Ask HN: Advice for someone choosing a college path
This summer I'm going to college and I am considering a bacholar in Business Administration.
Aside from a couple of math/CS courses, the curriculum has many required business related as you'd expect like: Business Intelligence, Micro & Macro economics, Finance, marketing, etc..
This goes against any of my interests as explained but I am considering it mainly because it's schedule is one of the lightest leaving me a lot of time to work on side projects on my own
My question is: would a "hacker" in the HN sense enjoy studying these courses (which to me seem to involve a lot of rigourous memorization, something that I don't like) to at least pass them or would I simply get burned out, moreover is it wise to get a degree in business/finance with CS as just a hobby in this AI-powered age?
Dude, no. If you don't want to study your major in college, you've made a poor life choice. Study something you want to be involved with. Or skip college. But going to college then picking something you don't want to do, just to have an easy schedule? No. Just no.
College has the potential to be the place where you do your side projects. You can integrate them into your coursework, doubling down on the learning experience from them. You can learn new perspectives and correlate ideas from different fields to take your work directions you have not yet even imagined.
Seriously, study the topics wherein you want to be doing that work. If you treat college as a checkbox to be filled, just to say you did it, you are going to regret lost opportunities down the road when you realize how much more you could have done with it.
Get your money's worth and study a hard quantitative field that will challenge you.
I know many people who got an MBA for whom it was a great career move because it is a hard quantitative degree that will challenge you and get you ready for Fortune 500 or McKinsey or non-profit administration (current boss) or startups (prior boss.) I think a bachelor's in BA is not worth it. If you're interested in that sort of thing you can learn a lot in the school of hard knocks (helping administer a business) or getting an accounting certificate which is a great credential from a money making perspective that will also help you be a quantitative thinker.
An alternate take to the current problem is that everybody is studying CS, my Uni is opening a second CS building but is likely to lay off IT workers soon. People really stopped studying the humanities so maybe it is time, and this too is a field that can really challenge you (employers love a good writer!). There is a shortage of men entering HEAL jobs
https://aibm.org/research/the-heal-economy/
and that work may be AI-resistant.
Personally I think there are a lot of young people who want the bling but don’t have the hustle to get it. The story I want to hear is you came from a poor family, studied a hard major, played football, took care of your little brother, started a business with a big ARR, etc. (Not quite realistic, the coach will lean on you hard to stay focused on the game…) I’m kinda sensitive to signs somebody doesn’t have a good work ethic.
These questions are why academic advisors exist. If you know where you are going to school, talk to them - they will know all the available programs and can probably help you figure out a course schedule that lets you explore options as you go, so you can find these answers on the way.
I started out in business school until I found CS and never looked back.