I am a real newbie when it comes to understanding UX so bear with me.
I heard about UX research and design online and I understand that it is something you have to build up to and you don’t necessarily need any particular major to get into it. I am majoring in biological sciences right now because I thought I wanted to go into dentistry or medicine (I’m going to be a freshman in college) but I’m not so sure anymore. I told my dad who is a QA computer engineer if this was a good Idea and he said that I should just do computer science and programming instead of going for UX because “there’s no openings or job market for it” and for every one UX researcher there are 10 engineers working with them and “its all programming anyway”. From what I understand UX researchers do have some programming knowledge but do not need an overt "vocabulary"
of it. Is he right or or am I? Is there any want/need for UX researchers, should I give up?
no offence to the good man, but he is full of rubbish 
Definitely a need for UX researchers, and programming is usually not involved, at least not for researchers.
Haha. What he said ^
I’d never want to insult someone’s dad, but yours is spreading myths that we’re working VERY hard dispel.
UX is an emerging industry, absolutely. And yes, there are UXers that code (but only because many organisations aren’t yet mature enough to understand the value of UX as a defined discipline).
If you love code, be an engineer for sure. There will always be jobs
If you love UX, become a UXer. You’ll spend way too many hours at work to regret your choice.
If I had it to do all over, I’d major in compute science and minor in psychology or user experience design. I’d focus my study on automation and artificial intelligence, which is shaping up to be the primary areas of growth in the near future.
I can’t speak about your neck of the woods, but it the large majority of the world, UX is very much a viable and emerging field. There are more job openings than can reasonably be filled by experienced professionals in some areas.
Knowing how to code, however, can be very helpful, but it’s certainly not a requirement for UX pros. For instance, in my current role as a UX Engineer, they don’t allow me in the code base, but having a very good understanding HTML, CSS, JS, and the basics of how our front end interacts with our back end helps me create designs that are viable within our technology stack as well as understand why some pieces won’t. It helps me communicate on the same level with our developers, and has given me some “street cred” with our development team.
Additionally, having coding chops means that you have at least two possible career paths-- one in development, and one in UX-- with other options available as well. It’ll help keep the most amount of doors open going down your career path.
Another item of note is that while there are certainly a lot of jobs in both dev and UX, there are certainly more developer jobs than UX jobs. What’s more, I have some suspicion, though no evidence, that dev jobs are likely far more recession-proof than UX gigs, meaning greater overall career security through even the most difficult economic times.