Basically. I'm a sophomore at Stony Brook University and I was doing biomed but now I think I want to be a software engineer so, I'm trying to get into the Computer Engineering program at my school.
I did research and I learned that software developers/software engineers are growing in demand and it's a very lucrative field. My father has been urging me to pursue Chemical Engineering b/c it's very lucrative and chem engineers often work for oil companies and make a lot of money. I kept telling my dad that I've read the stats for the two professions and their salaries are in the same ballpark and I don't want to do chem E b/c I feel like I'm too far behind coursework wise and it'll take me 5-6 years to complete. I don't think I can handle such a long term commitment. Then he told me that I'm making a big mistake and I won't realize it until I'm noticeably older. So, to combat what he was saying, I looked up more stats. I learned that from 2010 to 2020 there will be an influx of 1800 more jobs. However for software developers/engineers, there will be an influx of 270,900 more jobs. This is one of the main reasons I chose the latter. Although both professions have similar salaries, the latter is in more demand.
In sum, my dad told me that he wants me to live a great life and be financially secure and he doesn't believe I can achieve that as a software developer and that Chemical Engineers command more respect in society. He believes that computer engineering is a saturated field and the fact that I'm a nigerian american male won't help me much either. Honestly I want to be able to make a decision that will allow me to live a rather upper class life. So, I would really appreciate your input guys.