Hey, tough choice! Personally I’d lean towards PPE. Primarily that’s driven by the high opportunity cost of another year in school. Which major you choose seems less important than finding something you love and doing good work in it a year sooner.
Two other factors: First, you can learn AI outside of the classroom fairly well, especially since you can already program. I’m an economics major who’s taken a few classes in CS and done a lot of self-study, and that’s been enough to work on some AI research projects. Second, policy is plausibly more important for AI safety than technical research. There’s been a lot of government focus on slowing down AI progress lately, while technical safety research seems like it will need more time to prepare for advanced AI. The fact that you won’t graduate for a few years mitigates this a bit — maybe priorities will have changed by the time you graduate.
What would you do during a year off? Is it studying PPE for one year? I think a lot of the value of education comes from signaling, so without a diploma to show for it this year of PPE might not be worth much. If there’s a job or scholarship or something, that might be more compelling. Some people would suggest self-study, but I’ve spent time working on my own projects at home, and personally I found it much less motivating and educational than being in school or working.
Those are just my quick impressions, don’t lean too much on anyone (including 80K!). You have to understand the motivations for a plan for yourself in order to execute it well. Good luck, always happy to chat about stuff.
Hey, thanks for your comment! I hadn’t really realised the extent to which someone can study full-time while also skilling up in research engineering—that definitely makes me feel more willing to go for PPE.
Re your third paragraph, I wouldn’t have a year off—it’d just be like doing a year of PPE, followed by three years of CS & philosophy. I do have a scholarship, and would do the first year of PPE anyway in case I didn’t get into CS & phil.
Either way, your first point does point me more in the direction of just sticking with PPE :)
Ah okay, if it doesn’t delay your graduation then I’d probably lean more towards CS. Self study can be great, but I’ve found classes really valuable too in getting more rigorous. Of course there’s a million factors I’m not aware of—best of luck in whichever you choose!
Hey, tough choice! Personally I’d lean towards PPE. Primarily that’s driven by the high opportunity cost of another year in school. Which major you choose seems less important than finding something you love and doing good work in it a year sooner.
Two other factors: First, you can learn AI outside of the classroom fairly well, especially since you can already program. I’m an economics major who’s taken a few classes in CS and done a lot of self-study, and that’s been enough to work on some AI research projects. Second, policy is plausibly more important for AI safety than technical research. There’s been a lot of government focus on slowing down AI progress lately, while technical safety research seems like it will need more time to prepare for advanced AI. The fact that you won’t graduate for a few years mitigates this a bit — maybe priorities will have changed by the time you graduate.
What would you do during a year off? Is it studying PPE for one year? I think a lot of the value of education comes from signaling, so without a diploma to show for it this year of PPE might not be worth much. If there’s a job or scholarship or something, that might be more compelling. Some people would suggest self-study, but I’ve spent time working on my own projects at home, and personally I found it much less motivating and educational than being in school or working.
Those are just my quick impressions, don’t lean too much on anyone (including 80K!). You have to understand the motivations for a plan for yourself in order to execute it well. Good luck, always happy to chat about stuff.
Hey, thanks for your comment! I hadn’t really realised the extent to which someone can study full-time while also skilling up in research engineering—that definitely makes me feel more willing to go for PPE.
Re your third paragraph, I wouldn’t have a year off—it’d just be like doing a year of PPE, followed by three years of CS & philosophy. I do have a scholarship, and would do the first year of PPE anyway in case I didn’t get into CS & phil.
Either way, your first point does point me more in the direction of just sticking with PPE :)
Ah okay, if it doesn’t delay your graduation then I’d probably lean more towards CS. Self study can be great, but I’ve found classes really valuable too in getting more rigorous. Of course there’s a million factors I’m not aware of—best of luck in whichever you choose!