Computer Science Major

Does any of you guys have any experience in majoring in computer science? Apart from Graphic Design this is my other option. To be honest I'm not even quite sure what it is. ... Is it hard? What is it actually? Is it a pretty good major?

I've got my bachelor's in CS. Yes, it's hard, but the better you are at logic and math the easier it will be. Have you programmed anything before, does code come naturally? This is a pretty good indicator of whether you'll succeed or not in CS. The basis of CS will primarily be programming fundamentals, discrete math, and an assortment of tech related topics that heavily rely on those first two things. Networking, Database administration, technical writing, ethics with relations to computers. Depending on your concentration/option/etc you can avoid some of the seriously difficult math/programming/physics stuff -- areas like IT require business courses instead, but I wouldn't recommend that.

If you're interested in CS, you'll want to program. Don't do it unless you're willing to dedicate yourself to programming, and know going in what you'd like to program.

It's a very good major, one of the best, honestly. It's an engineering area, and since everything is so mechanical it's very easy for schools to figure out what to teach and where you need to be to graduate. I'll say it again though. The major isn't as worth it unless you're 100% into programming, and willing to dedicate those four years to mastering it.

I don't consider HTML and CSS to be programming since they are just used to create layouts and there's no logic involved.
I'm not majoring in computer science but in something awfully similar: Systems Engineering (I think they may actually be the same thing in some countries). I hate maths and am not very good at it, but I make up for it with programming. Try to learn some actual programming (even JavaScript would be a good idea since you already know web dev stuff) and see if you like it. Programming is an hate or love thing: If you liked it, go for computer science. If not, you may want to consider something else because programming is something you see and use every single semesters in one way or another.

As a Senior Computer Science (really, Software Engineering) and Mathematics double major, I would definitely recommend CS as a major, if you can wrap your head around the programming aspect. The math is non-essential; as long as you can follow basic formulas, you will be fine.

What a lot of incoming freshmen have trouble with is "thinking like a computer," but it's no different than speaking a different language. You're essentially speaking to a computer in a language it can interpret and understand. Also, I would recommend doing research into how memory is stored in a computer, because this makes a lot of the fundamental logic much easier to understand.

Depending on what you do, math can be very important. Encryption and compression are just two examples of where good math skills are paramount.

Hey, I have a first class degree myself. CS as a subject to study varies between institutions, with some emphasising the theoretical and mathematical aspects more than others. Generally though, as others have noted, a really solid understanding of programming, programming paradigms and algorithms/data structures are a necessity and it's something you do have to have a heavy interest in if you're intending to complete it.

HTML/CSS is a world far away from actual programming and the fundamental concepts behind it; in fact they're not demonstrated at all in those languages. I'd be really cautious going into a CS degree program with such limited programming experience personally. I'd strongly recommend looking at actual languages such as Python perhaps initially and see if you take to the concepts quickly and enjoy learning about them. From there you could perhaps also look into languages more within the OOP paradigm such as Java or C# or functional paradigm like Haskell, the latter having a more mathematical feel and often used to demonstrate advanced concepts of computer science. It's a lot different than imperative languages though which most are used to. Of course, C as a procedural language is often a staple of such courses as well as it still makes up the backbone of a large portion of what we do directly or indirectly. Looking at pointers in C and memory allocation can help understand some fundamental concepts of how a computer operates which is essentially what CS is all about.

Aurora is right in that CS isn't synonymous with programming, but programming is often used as a vehicle to teach core underlying mathematical/logic principles which is why it is important to have a solid understand and interest in it as it can make up quite a significant portion of your course one way or the other. Learning the languages isn't as important as understanding the paradigms and concepts, but you find if you do understand the principles of programming the actual language being used is a trivial point and it all flows from there.

In some less applied and more theoretical CS courses math is heavily important and the emphasis can be significantly on core mathematical principles and concepts, so I'd be wary of those saying here that math is only of cursory importance if the courses you're looking at entail this.

Overall I found CS to be a rather dry subject. I think some people do risk going into it under false ideas of what it entails, thinking they like computers and computing so CS would be a natural choice only to be completely put off by heavy lectures about computing theory and mathematics. I'd recommend more applied CS or Information Technology courses if your idea of what you want to do involves more "real world" computing such as network, system or database administration personally. They're often less theory/math based and more practical in nature, which may be more interesting to you.

Good luck!