Current Events > What's a Computer Science major like?

(+) Yeah! (+)

If you're seriously considering majoring in CS, I would highly recommend this book (aside from any standard programming language book if you don't know how to program yet) to give you a watered down prep for what you will thoroughly analyze in your ~junior year in an Algorithms course

https://www.amazon.com/Narasimha-Karumanchi-Data-Structures-Algorithms/dp/B00RWSY1MQ

Algorithms is probably the standard weed out course for computer science where you will need to know how to evaluate and prove the runtime and memory requirements of many different algorithms, and know if certain problems are NP complete. I think that's the first time dynamic programming is also explored in detail.

Computer science is all happy go lucky up until this course. Up to this point, it's about learning the syntax of a few different programming languages and the strengths/weaknesses of each language (spoilers: Java sucks). And then also standard software engineering stuff.

After or around the time you're concerned about Algorithms, you'll also be introduced to the second weed out class that focuses on learning Assembly or some other very low level language where you'll most likely have to program a microcontroller. This is the next class after Digital Logic type course.

Source: I have a bachelors (CS), masters (CSE), and PhD (CS-related research area) and am personally familiar with the CS curriculum of the following schools: Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame, USC, UCSD, and some of what they teach at Maryland
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MacadamianNut3 posted...

If you're seriously considering majoring in CS, I would highly recommend this book (aside from any standard programming language book if you don't know how to program yet) to give you a watered down prep for what you will thoroughly analyze in your ~junior year in an Algorithms course

https://www.amazon.com/Narasimha-Karumanchi-Data-Structures-Algorithms/dp/B00RWSY1MQ

Algorithms is probably the standard weed out course for computer science where you will need to know how to evaluate and prove the runtime and memory requirements of many different algorithms, and know if certain problems are NP complete. I think that's the first time dynamic programming is also explored in detail.

Computer science is all happy go lucky up until this course. Up to this point, it's about learning the syntax of a few different programming languages and the strengths/weaknesses of each language (spoilers: Java sucks). And then also standard software engineering stuff.

After or around the time you're concerned about Algorithms, you'll also be introduced to the second weed out class that focuses on learning Assembly or some other very low level language where you'll most likely have to program a microcontroller. This is the next class after Digital Logic type course.

Source: I have a bachelors (CS), masters (CSE), and PhD (CS-related research area) and am personally familiar with the CS curriculum of the following schools: Alabama, Georgia, Notre Dame, USC, UCSD, and some of what they teach at Maryland

I'm starting CS at Georgia, what do you think of their program?

Serious question, but do people ever decide to become a CS major without any background or knowledge of what they're getting into?

I think my viewpoint is probably rather skewed - I had been programming since I was 5 and was great at math, and aced all of my CS courses through university, but I never met anyone in any of those CS courses that didn't have some kind of background or know what they were getting into.
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Well I guess I should have said I was personally familiar with their program in 2006 and 2008 so if anything changed since then, I dunno.

Back then it followed the standard layout as the other schools I know about, but it did seem slightly more rigorous than what I was doing at Alabama at the time. Especially given the involvement of freshman and sophomore students in areas like artificial intelligence so early in their undergraduate career. I forgot the computer architecture side of their curriculum.

None of the places I mentioned except for UCSD are well known for their CS program so you'll probably have roughly the same experience as I did.
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Aizret posted...

Serious question, but do people ever decide to become a CS major without any background or knowledge of what they're getting into?

Funny you mention this because at the time I was applying to schools, I wanted to major in Architecture. If I could have afforded to attend Georgia Tech instead of going to Alabama since they were throwing money at anyone with decent grades, I wouldn't have gone into CS

I was always interested in both architecture and CS though, just architecture more at the time, but I did have 4 years (well 3 since nobody learned anything from our shitty teacher in freshman year) of Java (basura) programming when I started college and took AP courses.

If TC has zero programming experience it's gonna be a rough couple of months of freshman year. I had to teach myself C++ since that's what was used in my first class, but I was able to get familiar with it during the first weekend of the semester due to my Java (MGSV) background

I think the usual answer is "Because I want to learn how to make video games" and those types rarely make it to the end of sophomore year before changing majors
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Harpie posted...

What's a Computer Science major like?

I hear it's very Computer Science-y
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MacadamianNut3 posted...

Aizret posted...

Serious question, but do people ever decide to become a CS major without any background or knowledge of what they're getting into?

Funny you mention this because at the time I was applying to schools, I wanted to major in Architecture. If I could have afforded to attend Georgia Tech instead of going to Alabama since they were throwing money at anyone with decent grades, I wouldn't have gone into CS

I was always interested in both architecture and CS though, just architecture more at the time, but I did have 4 years (well 3 since nobody learned anything from our shitty teacher in freshman year) of Java (basura) programming when I started college and took AP courses.

If TC has zero programming experience it's gonna be a rough couple of months of freshman year. I had to teach myself C++ since that's what was used in my first class, but I was able to get familiar with it during the first weekend of the semester due to my Java (MGSV) background

I think the usual answer is "Because I want to learn how to make video games" and those types rarely make it to the end of sophomore year before changing majors

Ah, I guess that makes sense. I skipped the first year of my classes, so never really met anyone that didn't have some kind of a background. I was kind of thinking that with all of the "learn programming in 10 days" and such BS ads out there now, that there was more of an influx of people that start the major with 0 background, hoping to be able to do everything immediately.
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Aizret posted...

Serious question, but do people ever decide to become a CS major without any background or knowledge of what they're getting into?

I think my viewpoint is probably rather skewed - I had been programming since I was 5 and was great at math, and aced all of my CS courses through university, but I never met anyone in any of those CS courses that didn't have some kind of background or know what they were getting into.

Never programmed before uni and sucked at math. I was always "good with computers" though

I still suck at math but i can code stuff alright. Not great but eh
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