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 2026-08-19.
Try the career before you pick the major
Before you pick four years of this, spend five minutes doing the work itself.
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.
Building software, mostly. Of every 100 graduates in work a year later, 48 are software engineers or data analysts. The other 52 spread thin across teaching, sales, accounting and a long tail of everything else.
About 15 hours in class a week, and at least 30 hours of problem sets on top of that. A problem set is a handful of hard puzzles you have to work out yourself.
Where people end up
What computer science graduates were doing a year after they finished, out of every 100 who had work.
- Software engineer or data analyst48%
- Teacher9%
- Salesperson7%
- Accountant or marketer6%
- Engineer or scientist4%
The other 26 of those 100 are doing work that none of these five names cover. 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.
What a week is like
You take four to six classes at once, which comes out to about 15 credit hours a semester. It is that same load every semester for four years: 120 credits, eight semesters, done.
About 15 of those hours are spent sitting in class. The other 30 are work you do on your own, two hours behind every hour you spend in a room. Call it 45 hours a week.
It is spread across seven days rather than stacked into five, so you can keep your evenings or you can keep your weekends, not usually both. What it does not leave is much slack in the weeks when two big things land on the same day.
A waking week is about 112 hours. This is the share of it the degree takes.
- In class15 hours
- Work on your own30 hours
- Yours67 hours
What those 45 hours are spent on.
with other people
Someone explains an idea to a full room. It is the smallest part of your week and the part everyone pictures when they picture a degree.
with other people
A smaller room with a teaching assistant, working through the thing the lecture just showed you while someone is there to ask.
on your ownthe hard part
Two or three a week, each a handful of hard puzzles you work out yourself rather than a chapter to read and answer questions on. You get stuck and you stay stuck until it clicks. This is the biggest block of your week and it is the one that decides whether you like this.
on your own
Going back over the lecture until the idea holds still, plus the maths classes that run alongside computer science for the first two years.
with other people
Two or three a term, mostly in the later years, where a piece of software has to work at the end rather than a page of answers being right.
- Computer science classes20%
- Math classes20%
- Everything else you still have to take60%
- Classes you pick yourself0%
One fifth of your first year is computer science. Another fifth is calculus. The rest is what everyone at the school has to take, and none of it is yours to choose.
How much do you make?
Two degrees with computer in the name can sit fifty thousand dollars apart. Computer science averages $107,009 four years out. Computer software and media applications, the degree covering web design, computer graphics and game simulation, averages $58,894.
Right out of college
$77,000
One year after finishing, the average computer science graduate earns $77,000, counting those in work and not back in school.
Midway through
$120,000
Between 35 and 45, the average computer science graduate earns $120,000.
At the height of it
$191,000
The best paid tenth of people doing computing work earn $191,000.
Where you go matters more here than in most majors. The bottom tenth of computer science programs land graduates at $74,917 and the top tenth at $144,178, close to double for the same words on the diploma.
The first three years out are the fastest climb on this site. $77,000 turns into $107,009.
The average money still owed on student loans
$22,055
The standard plan clears it in ten years.
Is this you?
The second year is the one that decides it. Intro classes hold your hand, then 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. That feeling is what the rest of the degree is made of. Out of every 100 people who start a computing degree, 59 have left the field within six years, more than any other science or engineering field.
Tap any that sound like you.
This is probably you if
Probably not you if
What people who did it say
tashoecraft
Hacker News, September 2019
"Software engineering for a large portion of open positions is a trade, it's not computer science."
ivenkys
Hacker News, November 2009
"If you don't want to code - you are wasting your time being a CS major."
seanmcdirmid
Hacker News, January 2025
"You aren't going to get far in CS if you aren't able to ace your basic calculus classes."
tnash
Hacker News, April 2012
"I dropped out after finishing 99% Computer Science and Engineering degree from OSU. I had two classes left but the senioritis was getting to me and I couldn't focus."
Questions people ask
- Is a computer science degree worth it?
- On money, yes, and by a lot. The average four years out is $107,009, and the average graduate aged 35 to 45 earns $120,000. The catch is that which program you pick swings the four year figure from $74,917 to $144,178.
- What can you do with a computer science degree?
- Building software is where most people land: 48 of every 100 employed graduates are software engineers or data analysts a year after they finish. Data, security, games and deciding what gets built all hire out of this major, and the other 52 spread across teaching, sales, accounting and a long tail of everything else.
- How many hours a week is a computer science degree?
- About 45 hours all in. Roughly 15 of those are in class and the other 30 are on your own. Most of that time goes on two or three problem sets a week, each one a short list of hard puzzles nobody hands you the method for.
- 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
- Median earnings one and four years out, loan debt, and how much programs vary: College Scorecard, field of study data, June 2026 release. Checked 2026-08-18.
- What computer science and math graduates were doing a year later: National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics table 505.40, 2015-16 graduates surveyed in 2017. Checked 2026-08-19.
- What share of each year is in the major, counted in credits: Arizona State University, published major map, 2024-2025. Checked 2026-08-19.
- How many people who start a computing degree leave the field: National Center for Education Statistics, STEM Attrition: College Students’ Paths Into and Out of STEM Fields (NCES 2014-001), figure 2. Checked 2026-08-19.
- How many years the standard loan plan runs: Code of Federal Regulations, title 34 section 685.208, the tiered standard repayment plan. Checked 2026-08-24.
- What one credit hour means in class time and work on your own: Code of Federal Regulations, title 34 section 600.2, the definition of a credit hour. Checked 2026-08-25.
- What graduates of this major earn between the ages of 35 and 45: Federal Reserve Bank of New York, The Labor Market for Recent College Graduates. Checked 2026-08-25.
- The top tenth of pay in computing and maths work, which the height estimate is built from: Bureau of Labor Statistics, occupational employment and wage statistics, 2025, read through the public data API. Checked 2026-08-25.
Careers this major feeds