college-applications/ut-supps/why-major.md

# Why are you interested in the major you indicated as your first-choice major?
  Since 2020, I have often turned to random things to fill my time, one of which was learning how to program and create games, such as simple games in Scratch and a clicker game in HTML and JS. During my junior year I was introduced to competitive programming, through my school's computer science club. This was my first taste of Computer Science’s ability to solve real problems. At the time I saw it as just a hobby, discarding any thoughts of pursuing it in college for a major or afterwards as a career.  
  At work, I had to use an application called HockeyShift, an app for scoring hockey games, which had an interface for tracking shots and saves that annoyed me every time I used it. Instead of putting up with it, I started to make a Terminal User Interface (TUI) to replace it. At first, I wrote it in Python, using the Textual library for TUIs; however, Textual left me as unsatisfied as HockeyShift had, because of Textual’s limited widget and placement ability, along with the styling not matching the vibe I wanted. The summer after junior year, I had begun to use Linux and gained an interest in lower level programming, and I was fascinated with the power Linux gave me over every aspect of my computer. Because of how I enjoyed that total control, I decided to use a library in a lower level language that matched that power. I looked at C first, given its widespread use through the Linux kernel, but found it lacking in modern TUI libraries, so I settled on using Rust for the language and Ratatui for the library. As of now, the TUI is still being made, and currently has about 50% of the functionality of HockeyShift.  
  This was the first time I had worked with a compiled language, and compilers immediately interested me. The moment that hooked me was when Rust compiler rejected a piece of code I thought was fully sound, but ended up having several small type errors that would’ve likely gone unnoticed in Python and been a headache to fix. I was impressed and humbled. Building a tool for my own use, not for a contest, is when I realized CS was the right major for me, because of its versatility in being able to build the exact tool needed for the situation.  
  Computer Science at the University of Texas at Austin called out to me due to the courses offered within the Turing Scholars Honors program. In particular, the CS 439H course appeals to me because it contains one of my favorite topics I’d like to explore more within Computer Science: Operating Systems. Furthermore, I’m excited to hopefully have the opportunity to do the Computer Systems Concentration, specifically CS375 Compilers, as the next step in my adventure from higher level interpreted languages like Python, to compiled languages like C and Rust, to compilers and operating systems themselves.