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How do I stop fantasizing other degrees/subjects?

I'm in year 12 and struggling to deal with anxiety around my degree choice. I've been bouncing around economics, physics, engineering, E and M, PPE and now computer science despite my current clear passion for mathematics. I think this mainly stems from the fact I fear I might hate maths after university and I do like the idea of going into a more specialised maths area. I told myself not to be obsessed with job prospects but I think that's a driving factor for three of these obsessions. I have thought about a joint degree but I don't have a reason other than seemingly impulsive desires. Context about myself: currently studying mathematics, further mathematics, physics and economics; and I have not been exposed to anything computer science-related other than a few basic html coding lessons in y8 and my fm module being dm1. Basically, I don't have much experience with cs and economics yet I keep getting the urge to do it as a degree. Does anyone have any advice with how to quell this?
Original post by DiscreteAnalysis
I'm in year 12 and struggling to deal with anxiety around my degree choice. I've been bouncing around economics, physics, engineering, E and M, PPE and now computer science despite my current clear passion for mathematics. I think this mainly stems from the fact I fear I might hate maths after university and I do like the idea of going into a more specialised maths area. I told myself not to be obsessed with job prospects but I think that's a driving factor for three of these obsessions. I have thought about a joint degree but I don't have a reason other than seemingly impulsive desires. Context about myself: currently studying mathematics, further mathematics, physics and economics; and I have not been exposed to anything computer science-related other than a few basic html coding lessons in y8 and my fm module being dm1. Basically, I don't have much experience with cs and economics yet I keep getting the urge to do it as a degree. Does anyone have any advice with how to quell this?
Have you booked any Open Days yet?

Made a shortlist of of your 'ideal' universities? 😧
Original post by DiscreteAnalysis
I'm in year 12 and struggling to deal with anxiety around my degree choice. I've been bouncing around economics, physics, engineering, E and M, PPE and now computer science despite my current clear passion for mathematics. I think this mainly stems from the fact I fear I might hate maths after university and I do like the idea of going into a more specialised maths area. I told myself not to be obsessed with job prospects but I think that's a driving factor for three of these obsessions. I have thought about a joint degree but I don't have a reason other than seemingly impulsive desires. Context about myself: currently studying mathematics, further mathematics, physics and economics; and I have not been exposed to anything computer science-related other than a few basic html coding lessons in y8 and my fm module being dm1. Basically, I don't have much experience with cs and economics yet I keep getting the urge to do it as a degree. Does anyone have any advice with how to quell this?

Go to open days, reading about the courses, read books about the different subjects you are considering, do online courses. Basically just try and get a feel for what these different courses will feel like, and hopefully you can start to realise which one you might prefer the most.
Original post by DiscreteAnalysis
I'm in year 12 and struggling to deal with anxiety around my degree choice. I've been bouncing around economics, physics, engineering, E and M, PPE and now computer science despite my current clear passion for mathematics. I think this mainly stems from the fact I fear I might hate maths after university and I do like the idea of going into a more specialised maths area. I told myself not to be obsessed with job prospects but I think that's a driving factor for three of these obsessions. I have thought about a joint degree but I don't have a reason other than seemingly impulsive desires. Context about myself: currently studying mathematics, further mathematics, physics and economics; and I have not been exposed to anything computer science-related other than a few basic html coding lessons in y8 and my fm module being dm1. Basically, I don't have much experience with cs and economics yet I keep getting the urge to do it as a degree. Does anyone have any advice with how to quell this?


I would suggest maybe in the spring/summer that you explore some degree level maths e.g. some basic real analysis/"advanced calculus" or (abstract) linear algebra, from a proof based perspective. This might give you a better sense of whether you would get along with the kind of maths in a maths degree (which is very different from A-level - the maths in a physics or engineering course is more similar to the maths you do in A-level).

As for deciding between degrees, start by exploring them in this manner one by one, looking at the actual way those subjects are studied at degree level, and see how it suits you. For physics for example aside from more general "cultural" material from reading e.g. the Feynman lectures, you could also just have a look through Young & Freedman (I'm sure a local library to you has a copy...?) and see how physics at degree level differs from A-level (basically - it uses calculus! Lots of it! Also matrices and complex numbers). Then just continue through in the same manner.

