15-112 or 15-110 Computer class for Freshman?

<p>My son will be freshman in the fall and I have heard rumors that 15-112 can be quite taxing. He is not a SCS major but will in the MCS. He has had some Java and took AP Computer Science this year in HS. </p>

<p>I heard 15-110 is more programming which he would like, and 15-112 is more introduction to computer science and programming at a faster pace. He is planning to take a heavy loas as it is. If he will not major or minor in computer science does it matter which one he takes? How hard is 15-112?</p>

<p>I didn’t take AP CS before CMU but had some programming experience and found that 15-112 was hard but manageable. I would totally recommend taking 112 over 110, David Kosbie is one of CMU’s most beloved professors and taking a class with him was one of the most rewarding experiences of freshman year for me. Honestly though, your son can sign up initially for 112 and if he finds it too difficult one or two lectures in, he can always switch to 110. </p>

<p>Hi Keysmash,</p>

<p>Could you describe what you mean by “hard but manageable”. I have heard most students who take the class drown.</p>

<p>Hi MCG1, I’m currently an Information Systems major who took both 110 and 112 this year. 110 is designed to introduce non CS/engineering majors to computing and its known to be significantly easier than 112, however I’ve heard they’ve amped up the difficulty this semester. 112 is known to be one of the hardest classes for freshman alongside intro to ECE (18100) and Concepts of Math (21127), the latter your son might end up taking because it’s required by a lot of majors in MCS. Kosbie is known to be really tough, but he rewards hard work. 112 is almost completely about teaching programming and is more technical than 110, which is why more engineers take it. I wouldn’t recommend taking 112 with a lot of other classes because it normally ends up taking your whole weekend to do programming assignments, and later on in the semester when term projects are assigned it becomes nonstop 112. Like KEYSMASH said, your son can take 112 and switch into 110 if he wants. Most MCS kids end up taking 110 in order fulfill the MCS computing requirement, but some of my MCS friends who are more serious about minoring or double majoring in CS take 112. I took AP computer science in high school and received the credit for 110 and 112, but decided to take both just because I heard they were great classes to take, and 112 ended up really strengthening my foundations in CS. If your son is not interested in going further into computer science, then I would recommend taking 110. Just as a personal opinion however, I think 112 could be really helpful if you son is a Math or Physics major, as later on those majors have computational branches/tracks that he might be interested in. </p>

<p>Thank you Liguid Bunn.
I’ll make sure to let my son know what his options are as he is majoring in Math. However, he is thinking about taking Concepts of Math and Matrices in the Fall so taking 112 might be too much for his first semester. He has not epxressed any interst yet in minoring in CS but who knows. He can always take 112 the next semester.</p>

<p>Generally speaking 15110 is the kind of introductory CS course for people who are not keen on exploring a CS career further. Actually you don’t need to take it since you have AP CS; you can just get units straight away if you got a 4 or 5 on the AP.</p>

<p>15112 is what you should do if you wish to go further. It is taught by a former Microsoft Project Manager and uses Python. ( in fact you might be able to trade AP CS for 112 too, I just can’t remember…) It’s quite intense, the professor quite awesome and Python quite useful as a tool for mathematical operations and statistical analysis. Though the workload is notorious. " You know what CMU means after taking 15112."</p>

<p>So it’s really dependent on your son. I am pretty sure he can graduate without taking a single CS course, but I doubt you should let slip the world’ s best CS education experience now that you have access to it. You can always register for it and drop if you find it to be too hard, after all. </p>

<p>Keepyourshirton,
Thanks for the advise. I have no doubt my son will take some CS courses it’s just a timing thing with him. </p>

<p>If your son is good at computer science and confident in his abilities, and got a good 4 or 5 then he should already have credit for 15-112. 15-112 is an intro course and covers largely the same material as what he did in AP computer science. Unless he’s interested in reviewing material he has already done, he should skip 15-110 and 15-112 completely and just take his AP credit for them. A more appropriate course for him would be 15-122.</p>