Computer science
You will spend most of it staring at code that does not work yet. If that sounds fun, keep reading.
Written by the Sidequest team. Reviewed 2026-08-18.
What a week actually looks like
Two or three problem sets a week, and each one can eat a whole night. A problem set is a handful of hard puzzles you have to work out yourself. This is not read a chapter and answer questions. You sit down, get stuck, and stay stuck until it clicks.
Way more math than people expect in year one. Logic, proofs where you show step by step that something has to be true, and counting things in clever ways. It shows up before the fun coding does.
Lectures are the small part of your week. You and a screen is the big part.
By second year you are writing programs from a blank file instead of filling in blanks someone left for you. That switch is the whole major in one sentence.
Why you might hate it
- The second year is where people leave. Intro classes hold your hand. Data structures and algorithms, the class about how to store information and the steps for working through it, hands you a problem and expects you to invent the answer.
- You will sit next to someone who started coding at twelve and feel behind. Almost everyone feels this. It still feels bad.
- Long hours alone with no one telling you if you are doing well.
- You cannot dodge the math. It is baked into the degree.
Why you might love it
- You make things that actually run. You type, you hit enter, it works. Almost nothing else in school pays you back that fast.
- Being stuck and then unstuck is the whole feeling of the major, and some people are built for it.
- By second year you can build a real thing that real people use. Not a paper about a thing. The thing.
What it costs and what it pays
$107,009
Median pay across the country for a four year degree. Median means the middle: half earn more, half earn less.
$74,917 to $144,178
The worst paying of these courses sit near the small number and the best paying ones near the big number.
$22,055
The middle amount for this degree: half owe more, half owe less
Two degrees that both say computer on them can sit nearly fifty thousand dollars apart. Computer science pays a national median of $107,009 four years out. Computer software and media applications pays $58,894. Same shelf at the same school, very different money.
Where you go matters more here than in most majors. The bottom tenth of computer science programs land graduates near $74,917 and the top tenth near $144,178. That is close to double for the same words on the diploma.
These numbers only count people who are working and not in school. Anyone who went straight to more school is left out.
What people who did it say
"Software engineering for a large portion of open positions is a trade, it's not computer science."
a commenter posting as tashoecraft, Hacker News, September 2019
Where people actually end up
Most go into building software, but the titles people end up with spread out fast. Data, security, games, and the person who decides what gets built all hire people out of this major.
Plenty of people doing this work never finished the degree. That cuts both ways. It means the door is open without it, and it means the degree alone is not the thing that gets you hired.
The part of the degree that keeps paying is the part people complain about most. Knowing why one solution is slow and another is fast is what separates you later.
Who it really fits
This is probably you if
- You like being stuck on something for hours and would rather solve it than be told the answer.
- You already build small things for fun, even bad ones.
- You do not mind that nobody claps when it finally works.
Probably not you if
- You want people around you all day.
- You picked it because the pay looked good and nothing else about it pulls you.
- You want to see the result of your work the same hour you do it, every time.
Try the career before you pick the major
Before you pick four years of this, spend five minutes doing the actual work. Free, no account needed.
club-signup · draft
export default function App() {
// TODO: the one thing it does
return <main>Club shifts</main>
}an empty shell, waiting on your call
Riley wants all of this. What does your app actually do this afternoon?
Try a day as a software engineer
A short, playful taste of the real work.
Do you even need this degree? Every way into this career
Careers this major feeds
Questions people ask
- Is a computer science degree worth it?
- On money, yes, and by a lot. The national median four years out is $107,009. The catch is that which program you pick swings that from about $74,917 to about $144,178.
- Is computer science hard?
- The first year is manageable and the second year is where people switch out. Data structures and algorithms, the class about how to store information and the steps for working through it, is the one that does it.
- Do you need the degree to write software?
- No. Lots of people doing this work never finished it. The degree makes it easier to get hired the first time, and it teaches you why one solution is slow and another is fast, which starts to matter years in.
Where these numbers come from
Every number on this page comes from the source listed under it. We checked each one on the date shown.
- Median earnings four years out, loan debt, and how much programs vary: College Scorecard, field of study data, June 2026 release. Checked 2026-08-18.