Hope MartinJunior CMPBIO major First year is a hard time for all incoming college students. Personally, I came into Pitt not totally sure what my career path was going to look like or what I wanted to do with my major. This ended up causing me to me change my major many times before figuring out what I could really see myself doing long term. Although I wish I had figured out my major sooner, I have some suggestions for students who might be in the same boat I was in.
The first most important thing about picking a major path in general is to not be afraid of trying something new! My major now is Computational Biology. Before I had landed on my major, I was intimidated by computer science courses. I felt like I should have taken Computer Science courses in high school and I had missed the chance to get into the field. I could not have been more incorrect! It is never too late to learn something new. In fact, there are even a few 30+ year olds in my classes now who decided to go back to school to get their computer science degrees. If computer science sounds interesting to you, I highly recommend trying out some of the computational biology courses. Maybe take CS0011, which is the introduction programming/computer science course for computational biology majors. The best part about the computational biology major is that it gets half of its requirements from the computer science department and half from the biology department. It is really nice to be a part of two different departments because I meet twice the amount of people and have double the experience since I will be qualified to work in both a scientific research based setting as well as a software engineering based setting coming out of undergrad. Computational biology students who are looking to do more in the computer science field and possibly go into software engineering should definitely take part in the two computer science clubs here at Pitt. The general Computer Science Club gives great lectures to guide students on how to get internships, experience, and jobs out of school. The Women in Computer Science Club offers a nice community for women in the field to get to know and support each other. If you are still looking for a major and Computational Biology does not sound right to you, try some of the different specialized biology classes. While the general Biological Sciences major allows you to build your own elective schedule, a lot of the other specialized biology majors (Microbiology, Molecular Biology, Ecology & Evolution) help guide you to find courses similar to the ones you are most interested in. For example, I really loved my Ecology class and the Ecology & Evolution major has a lot of great required courses around that subject area. There’s nothing wrong with trying out different majors until you find the one you like the best. Just make sure you enjoy your courses and find something you are passionate about!
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Pitt Bio BlogThe Pitt Bio Blog is maintained by the Department of Biological Sciences Advising Office. Posts are authored by our students Archives
January 2022
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