CS majors

[Q]

Thank god for the internet, I just learned in 15 minutes of Google what he took an hour and 15 minutes to attempt to teach.

He was just showing us how to convert binary to decimal, decimal to binary, but was horrid at explaining it. It's easy, internet > professor.

 

[txrandom]

My Compiler professor scared us today. I think I'm going to drop it and take something easier... plus I don't like leaving school at 5:10.

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: Quintox
Thank god for the internet, I just learned in 15 minutes of Google what he took an hour and 15 minutes to attempt to teach.

He was just showing us how to convert binary to decimal, decimal to binary, but was horrid at explaining it. It's easy, internet > professor.

rofl. Man, the fun has just begun!!!

 

[finite automaton]

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: Quintox
Thank god for the internet, I just learned in 15 minutes of Google what he took an hour and 15 minutes to attempt to teach.

He was just showing us how to convert binary to decimal, decimal to binary, but was horrid at explaining it. It's easy, internet > professor.

rofl. Man, the fun has just begun!!!

In my experience, against a teacher that has trouble turning his/her thoughts into english words, the internet is GENERALLY a much better learning tool.

Don't sweat it. If I can do it, anyone can. (Edit: I have four classes to go)

 

[Q]

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: Quintox
Thank god for the internet, I just learned in 15 minutes of Google what he took an hour and 15 minutes to attempt to teach.

He was just showing us how to convert binary to decimal, decimal to binary, but was horrid at explaining it. It's easy, internet > professor.

rofl. Man, the fun has just begun!!!

You making fun of me or saying that profs suck and it's going to suck?

 

[mAdMaLuDaWg]

Originally posted by: Quintox

Originally posted by: mAdMaLuDaWg

Originally posted by: Quintox
Thank god for the internet, I just learned in 15 minutes of Google what he took an hour and 15 minutes to attempt to teach.

He was just showing us how to convert binary to decimal, decimal to binary, but was horrid at explaining it. It's easy, internet > professor.

rofl. Man, the fun has just begun!!!

You making fun of me or saying that profs suck and it's going to suck?

Things are going to get tougher and tougher. There are always going to be Professors who suck, I don't think anyone can claim that all their Profs were awesome.

Yeah, and the int3rw3b is your friend... just don't plaigarize no matter what.

 

[FleshLight]

Well for CS and engineering, usually half the people drop out of the program and change their majors by the 4th year.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

In my experience, the profs in CS suck. They do expect you to know more than the basics of computer use. You are expected to have a knowledge of at least one computer programming language and be able to draw logical conclusions from that language to apply to the language being taught. They don't care how many fall by the wayside because, in the words of one of my profs, "I don't care if you understand the concepts because there are twenty more ready to take your place." By the way, he was one of the better profs I had.

The TA's were even worse. They never gave exercises geared towards teaching the concepts discussed in lecture and their reviews were a joke. I attended one of the reviews before the final in my structures and algorithm class in which they were teaching material that was never covered during the semester. When questioned about it being on the final they replied, "probably not but, you should always be open to learn new things." I said sorry, I thought this was a review and left.

 

[thepd7]

Originally posted by: ViviTheMage
If you like logic, you will like CS/engineering...

fixed

 

[JDub02]

I majored in Comp. Eng. I can't say it was extremely difficult. It came easy to me. I wish I would have gone another route. Wound up being a code monkey for a few years and hated it. Now functioning as a mech/nuke engineer. So much better.

 

[oddyager]

CS itself wasn't mind bogglingly hard but the math requirements were a pain in the behind. I was at Purdue - WL.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Quintox
I am afraid that I won't be able to handle CS. I want to learn / major in it but it seems too hard. It seems like the profs expect you to know stuff even in the first CS class.

What are your experiences, suggestions? I could minor in CS, but the only practical major then would be Business Admin, which is a good major but doesn't interest me class wise.

Some things I am interested in besides CS is History and sometimes English, but both of those are useless. So did any of you not really feel comfortable but once you took some classes it got easier/more manageable?

TIA

Quite a few people got into CSC because they liked gaming and figured they'll become game programmers. That would not be a good reason to get into CSC. First you need aptitude, then you need perseverance. There is a lot of weeding in CSC. My particular year was brutal, first year course had 4 session of 200 people. In my session, 80% didn't make it to the final exam. I don't remember how many passed the course. The weeding continues over the next 3 years.

One big thing about college that people don't seem to grasp is this : you go to lecture to make the stuff you read before the lecture comprehensible/clearer. Lectures are essentially extra help.

 

[BurnItDwn]

I started to learn to program in BASIC when I was 6. My sophmore year of high school, after I got a job, I built myself my first system, I built a Cyrix machine because it was dirt cheap and I was on a budget and I didn't know just how terrible they were (this was 1996 before AT existed. My "P200+" was a good amount faster than the 486 Dx 33, but it was essentially, just a 486 clocked at 166mhz .... Sucked compared to a buddies P133 that was OC'd to 150)
In high school, I took pretty much all the computer classes I could (Computer science, Computer Science AP)

I dropped out of college after 4 semesters because I didn't like going to school any more.

 

[JJChicken]

Originally posted by: Quintox
I am afraid that I won't be able to handle CS. I want to learn / major in it but it seems too hard. It seems like the profs expect you to know stuff even in the first CS class.

What are your experiences, suggestions? I could minor in CS, but the only practical major then would be Business Admin, which is a good major but doesn't interest me class wise.

