Thanks for the responses. Yeah, I do have prior programming experience and my academic advisor told me that I can be placed directly into 280. I am taking that in addition to 203 for this semester. I do have interest in taking 381, but I would like to wait until after I finish both 370 and 281 first before considering it. I also heard from another CS student in his senior year that 381 is very intense. My academic advisor also told me that I should wait until my senior year before I consider taking any MDE courses. My only concern is that if 381 is as intense as you guys say it is, then what options are available for me to take that can be considered “filler” classes to fulfill my full-time requirements? I would like to keep my semester credits as low as possible while staying eligible for full-time financial aid. I’m taking 12 this semester just to adjust to the workload at this university and have enough time outside of class to partake in extracurricular activities and extra breathing room.
Also, I would like to ask if 270 is really worth taking. My academic advisor told me that you need to complete either 270 or 203 to take 370, but 270 isn’t required whereas 203 is. Should 203 be sufficient enough to thoroughly prepare me for 370 or does taking both 203 and 270 really make a big difference?