Don't Just Take CS(E)

Choose Love. Choose Passion. Choose Curiosity.

From MIT Major Arcana. By Michelle Mo.

JEE results are out, and seat counselling begins today. That means thousands of Indian students, and their families, are facing a familiar question: Should I take a "good" branch at a "lesser" college or a "lesser" branch at a "better" one?

And more often than not, the “good” branch is assumed to be Computer Science (or its equally trendy cousins: AI, Data Science, Machine Learning, MNC etc.).

What is concerning is how the question is usually answered. Not by students, but by parents, relatives, and coaching teachers. focusing primarily on salary packages, news lines and trending job markets. While their intentions are good, this approach has led to a troubling pattern: students rushing toward Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or Data Science simply because "that's where the money is" or "that's what everyone's doing."

Which brings me to this: Don’t just take CSE. Or AI. Or Data Science. Don’t rush into these fields just because they’re hot right now.

This mindset has created a generation of reluctant programmers. Frankly, brilliant minds who should be designing bridges, building machines, solving chemical processes, or exploring the mysteries of physics, all stuck behind computer screens, coding for companies they don't care about, hoping for satisfaction that never comes.

Dear to-be engineers, Don’t Just Take CS(E).

Yes, I realise how hypocritical this sounds coming from someone whose own research is in Computer Science.

But the fact of the matter is CS is getting overcrowded and the median programmer is getting dumber and less passionate. This is a a global issue. 42 percent of MIT undergrads major in CS and a eerily similar trend is shown in India with 42.9% doing CS. You can’t convince me that half of all people like computers. This is leading to the branch being overcrowded by people forced to be there. People who like machines, cars, bridges and circuits; all coding computers hoping for some form of satisfaction.

It just won’t happen.

18 year olds shouldn't be expected to make life-altering decisions in a vacuum, only with hearsay and salary statistics.

So to help, I am joining up with friends to bring you upto speed on subjects you should think about.

We’ll will bring two (sometimes three) people in these other options: Mechanical, Electrical, Biotech, Civil, Chemical, Physics, Math, Biotech etc and yes, CS too and we will try to convince you to find what you love by telling you why we love these fields.

Why they chose it. Why they stayed. What they love. What’s hard. And what’s worth it.

The goal is simple: to help you see the full picture before you commit. Not to convince you away from CS, but to convince you toward something you actually love.

Every field of engineering exists because it solves real, important problems. The world needs passionate mechanical engineers to design sustainable cars, dedicated civil engineers to build bridges and dams, committed chemical engineers to develop cleaner and more efficient processes, bio-tech engineers to make vaccines and, yes, enthusiastic computer scientists to make better and faster computers. This is surely not an exhaustive list of what people do, and I am sure the guests will have a lot more to add.

Because at the end of the day, the world needs passionate engineers in every discipline, not python zombies in just one.

All the interviews will be uploaded on this youtube channel Don’t Just Take CS, as well as, in highlights, on Instagram.

Please share this post with anyone you know who might find it useful. A friend facing the same crossroads, a younger relative still in school considering engineering or even parents trying to guide their children through these decisions.

It might change their life, or at least make their choices clearer for them. Sometimes all it takes is one conversation, one perspective or one moment of clarity to help someone discover their true calling.