Some things I am interested in besides CS is History and sometimes English, but both of those are useless. So did any of you not really feel comfortable but once you took some classes it got easier/more manageable?

TIA

If you want a social life, leave CS. NOW. do psychology or history (i.e. study the feminist movement). and buy a Mac. that's always a hit with the ladies.

 

[edro]

Computer Engineering is half CS, half EE.
I really enjoyed the EE portion, but the CS portion was absolute hell for me (except the first few classes).

My profession is in electrical now.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Quintox
Thank god for the internet, I just learned in 15 minutes of Google what he took an hour and 15 minutes to attempt to teach.

He was just showing us how to convert binary to decimal, decimal to binary, but was horrid at explaining it. It's easy, internet > professor.

Err, the TAs are usually more useful than the prof. Your student council doesn't put out a prof/course review book?

 

[Chris27]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer
In my experience, the profs in CS suck. They do expect you to know more than the basics of computer use. You are expected to have a knowledge of at least one computer programming language and be able to draw logical conclusions from that language to apply to the language being taught. They don't care how many fall by the wayside because, in the words of one of my profs, "I don't care if you understand the concepts because there are twenty more ready to take your place." By the way, he was one of the better profs I had.

The TA's were even worse. They never gave exercises geared towards teaching the concepts discussed in lecture and their reviews were a joke. I attended one of the reviews before the final in my structures and algorithm class in which they were teaching material that was never covered during the semester. When questioned about it being on the final they replied, "probably not but, you should always be open to learn new things." I said sorry, I thought this was a review and left.

Damn, your school sucks...At least not all schools are like this.

 

[Aikouka]

I found CS to be rather easy overall. Something you should find out before you choose the college is how good the program is and how good the professors are. The example given before about the professors literally offering little to no help is pretty horrible, but that's something you should try to find out before going (but unfortunately, not everyone knows what they want to major in). Where I went to college, they were more than helpful when it came to helping you understand the concepts or different aspects of the language... although, I probably would've been fine in your classes as I had been programming for years before I went to college .

 

[Doodoo]

Alot of students at my school dropped CS and went to IS or IT because they couldn't handle CS.

 

[ivan2]

Some people just don't get discrete math at all, for those CS is impossible. For the rest, CS isn't hard, the hard part is to be patient and confident enough to sit through the hours to write and debug your code, many people gave up right before the finish line.
And also in my college's case, the first 2 classes were used to filter out about 1/2 of the people who wants to get into the major, and hope that the remaining half will be someone who are better. I don't know if that's still the case, but if you think your classes are too hard, it probably is...

 

[qaa541]

The first few classes (almost the first year's worth) of classes were weeder classes. There were a lot of people in CS at the time who "liked to play videogames" and that was why they became CS majors. Those people got swatted by the giant flyswatter that is CS. We went from 4 lectures of hundreds of people each (first quarter) down to 1 lecture of maybe 100-150 people by the end of the first year (I went to school during the big influx of students from the tech boom).

I will tell you a little secret though, if you can get through the 1st year of classes, the rest of CS is MUCH easier --- especially upper division classes. But those classes build upon the first year classes, they just go into way more depth. If you don't understand the first year classes, you will be hosed. In my opinion, it is the upper level math classes that will kill you, not the CS classes themselves. For me, the hardest CS class was probably the series on Algorithm Analysis. I just really didnt get it as well as everything else in CS.

Just to give you some perspective though, I have been playing with computers ever since I was like 6 or 7. I knew computers were my destiny, but I wasn't quite sure exactly how. I thought software engineering was alright but it wasn't my passion. But after my CS undergrad (and taking those upper division courses), I know my place in life is in Networking/Telecom. I am two years into grad school and I work for a big tech company doing IPTV!

It helps immensely to make friends in class and to help others. I helped my best friend in college pass the first class of college in CS. Later, that same friend started helping me with all the algorithm analysis and upper division math classes that I was having trouble with. There is nothing I remember more than getting a beer with my friends at the on campus pub! (BTW - that same friend is now going to law school to do Intellectual Property law -- he didn't want to do programming either!)

 

[AstroManLuca]

CS is hard. There's always some jerk camping with a deagle.

 

[Asparagus]

There were certain classes that I thought were moderately easy and then others that were really difficult - it really depends on the way your brain is wired. The math was difficult (CS majors were required to get a minor in math at my college), but I survived. If you've taken a couple classes and really can't stand it, then I would suggest changing your major. If you feel that the classes are just "too difficult", you may just have a small learning curve that you need to get over. Once you catch on to the basics, the rest makes more sense.

FWIW - I was able to get through it with a 3.6 GPA...and I'm a GIRL!!! Gasp!!! :Q

 

[PingSpike]

I think part of the problem...and this is problem with math in my experience, is that teachers that know math/CS (and therefore have the background required to teach it) and can actually teach are hard to find. They're two different skill sets, that have to be combined. And they can probably make more money with just one of those skills elsewhere. So, you end up with a lot of professors that may know their stuff, but are about as effective at communicating it as your average bullfrog.

I always remember my math teachers as terrible. I had one in college that was very good and completely changed my perspective and opinion on math in general. While I didn't take CS as a major, I had a fair number of poor teachers in my programming related classes. Many had no real teaching experience and it showed.

 

[Q]

I've been talking to random people on facebook about courses, and it is helping a lot to get an understanding of what it is like.

The only alternative I have to CS is something in business, such as Marketing or Business Admin - which are more....broad but too generic IMO.