

Ask HN: College: Full Courseload vs. Less Courses + Extracurriculars - SwaGGeReR

I'm a current college student trying to decide what would be the best path to take:<p>1. Graduate with a major in Economics by taking ~15 credits per semester (this is the school average)<p>2. Graduate with a major in Economics and a minor in Computer Science by taking ~21-22 credits per semester<p>Option 1 clearly leaves me with more free time to pursue extracurricular activities, internships, etc. Also, I would likely end up with a higher GPA.<p>Option 2 would allow me to immerse myself in a field I'm passionate about (computer science), but would likely come at the expense of no free time and a lower GPA.<p>Career-wise, I'm passionate about finance, technology and entrepreneurship. I've been exploring career options at VCs, tech startups, etc.<p>In light of my aspirations, which do you think is the better option?
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jeremy_k
I'm sure the range of answers on this one are going to be widely varied, but
I'll give you my perspective (basically option 1). I graduated Cum Laude with
a CS degree in June. Going into school I had ~30 math and writing credits from
HS so by the time I started my Sophomore year I was at the point where 12
credits/term (we were on quarters) would allow me to graduate on time. I held
a job the entire time I was in school (just noting an additional time
commitment) and having less credits/classes each term was probably the best
thing that could have happened to me. Stress levels drop extremely when you
don't have to worry about multiple tests a week or have more than two finals
on a single day.

It allowed me thoroughly enjoy my college experience (ie. partying whenever I
wanted, generally just doing whatever I felt like that day, etc) and never
worry about having to pull all nighters or rely on adderall binges to finish
assignments. I probably could have spent my time more productively (working on
side projects or something similar) but basically college became 4 years of
social fun with classes littered in-between.

I would say it really just depends on what you're trying to get out of your
time at school. At the time I wasn't looking to differentiate myself from
everyone else (I had no clue what I wanted to do) and just had a bunch of fun
(which you'll never be able to experience something like 4 years of minimal
time commitment and tens of thousands of other 20-somethings with no
supervision anywhere else). If you want to stand out to employers post-
graduation, I definitely wouldn't suggest doing what I did. I was turned down
for multiple jobs due to lack of experience, but I eventually managed to land
one with a startup in SV.

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nicholas73
A CS class might easily take 3x the time of a typical Econ class, if not more.
The difference in difficulty is absurd - it wasn't unusual that all I had to
do for an Econ class was show up for the midterm and final with cramming the
day before.

This is a really big change in direction, so the question is really up to you,
unfortunately. You need to find out if you really are passionate about CS, or
if you really just like the idea of being a tech entrepreneur. You need to
just get in there and take classes, and above all, build something. Then you
will know.

If you find out it's not for you, no biggie, you just took one or two classes
extra. After all, you don't have to graduate with a minor.

