Four days ago, I made the decision to switch to computer science.  I was actually very close to declaring econ; I was talking with an adviser to get my plan of study signed when he told me that I would have to add two more classes to replace skipping Ec 10.  This event was the catalyst that set off my decision to consider CS as a viable choice.  The decision to switch had been churning around in the back of my head for a few weeks, but I pushed aside those thoughts with the logic that I was already far enough on the econ track that switching would be detrimental to scheduling and to my future.

I want to go into finance after college, so I originally chose econ because Harvard doesn’t offer a business or finance degree, and I thought that econ was related to those fields.  As it turns out, the relationship is tangential at best.  (I also thought that skipping Ec 10 would give me a comparative advantage, but I have never been more wrong…)

I was already having trouble selecting econ courses to fill up my schedule because, surprisingly, classes like “Moral Perspectives on Economic Growth” and” The Historical Origins of Middle Eastern Development” don’t interest me at all.  The thought of adding two more made me cringe.

With CS, all of the classes that I have to take seem very interesting, and with an econ secondary I only have to take the classes that I want to take, namely Capital Markets and Corporate Finance.  One of my stat electives will also count toward the CS requirements, so everything just works out better.

My adviser told me that if anything, a CS degree can only help with getting a finance job; it can’t hurt my chances.  He also told me a story of a friend of his.  The guy graduated with a CS degree, worked for a startup firm that got bought out by Microsoft, made a decent sum of money, went to Stanford B-school, and is now working for McKinsey.  (Actually, is it sad that this sounds like an ideal life to me?  I’ll have to address this issue someday)

All of this being said, I’m still leaving the option open to switch back to econ in case things really don’t work out.

On an unrelated note, the weight room in our dorm is surprisingly stocked with equipment, and it’s really close and convenient.  I don’t know why I didn’t go earlier.