]

Hey Congratulations Kacey!! :D

What are you going to do now??

[Kacey Green]

I plan to go to college and study something in computers and business.

I'll let you know when I've decided exactly what. (suggestions would be helpful I'm thinking of Dual Majors)

[Kati Compton]

What is it you want to do with computers? Basically, if it's a BS in CS or CompE, I would suggest you wait until you see the degree requirements before deciding on the double major. Engineering degrees tend to require more credits, and a lot of people end up finishing them in 5 years instead of 4 (which may or may not be a concern to you).

If it's a BA in Computer Studies or IT or the like, then a double major would probably be quite doable and useful.

[sublime]

I suggest studying something you will enjoy studying, rather than something that will give you a good job. I'm just finished my second year of university, and I know many students who are bored of their propitious programs, and many more graduates who are bored of their lucrative jobs.

Think about it, man, even if what you enjoy is some tooty-fruity art stuff. Pleasure before business when it comes to deciding a program, and I can't stress how important that idea is.

Good luck finding what that is. You will need it.

*cue scary music*

[Janak Parekh]

I suggest studying something you will enjoy studying, rather than something that will give you a good job. I'm just finished my second year of university, and I know many students who are bored of their propitious programs, and many more graduates who are bored of their lucrative jobs.
I largely agree. People who joined Computer Science at my institution just for the job prospects generally have had a very difficult time succeeding. You have to want to do it for a deeper reason, to the point where you have to be slightly insane about it, as it's not easy. :)

--janak

[Janak Parekh]

What is it you want to do with computers? Basically, if it's a BS in CS or CompE, I would suggest you wait until you see the degree requirements before deciding on the double major.
Another idea would be to consider a minor instead of a double-major. A number of my friends did CS with an Econ minor, and that seemed manageable.

--janak

[Zack Mahdavi]

Congrats Kacey! What college do you plan on attending?

I'm about to start my 3rd year at UT Austin, and I'm actually double majoring with a BS in CS and a BS in Neurobiology. I'm hoping afterwards, the double major would be useful in pursuing a career in biomedical informatics or computational biology. Well, it's either that or medical school! :)

Seriously, though... think about what you have in mind. If you want to do something that embraces both computers and business, maybe you should consider a MIS major. Just start planning out what you want to accomplish after you get your undergraduate degree.. really think about it. Do you want to do law school and study tech law, or do you want to head a computer startup? Then structure the education you pursue around that. That's the best advice I can give you.

Good luck! :)

[Kacey Green]

I'm planning to start at the local CC (much cheaper Santa Fe Community college) and then go the the University of Florida (right down the street).

[Kevin C. Tofel]

If I could reiterate and stress what others said: study the topic(s) that interest you, not for what you want to find a job in!

I flunked out of the college with a 1.71 GPA my first time because I hated being an Accounting major (no offense if there are any CPA's on the board!). I chose that major because I thought I could get a high paying job. I changed majors to Philosophy to get into law school, but that didn't quite take either. Finally decided to work full time and go back to school, but this time study something that really intrigued me: Economics, which taught me how to think analytically. 7 years after first starting, I graduated and retook all my "F"'s to bring my GPA up to an acceptable level and get into graduate school.

Moral of the story: do it right the FIRST time and do it for the right reasons.

By the way: the correlation between what you study and what your field of work is = not very high.

With my Econ degree and a passionate hobby for all things technical, I've been very happily employed in IT positions since one year out of college...9 years and counting. I've gotten my hands dirty with servers, started up help desks, led the technical management of teams and projects, handled software quality assurance, revised and matured software lifecycle processes and I just moved into new position creating and analyzing operational metrics for a large (28,000+ employee) company. There is no limit to what you can do, regardless of your major. However, you don't want to choose it again and again! You can always go back for a 2nd degree or advanced degree in something else....I'm doing an MS in Info Science right now.....

Best of luck and hope these thoughts help....

KCT