Haha! Dangerous territory this - asking the TrekBBS advice on potentially life-changing decisions. But what the hell, you're here anyway, so feel free to offer your preferably informed opinion. Anyways... I'm enrolling at University - finally. Comp Sci. major in a BSc. In addition to the prereq. math and stat papers I have also selected two first year Information System papers which I feel will compliment Comp. Sci foe their business orientation. So I have two slots left and am having a bit of a pickle settling on what to do. I had initially thought economics. The fantastic lady I spoke with at the liaison office didn't seem to think too much of that. She did point me in the direction of Geography, which is something I hadn't considered before - in particular she mentioned the work being done in Geographic Information Systems. She also mentioned Psychology which is a field I had previously considered. I guess I think back to friends who were training in Clinical Psych telling me how great I would be in that field. I wouldn't want to pass over the opportunity to at least try it... I guess what I'm saying is - I'm readying to explore computer science. That much I know. but I am a bit of a polymath and it's a trait that has led me to struggle with indecision over which path(s) to take in life - hence kicking off again at Uni at age 30! So my question is - if I'm exploring comp sci, are there subjects considered "better" to explore alongside it? Cheers guys.
Well, I don't know if this will help any, but my brother studied computer engineering with computer science alongside it, and after graduating, he was hired by the government's intelligence firm. Maybe a similar path awaits you?
If you want to compliment computer science, shouldn't you just tell it that it has nice shoes or something?
Psychology is a subject that seems to go well with computer studies these days. From user interface design to artificial intelligence to user behaviour, these two seem to have a lot of similarities. Might be worth going for that and seeing how you get on.
Art & Design, Psychology, Journalism or Creative Writing, Business, Geography---all of these will come in handy. Pick the one that appeals to you the most.
Thanks! The way I see it, Comp Sci is the main "bubble" (I don't know why bubble came to mind, but it's there anyway). So I want the support bubbles to be as useful as possible. Psych and Geography - while they do have interesting aspects to them - feel to me like main bubbles in and of themselves.. Hmmm. I was watching a documentary on the Multiverse earlier on - bubble Universes. That's where the bubble came from! Anyways! Back on track here... taking the economics route strikes me as giving me more bang for my back, even if I only go so far as the first year.
It depends where you want to go in computer science, which is a very broad field. Something like accounting is a safe bet (the kind that grandmothers tend to urge). At the other end you hit physics, perhaps particle simulations or optics (very useful for ray-tracing, imagery, etc). Then there's gynecology, because you'll often be dealing with connector gender issues.
Then again, if he wants to complement computer science, he should take absolutely anything that interests him, like Antichristhill said. University/college should be more than just a trade school. Maybe your grandmother. Not mine.
When I was in college, the classes I did worst in were my non-technical electives. Which were actually some of the classes I enjoyed most. But there's only so many hours in the day and I had to prioritize, so the engineering classes had to come first. I really enjoyed a couple of the religion classes I had to take, as well as the sociology classes. As for the OP, comp sci seems to have applications across various fields. Whatever industry you are interested in going into after you finish school should help guide the electives you take.
Well, being a computer scientist myself, I'd say that useful knowledge for anyone in the field would be Mathematics, but not all of it. For example, Applied Linear Algebra is great, Probability Theory as well. Personally, I've never found Economics relevant, so, unless you want to have that in your CV, I don't see the point. However, if I understand your post correctly, you have already chose your Math and are looking for something different. If that is the case and you can choose from a variety of fields, maybe you don't need something that compliments CS. For example, I have observed that many of my fellow CS students appreciate literature and philosophy more than my non-CS acquaintances. Maybe you could choose something like that if you enjoy it.
The main thing to remember about Computer Science is that the discipline itself teaches you methods to analyze and solve problems through logic and mathematics. People who get into CS tend to be problem-solvers. With that in mind, if you want something that complements CS, think about what kinds of problems you want to be able to solve. There are so many applications of CS, you really just have to think about which particular ones you are most interested in. Economics is a good choice. Growth fields in software are imaging (medical, geographical, personal, etc.), 3D graphics (of course), finance (think automated trading systems), networking (which is all about graph theory), robotic interfaces (with robots popping up in all sorts of fields), and certainly others I must be forgetting. So, think about what particular kinds of problems really interest you, and consider those fields for your additional courses.