<p>Hi prospective frosh :)
I'm a rising sophomore studying computer science and biology (BS in computational biology to be specific). If you have any questions regarding academics at cmu, post your questions here and I'll try to answer to the best of my ability. I am very well informed about cs/natural science/humanities programs... pretty much everything academic here so ask away!!</p>
<p>Thank you very much for offering your help. </p>
<p>I have been accepted and to SCS however I am getting slightly worried because as much as I love CS, Diff/int calculus is is no way my favorite class in high school. It seems that a majority of the kids in CS are math geniuses many of which had dreams of MIT. Its not that I’m bad at math, I’m just not amazing. </p>
<p>Considering the amount of math in SCS, do I have reason to worry?</p>
<p>Thanks</p>
<p>The most difficult part about cs math is not calculus based at all… As cs major you must take 21-127 Concepts of Math. Luckily you guys will have a great prof (Mackey) teaching Concepts. This class is difficult if you dont know anything about discrete math (you will not be familiar with discrete math if you are from public US high school and did not participate in math competitions… US public hs math does not focus on discrete math, unfortunately)</p>
<p>Concepts is introduction to set proofs, discrete math, probability, modular arithmetic etc etc… this class is taken by cs/math/ECE majors and you probably have to work hard for it</p>
<p>However concepts is the least of your concern… concepts is the intro class to the notorious 15-251 which teaches math behind cs… as cs major you take it in fresh spring. many many many people fail out of this class / drop because it sucks up your time. Its also difficult when it is taught by the great Von Ahn :[</p>
<p>Don’t get too scared about cmu cs math, but do understand that EVERYONE LESE IS IN SIMILAR SITUATION AS YOU ARE. Computer science is very math based, even if you do not go to CMU. it really depends on what kind of person you are but these classes are not impossible. with hard work you will be able to do them. there are help when you seek them and cmu is very very collaborative, so you can get help doing hard problems alone if you get stuck!</p>
<p>Maybe you can answer this for me though you aren’t in CIT.</p>
<p>Do you know how far the ECE curriculum goes software wise? Do ECE’s majors get the opportunity to learn programming languages (C++, Java etc) or are they for the most part all hardware courses?</p>
<p>I see the ECE curriculum can be made to specialize in software, but I can’t seem to find a single course which teaches the languages…</p>
<p>All students are required to take an intro to programming course, and after that you’re pretty much expected to pick up how to program in other languages on your own. I remember my roommate spending a ton of time with Verilog without having an explicit instruction in it from any of his classes.</p>
<p>And keep in mind that Intro to Programming is now being taught in Python; a lot of the Java stuff is getting phased out.</p>
<p>Thanks for answering questions! Sorry if some of these seem kind of silly.</p>
<ol>
<li>How are the tutoring services?</li>
<li>Is it a really competitive atmosphere? </li>
<li>I know it will depend on the teacher, but how has your experience with grading been? Like are there crazy curves that make it hard to get a high gpa?</li>
<li>Advice on what classes to AP out of?</li>
</ol>
<p>Python FTW! I know a lot of python, and i can probably know a lot more before next fall. Does the placement test in the summer test you on python too</p>
<p>^
- idk
- I heard no. Everyone there is brilliant, but they certainly work in study groups for tough problems sets. I heard architecture can be competitive though…
- I heard the curves are crazy. But crazy in the sense that my friend said he has like a 68% and it is a high B, low A. But they don’t grade on a strict bell curve
- AS MANY AS YOU CAN</p>
<p>There’s a multitude of tutoring options available at CMU. There’s supplementary instruction (SI) where an upperclassman or a grad student holds what are essentially extra recitations or problem solving sessions in a classroom settings, generally around 7-8 PM. There’s also a tutoring service where a student is paid to sit in the various study rooms around campus and help out anyone that drops in for help with the class they’re tutoring for (I forget the name, but it’s offered for all the main courses that most freshmen have to take plus a few more difficult specialized ones). Finally, there’s peer tutoring where you get one on one (or occasionally one on two) instruction from a fellow student. All of these services are provided at no cost.</p>
<p>I don’t know of any programs that were particularly competitive. The general feeling is that everyone there is really smart, so there’s no reason to beat each other up. Even in classes that were graded on a curve we still worked our problem sets in groups and helped each other study.</p>
<p>Curves all depend on the class and professor. I had ones that were hilariously easy and others which were brutal.</p>
<p>I dont know of a class that bell curves… I might be wring but the college in general rewards people As if u deserves it. But we dont have - or + in our final grades. this can help or hurt your GPA. </p>
<p>Atmosphere is not really cutthroat, I had no problem asking fellow students in my class for help. As previous post said we have university sponsored help centers as well.</p>
<p>Programming is still shaky because the cs curriculum went into a revision and how ECE will deal with that isnt sure. Ask your ece advisor for more accurate info.</p>
<p>Hi! I was wondering how many classes a freshman should take in their first year at CMU. I’m going to be a Psych major in HSS (but I’m proly gonna do that unified double major in Psych and Bio), so I’m just curious how the workload is going to turn out (and I’m interested in minoring in something). Also, this sounds totally stupid, but I don’t really get the unit/semester system… Could someone explain the basics of that? Like what units are…</p>
<p>Oh, and thank you for your help!</p>
<p>Tutoring services are awesome! I am a peer tutor (well, just finished training to be one, and will officially be doing it next fall, though I’ve been doing the same thing this spring).
</p>
<p>RacinReaver, ^ actually is part of peer tutoring as well 
That is called walk-in tutoring, and the one-on-one appointments are called standing tutoring appointments. Peer tutors are trained to do both. </p>
<p>As peer tutors, we go through an extensive training process after being selected through an application and interview process, and must have in A in any course we wish to support, in addition to maintaining a certain overall GPA, so I feel like we really are pretty well prepared. We do a lot of practice alongside older tutors before being totally on our own. </p>
<p>RacinReaver also mentioned SI; one other thing is EXCEL, which is only offered for a small number of classes (3D calc, Physics II for Engr, off the top of my head…a few more). Anyway, that is basically when a group of students get together every week to do addition practice/review with the help of a tutor.</p>
<p>I know a fair amount about the services offered by Academic Development, especially Peer Tutoring, so I am always up for answering/trying to answer more questions about that!</p>
<p>CMU uses units where most colleges use credits. If you divide the CMU unit by 3 you will get the equivalent credits used by other colleges.</p>
<p>Adding to that, an average semester unit load is 45 units. Classes tend to hover somewhere around 9 classes, so 5 is the norm for most people. Don’t take more than 50 your first semester - you haven’t yet become familiar with CMU’s workload, and burdening yourself too early on is a bad idea. (It will restrict you from joining clubs and meeting people your first semester, which would hurt your social life!)</p>
<p>Do keep in mind that a lot of math/science/engineering classes tend to be 12, though. Both this semester and next semester I have 5 courses, but it ends up being between 50-55 units because I have several 12 unit courses.</p>