A word about CS - a CS degree is not a degree in programming, and programming is often a relatively small proportion of the course and a means to an end. Also I don't think HTML coding really compares to actually programming with a programming language. You could explore this more by using python or something to try and code some simple programs (Project Euler might be a good place to find some ideas of what to start with, which also relates to your mathematical interests), although again programming is not the be all and end all of a CS degree.

Bear in mind also there is some degree of overlap in these areas; you'll do some level of programming in basically any of those degrees (save maybe economics); you'll continue with some at least basic mathematical methods in calculus, differential equations and linear algebra in all of those areas (with differing emphases); you'll do some level of physics type stuff in all except CS and economics (albeit in a maths degree usually you only have to do a small amount of mechanics mandatorily and it's mostly optional otherwise). Also many of these courses will more or less give you the same career options too. So in that sense it's not surprising to be considering all of them but there are things you can do to figure out which is the best fit for you :smile:
Original post by thegeek888
Have you booked any Open Days yet?
Made a shortlist of of your 'ideal' universities? 😧

Haven't booked any open days. My ideal universities are Cambridge and Warwick.
Original post by sound-famous-
Go to open days, reading about the courses, read books about the different subjects you are considering, do online courses. Basically just try and get a feel for what these different courses will feel like, and hopefully you can start to realise which one you might prefer the most.
Alright, I'll give this a go. Hopefully I do find which one I prefer most.
Original post by artful_lounger
I would suggest maybe in the spring/summer that you explore some degree level maths e.g. some basic real analysis/"advanced calculus" or (abstract) linear algebra, from a proof based perspective. This might give you a better sense of whether you would get along with the kind of maths in a maths degree (which is very different from A-level - the maths in a physics or engineering course is more similar to the maths you do in A-level).
As for deciding between degrees, start by exploring them in this manner one by one, looking at the actual way those subjects are studied at degree level, and see how it suits you. For physics for example aside from more general "cultural" material from reading e.g. the Feynman lectures, you could also just have a look through Young & Freedman (I'm sure a local library to you has a copy...?) and see how physics at degree level differs from A-level (basically - it uses calculus! Lots of it! Also matrices and complex numbers). Then just continue through in the same manner.
A word about CS - a CS degree is not a degree in programming, and programming is often a relatively small proportion of the course and a means to an end. Also I don't think HTML coding really compares to actually programming with a programming language. You could explore this more by using python or something to try and code some simple programs (Project Euler might be a good place to find some ideas of what to start with, which also relates to your mathematical interests), although again programming is not the be all and end all of a CS degree.
Bear in mind also there is some degree of overlap in these areas; you'll do some level of programming in basically any of those degrees (save maybe economics); you'll continue with some at least basic mathematical methods in calculus, differential equations and linear algebra in all of those areas (with differing emphases); you'll do some level of physics type stuff in all except CS and economics (albeit in a maths degree usually you only have to do a small amount of mechanics mandatorily and it's mostly optional otherwise). Also many of these courses will more or less give you the same career options too. So in that sense it's not surprising to be considering all of them but there are things you can do to figure out which is the best fit for you :smile:

Will do. Thank you for the advice.
Original post by DiscreteAnalysis
Alright, I'll give this a go. Hopefully I do find which one I prefer most.

Also do look at joint degrees that have maybe more than one of your interests, at least just to know what is out there. For example: Maths and Philosophy, Maths and Physics, Maths and Economics, Physics and Philosophy, Computer Science and Philosophy, Maths and Computer Science etc.
Physics has a lot of programming btw, so if you pick physics, you'll be doing more of the maths that you enjoy so far and also programming.
Reply 9
I was very indecisive like you aswell I went from cs, actuarial science, finance, biomed/general engineering, biomed, economics, data science and I just finalised to math and stats .(Not even mentioning pre A levels where I wanted to do physic/astronomy/mech eng).

Job prospect played a big part and what I did was just go onto my desired unis and look at a lot of their compul/optional modules and read about them (as in the site you can click the module to get its descriptions of what you learn). And I just told myself things like, if I end up hating math it’s not the end of the world as some of the optional modules I liked their applied math anyways (which sounds like it’s just math but will feel diff) and I can deal with that issue in a few years time not now I’m not a fortune teller idk what will happen. Also job prospect a lot of things will change by the time we graduate so again no telling what will happen and that’s like the last hurdle haven’t even gotten offers yet so one step at a time.

Life would be very easy if we could pre plan/move every decision to the best possible outcome but it’s not so unlucky for us ig.

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