<p>yeah, I think everyone would think that CS courses are popular. </p>
<p>WRT agenda, I was referring to your comment saying that since not everyone taking the course didn’t become CS majors that it “implies serious attrition”. Or did you think that everyone in the past who took popular introductory courses like chemistry, economics and bio were majoring in those fields?</p>
<p>Agree with collegedad…what does it mean that so many Stanford students (graduate and undergraduate alike) like to try out the most “popular” class at Stanford called CS106A…it means just that…it is “popular”…with any and all majors who want a taste of computer science for which Stanford is so famous for…</p>
<p>…what does it mean that so many Harvard students take “Justice” course every year and STATS 104 becoming the most popular as well…</p>
<p>…I can assure you that most Stanford students will not graduate with a degree in computer science nor will most Harvard students become lawyers or statisticians just because they took “these” classes…</p>
<p>…please UCBerkeley…what is your agenda?</p>
<p>Weird huh?
Stanford not just creates a course, but has the profs who are rated excellent at teaching it.
It is so popular that tons of non-technical people not just take it, but enjoy it and it has a strong reputation on campus.
But since not all of them become CS majors some people think it “implies serious attrition”.</p>
<p>Yea…and from what I understand many of the Stanford students…particularly non-CS/techy majors really enjoy the class because of two famous teachers Keith Schwarz and Mehran Sahami…</p>
<p>…they bring their joy and love of computer science to “all” Stanford students…and it is very infectious…</p>
<p>…some of the best reviews in Courserank were given by humanities/fuzzy majors who took the class for “fun”…after all, this class is not a requirement for most majors…</p>
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<p>Hmm, I was afraid this might be true, but…if I switch majors again it’ll put me more behind. Anyone else have any ideas on this?</p>
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<p>Basically the programming assignments were designed and meant to be done as individual assignments, not group projects. Considering most classmates were lost to varying extents and the risks of potentially violating the honor code, if we needed help/questions, we asked the designated course assistant(s) who were advanced CS majors who excelled in both the CS courses and tutoring. </p>
<p>I think the collaboration was more the case for later more advanced courses once one gets toward the end of the intro courses.</p>
<p>Sinkorswim, personally I don’t really see this as a bubble though all business are cyclical to some extent. I think having another marketable skill is one possible way to go. Learn accounting, take statistics, learn a foreign language…</p>
<p>Mathmom, I see, that makes sense. I always thought the main goal of CS / engineering was mainly to learn problem-solving skills, which was marketable in itself, even to jobs not requiring specifically Java, C++, etc</p>
<p>I would strongly suggest to any student who is interested in computers that they go into information security. The field is growing by leaps and bounds and it is one area that companies do not want to outsource because it involves keeping their data out of others’ hands. Not only is it very interesting but there are a multitude of different types of things you can do, from highly technical to administrative.</p>
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<p>Why would you have to spend hours in a CS lab these days? My son does his CS assignments on his laptop in his dorm room, connecting to the lab via the Internet as needed and using Google to search forums when he needs answers. When he’s designing a game for a class, he’ll pop into the lab at the end to test his project for speed, due to the lag over the Internet, but otherwise he just submits his project from his dorm room.</p>
<p>S used to hang out in the lab to work with folks on ICPC prep and to meet young women. It worked. :D</p>
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<p>Apparently my son prioritizes time efficiency over creative multi-tasking. ;)</p>
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<p>Wouldn’t have worked in most intro CS courses my friends and I were in during the mid-late '90s. Not only were the M/F ratios heavily skewed male…even at my LAC, most students were too occupied with trying to program, debug, and complete their programming assignments before the deadline while working around computer lab hours and computer breakdowns. </p>
<p>Granted, back then, many undergrads still didn’t have computers of their own or had ones which didn’t meet minimum system requirements to run the programming software/operating systems at a reasonable speed.</p>