Long story made short: I'm going back to school to hopefully get a degree that will prepare me for a career that will actually pay my bills. However, I have no idea what so ever what that career may be. I had thought about going towards programming but to be completely honest, I know pretty much nothing about it. I've just always been able to pick up things with computers relatively easily and figured that may be a good start. However, the more I read up on it, the more it sounds like it takes a strong handle on some serious mathematics.

My problem is that I absolutely abhor math and math doesn't like me much either.

So give it to me straight: If I struggle with something as simple as algebra (not that I can't do it, I just really don't like it) should I be looking into another field?

Like I said - I have no idea what I want to do (I'm only 30.. nothing like starting late) so just trying to narrow my options and ideas down.

And is IT anything at all like Computer Science? Is it extremely mathematically grounded too?

CIS, at least at my university, doesn't require any math at all.

CS requires Calc 1 and 2, Stats, Physics 1 and 2, and advanced electives from math including Matrix Algebra, Linear Algebra, and other such things.

You basically take one math course every semester for the entire 4 year degree. If you weren't used to math before that, you'll definitely be used to it afterwards. Even so, the actual amount of math you use outside the math courses isn't really any at all, although that varies from college to college. Some places are pretty heavy on the theoretical aspects of the degree, but my university is much more interested in practical applications. The most math we use relates to scalability issues with programs.

Computer Science and IT are pretty different.....computer science deals more with the low level computer workings (hardware, assembly code etc) and IT with higher level software development and general computing.

I personally am currently studying IT, and here all the Programming courses are the hardest coures you can do....sitting down for a week, 6 hours a day to work on a large programming assignment is pretty normal. I'm currently doing graphics programming which requires a lot of maths, but most types of progarmming are pretty maths light.


The more important issue is how hard a worker are you? I noticed most people in university dont last cause they simply don't put in the time.

I'll also be taking a CIS course at the end of the year. To prepare I'm taking a part time Introduction to Software Development and I'm watching some videos about C# online. From my very beginner perspective, it doesn't seem like there's that much complex math involved in the coding side.

Yeah, IT and computer science are quite different. IT doesn't have much maths in it.

But IT is more along the lines of networks and databases, right?

(Excuse my ignorance... I've spent the last 12 years with my head under a rock. lol)

Before you make a decision, watch this video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcWRc1wK3gM

In this video, John Carmack is accepting an award from NASA for competing and winning a competition in aerospace and rocketry (rocket science, for the simple minded). And right off the bat, he points out that rocketry doesn't even compare to the complexity of the programming he does at id software. That should tell you something: Computer science is harder than rocket science.

Now of course not every programming gig is as challenging as the stuff John does, but a surprising majority of it truly is. I've spent ten years as a computer programmer, and even though I haven't even begun school yet I easily have an order of magnitude more experience (and sometimes even raw knowledge) as the latest CS grad. So take my word for it - programming is really hard.

Also, even if you manage to get a CS degree you might find that in the field, you're really not any good at what you do. A lot of courses in CS just give you a shoddy bearing in a handful of languages and a smattering of various coding principles that are more often than not too specific to give you any good perspective on the bigger picture of what you're doing. Most of the exercises often boil down to "read some text from a file, use a for() loop to collect some characters and spit them out to another file" rather than anything practical, so you don't get much experience designing big, complex systems or using things like repositories to manage your projects.

Now, I'm not exactly trying to discourage you. If you think you can do this, then go ahead. But if you really want to succeed in computer science, you must have a serious amount of patience and dedication, not just high intelligence and an affiliation with electronics.

IT is a lot of things including, but not limited to: intrusion detection, security networks, data storage, backups, archival, disaster recovery, database administration, systems administration, helpdesk, telecommunications, and telecommuting.

And this is why I suggest to get into any sort of research opportunities you can. I did some research this semester with the Java Debugger Interface and that gave me a lot of experience with Java, which I had been lacking as it isn't exactly my language of choice when it comes to most programming projects. I also got paid a pretty penny.

Being a programmer is about taking initiative. You must always be willing to learn.

That's all I needed to know. Your last sentence answered my questions completely. I know I can do it, I don't know that I actually want to do it. The fact that it's hard work doesn't bother me, it's that I don't think I'd enjoy it enough to be driven to put that much effort into it. I'd be a terrible, terrible programmer. I'd actually likely do better as a rocket scientist... lol at least that interests me. I'm just in a difficult position of trying to figure out a career late in life and most of the careers that have any type of security are just not for me. I'm germaphobic - no medical career. I hate math - no tech career (or my dream career of astrophysics). I just don't want to waste any potential I may have for something... too bad I have no idea what that potential might be. lol

Oh well, that's three things off my list. I'll figure something out eventually... I hope...

EDIT: Thanks so much you guys for your answers! May seem strange to take the advice of strangers, but at least you'll give it to me straight. I appreciate it!