Whenever anyone asks me about my majors, they tend to respond with "That . . . is an unusual combination." Most of them seem genuinely interested in hearing why I chose to major in such different fields, which usually leads to me explaining the somewhat complicated path that led me to my choice. In order for me to not have to always explain why I take certain stances on certain issues, this entry will be the story of my early undergraduate life.
When I was in high school, I was fairly certain that I would go to college for computer science. After all, one of my favorite hobbies is playing video games. I thought that since I wasn't artistic, the only way I could end up working for a video game developer would be as a programmer. I was also naive about the whole college application process back in high school, so I thought I had a decent shot at being admitted to a couple elite universities. As a result, my applications went out to nine or so elite schools and one local safety school. I bet you can guess which of those two categories I ended up at. The university did not have a normal computer science major, despite being an engineering university. Instead, I had to major in Math and Computer Science - Computer Science Focus. As I mentioned in my first post, I struggled with time management and didn't do so hot my second semester. As a result, I lost my recurring scholarship. Due to the fact that I couldn't afford to stay, and because I was not looking forward to retaking physics and calculus, I dropped out and worked.
I never doubted that I would go back to college soon. During the one and a half years that I spent out of college, I applied for admission to the state flagship university's College of Engineering three times. I was admitted the first two times, but I declined for personal and financial reasons. Perhaps thinking that I just enjoyed throwing my money away on application fees and wasting their time, the admissions people rejected my application the third time. (The truth, which I later found out from a professor, was that the college temporarily increased the list of completed courses required of transfer applicants and physics and calculus II were on it.) Luckily I was admitted to the College of Arts & Sciences.
I enrolled and was supposed to take physics and calculus during my first semester and apply for an intra-university transfer to the College of Engineering. Since this was only a temporary setback, I didn't have to declare a major. But I did anyway. I chose my particular humanities major because I hated the subject in high school and I was curious to see how it was taught in college. Or maybe I was an academic masochist; you decide. I successfully transferred to engineering, but kept my humanities major after having such a great time in those classes. I chose a new technical major, opting for something with "engineering" in the title since engineers are supposed to make lots of money. Luckily I grew to enjoy my new field and would happily stay in it even if it wasn't lucrative. But I can understand why many freshmen declare engineering majors.
When I put more thought into it, I realized how important it was for me to take courses with a lot of reading and writing. I planned on going on for a PhD in engineering early in my undergraduate career so I knew sooner or later that I would need excellent written communication skills. What I didn't expect was how much I would grow intellectually as a result of my liberal education. Now I like to think that I learned how (some of) the world works as an engineer, but also how to experience and enjoy it as a humanist.
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