afx, I didn’t know you were cog sci… are you running any LISP code on my server? 😉
Hatfield, I started out as Mechanical Engineering but I eventually realized that I found it boring. For an elective I took the Cog Sci intro class and I was totally fascinated by the topic. So, I changed my major to Cog Sci.
BTW for any youths reading this, I wouldn’t recommend doing that… switching to a major just bc you think it’s interesting. Unless you are going to go into academia in that topic. But otherwise, I’d recommend optimizing for career/job getting preparation vs. interestingness.
In my case it worked out ok. As you former cog sciers know, you can focus on any of 3 areas: psych, neuroscience, or AI/computer science. I focused on the latter, and took some Comp Sci dept courses (including the hated compilers!) to buff it up.
It definitely would have been easier to get a job with a proper CS degree, especially since I graduated into a weak job mkt in 1994. But I ended up getting something, and in the computer field, once you’ve gotten that first job it becomes all about competence, and not what piece of paper you have. So it worked out fine, but if I had a kid who wanted to get into programming, I would definitely recommend the straight CS program.
