Hey so I need opinions on what you guys will do if you were in my shoes. What would you rather take as a elective?
If you are able to take an CS elective (JAVA GUI) that isn’t “as” useful in the industry but is free as phuk A but it’s Java GUI which i probably wont be using it much in the workplace or…
Take a CS elective that is more relevant to the workplace but is a hard subject and risk of not getting an A.
Thoughts?
By “Java GUI”, do you mean Java Swing? I’ve never seen a college offer that.
What is the class that’s more relevant to the workplace?
Artificial Intelligence. Though not required, people highly advised me to not attempt the course until I’ve taken Algorithm Analysis. I’m leaning towards taking it anyways and giving a shot. But I just want some more realistic thoughts before I end up wasting my time and money.
It’s hard to give advice without seeing the course descriptions. AI can be taught in so many different kinds of ways. I never took a pure AI class, but I tried reading a few books about it a long time ago and they were overly theoretical and pretty dull. On the other hand, I’ve taken some online machine learning classes and they were a fascinating application of AI. In either case, AI and machine learning aren’t beginner subjects.
While Java GUI software like Swing isn’t used much anymore, one reason I can think of for taking the Java GUI class is that a lot of the concepts you learn are applicable to GUI development in general. Not saying you necessarily should take it, but it’s not totally worthless.
I would strongly urge you to take AI here. There’s a ton of stuff on that front being adopted by industry right now at high levels that even a basic overview course will give you a jumping off point for more later rather than having to learn an entire field from scratch. You don’t need a GUI class to have a jumping off point for working with front-end frameworks and libraries in various languages.
Algorithms would be important to take before it - you should take that as soon as possible. Taken concurrently would be a lot but would be helpful I think.
If you can’t do that, take anything but the GUI class. While I agree it’s not totally worthless, it’s pretty darn close. You’ll learn 95% of it by working on other things in college before graduation or in internships. No one will care about the A you got in it - they’ll ask what CS skills you have. Adding AI or another complex area in CS would be much more useful.
FYI: As long as your GPA is over 3.0, you’re not closing many doors. A select few will look for 3.5, and that’s it. After your first job, your GPA likely won’t even make it onto your resume. I don’t see a challenging course as much of a risk here.
Those were well thought-out responses. You guys are right. In the end, people hire me whether I got the knowledge and capable of getting the job done. Though GUI is not totally useless, it’s something much easier to pick up on my own time than trying to learn AI on my own.
Never been such a pussy ever in my life. Especially for something I’m passionate about. Going ham on that AI and am going to ace it. Thanks you two.