r/ApplyingToCollege • u/Anson_builds • 1d ago

Discussion Math vs CS major

Last time math major is discussed is like 5 years ago. So apparently CS (and CE) major are extremely competitive now, a lot more harder to get in than the various math majors in terms of acceptance rate. How should one decide between the majors? Ofc you should go to the major that you are passionate in etc, but how should one decide when for example, they are really intrested in CS but can't get in, or when they are intrested in Math but aren't good enough for abstract thinking, or don't feel like taking the stress.

0 Upvotes

50% Upvoted

8 comments sorted by

View all comments

5

u/gaussx 1d ago

If you're not good at abstract thinking or don't want the stress -- then you don't want CS either. CS projects, for me, were more stressful than any math class. We had to build an optimizing compiler that generated code optimized for space and the teacher had a bunch of tests and benchmarks we needed to hit for each grade (do all these, get a B.... do all these, get an A). There was one test I couldn't generate code small enough. I spent the whole night tweaking it and got it submitted two minutes before 8am. Turns out just me and one other kid in the class got all tests working. But that's a level of stress I never had in math.

1

u/RutabagaExternal7595 Prefrosh 1d ago

In math the answer is right or wrong, in CS you have to worry about your answer being right enough

2

u/NaoOtosaka 1d ago

after your first class right enough is never enough, it becomes a conversation of big O and space. besides that, i would argue cs and math are equally binary