No. Please don’t.
TLDR: Study what you like and you have passion for.
I will provide you with my personal opinion and my experience. Today I graduated in computer science at the HTW university in Berlin. I disliked my studies and suffered a lot. Even though nobody will ever read this, there is a tiny chance that someone who is currently involved in decision making regarding the future and I might give a little insight and prevent a disaster. Or it can confirm your decision is right.
I might not be able to give a general overview, please consider this article more as a personal experience that might be relatable.
Let’s say you are finishing your secondary education and you want to go to university. You would be crazy not to consider IT, right? It is almost the only field where you have a guarantee to find a job. Your parents will be happy and you will earn good money.
There is a list of things you should consider, based on my studies of Internationaler Studiengang Medieninformatik
1) You will have to code a lot!
You can actually tell if you like coding or not. In high school, there is usually the subject od informatics, where you had to write some code. Did you find it interesting or did you want to avoid it? It is not a prerequisite to know how to code. But it is a big advantage. Are you actually excited to learn it? Consider that the majority will have a head start.
2) You will not get immediate results.
You will have to solve complex problems with a lot of thinking. How big or small is your attention span? Are you able to sit down and analyze a problem without getting distracted easily? If you are one of the people who would like to get results immediately (like me) and see the results of what you are doing instantly, you will probably have a bad time.
3) Learning a programming language is not the same as learning a (human) language.
Learning a programming language is a very different process. Learning the semantics of a programming language is important, however, it’s much more important to learn the logic behind it. The semantics will come automatically but you will need to learn logic and solve problems.
4) Knowing something about computers helps a lot.
You might think that you will learn everything at the university. However, computer science is a very broad field and you will be expected to know the basics.
Do you know the technical specifications of your notebook? Do you know the type of your processor? The size of your RAM? And most importantly, do you care? If your answer is no, CS is probably not for you.
Also, please consider that you will be surrounded by people who do have some passion for computers and technology and there will be a lot of “nerds”. And it is not only about the studies itself, you will go with “IT people” to have lunch together where computers will be discussed - and also the culture connected to it, e.g. gaming. If you tend to avoid these conversations and would rather talk about fashion, you might have a difficult time.
5) Mathematics
You will not avoid Maths. I suppose, at each CS program, there is a bunch of it. I didn’t consider the Math at my university very difficult but it was the subject the majority of people had to fight with.
6) Be prepared to learn. Your whole life.
The learning process doesn’t end with graduation. Of course, it’s an issue in a lot of professions. However, if you want to become a programmer, you will have to educate yourself during your whole career. The technology evolves fast and you can not get stuck with an old one. Do you enjoy learning? Even in your free time?
What do your recommendations on YouTube look like? Is there some education? Some videos about new technologies? Good!
7) Read properly the description of your major. What courses does it offer?
Possibly, you don’t actually want to study algorithms, networks, and advanced Maths. You want to be a Game Designer. In that case, use the advantage of knowing what do you want and study your specific field - study Game Design.
In my case, I read Media and Computing. I was more interested in Media than Computing, not knowing the major was much more about programming than expected! Save yourself some time in the future. (I know, it’s dumb.)
8) It will not be easy. You will have to study a lot.
This is probably not only for CS but for every demanding study like engineering. Do you have the habit of studying and preparing for your classes during the semester? How much do you procrastinate? If you are like me at the high school who almost didn’t study at all and you learned for the exams the night before them? It probably won’t work in CS. You can not miss the start of the semester, otherwise, you will not be able to pick it up later. Without the ability to study or picking it up early, you shall not pass.
9) Get used to teamwork.
It might have been specific to my university but almost all assignments were done in teams. But in general, don’t be a lone wolf! Firstly, you will be forced to work in teams, secondly, it’s extremely advantageous to collaborate on your assignments. Are you very shy and want to disappear each time after the lesson ends? It will be difficult for you.
My Story
I had no idea what I wanted to study after high school.
I come from a relatively conservative family in Czechia who wanted me to study a technical field. My favorite subjects were Geography, History, Czech, and German. I did not like maths, I did not enjoy physics. I would have loved to study geography and become a teacher. My mum is a teacher and she would convince me not to become one. An important factor was also the salary as teachers do not earn much in Czechia.
As a kid and even as a teenager, I always placed good in Math competitions and despite the fact I did not like Maths, I was good at it.
I went to study architecture and quit after one semester as I had no passion for it. I escaped to Germany and was thinking about what to study next. I told my brothers I wanted to study humanities, something with the subjects I mentioned before. They both persuaded me not to.
In Berlin, I was not in a good state of mind and did not take much time to actually find out what I would like to study. Being convinced not to study humanities, I sent some applications randomly - mostly to the economics field (I think the majority of people who have no idea always pick the economics). As I liked to read articles on the Internet, I also picked something called Media and Computing. The “Media” sounded appealing. As the deadline was close, I just randomly selected it.
So it happened, with no interest in Computer Science whatsoever, I started to study programming. During my high school times, I did not pay attention in informatics at all, had no interest in computers, and had no idea about the hardware. I even avoided technology in general, had an old smartphone without the internet, played old games, and did not like to learn new things. (I actually stayed this way in the most aspects.)
Aaaaand, surprisingly, I suffered a lot during my studies. If you go to the list in the article, I was never a good candidate at each and every point (maybe except the Maths). I was on the brink of giving up so many times. There were many exams I just passed. It was a combination of luck and bane that so many assignments were teamwork. I usually did not contribute much however, I also did not learn much. I had almost no free time as I had no motivation for doing my assignments and procrastinated A LOT. Usually, I was able to accomplish what needed to be done the night before. I had the advantage I was no stupid but often I was extremely lucky.
I don’t want to bash the whole studies, there were definitely classes I also enjoyed but they were usually niches where CS was not the core. And the professor played a big part in it.
I felt demotivated because when I compared myself to my classmates, I had much less enthusiasm. Accordingly, I was not very good at coding. And it all put me into a vicious circle that I had even less motivation. I often wanted to give up, however, I felt obligated to my parents to continue as it was already my second studies and they supported me financially. Also I convinced myself that with an IT graduation in Germany, I could find whatever job I would like to (was partially right)-
With a stroke of huge luck, I was able to graduate. Somehow I managed to accomplish all my classes, with me choosing the easiest path possible. Even my grade is not that bad. But I spent with it almost 5 years (instead of 3) and inherently, I had a bad time for 5 years of my life.
My advice
As cheesy as it sounds, follow your intuition and do what you like. Do not listen to your parents, it is your decision. If you don’t live in a third world country, you will probably be fine even without a technical education and possibly with a bit smaller salary. The list at the beginning of the article might help you a bit if computer science is for you. Do not force it if you don’t feel like it.
If you don’t have a passion for the subject, you will never be good at it. It will affect your career later - as a bad programmer, your colleagues probably won’t be thrilled to work with you and you will not feel good about yourself - and you will be possibly stressed accordingly. And you could possibly “harm” the society with you bad code.
Evaluation
I do believe in my situation there will be a happy ending. I found a job as an IT security expert where I won’t have to code but I need a strong IT background that I do posses. My biggest assets will be German and English knowledge that I learned in my studies besides IT. I am actually a bit excited.
Was it worth 5 years of not having a good time? Most probably not (I think).
Did I have a lot possibilities with my title? Yes. (I will write an article about it - you can then decide for yourself it was worth it).
