<p>Has anyone actually audited a course before at Brown? I want to audit an intro cs course like cs 15 or cs 4, just to get good programming experience (I’m an econ major). Do most instructors approve, since auditing is at their discretion? Also, does anyone know if approved, will it be on the transcript saying I audited?</p>
<p>The website should answer your questions
[Office</a> of the Registrar: Courses](<a href=“Welcome | Office of the Registrar”>http://brown.edu/Administration/Registrar/guidelines/courses/#max_load)</p>
<p>There’s really no point auditing intro CS courses. You learn how to code by actually coding. Take it S/NC instead.</p>
<p>^But I don’t want to do it for a grade. I want to learn without worrying about a grade. I’ve already done cs 17…</p>
<p>What is the specific objective you want to achieve? If it’s to learn Java, you should continue with CS18. If it’s to learn MATLAB, CS17 should have equipped you with the tools to pick it up on your own.</p>
<p>And by not doing it for a grade, are you discounting doing it S/NC as well? Auditing a class consists solely of sitting in for lectures, without completing any assignments.</p>
<p>I want to learn Matlab…but don’t want to spend too much time on it.</p>
<p>Then maybe do something like this? [MATLAB</a> Tutorial - Choose a MATLAB tutorial or training program that matches your experience and learning style](<a href=“http://www.mathworks.com/academia/student_center/tutorials/launchpad.html]MATLAB”>Learn with MATLAB and Simulink Tutorials - MATLAB & Simulink) Which I found by literally just googling “learn MATLAB.”</p>
<p>I didn’t take any CS courses so I might be totally off base but how hard is it to just pass a CS course? Also, you could always drop the course if it becomes too much.</p>
<p>Well, I could pass it and take the time to do all the labs, midterms, etc., but I don’t want to because I have other commitments. You see, I want to take upper division APMA classes, which many happen to say “MATLAB experience helpful”. In other words, knowing MATLAB is essential to success.</p>
<p>Is this a bad idea: take the cs4 (which teaches matlab) as 5th class, but just do it for the sake of learning. It will be my last priority of everything, and if it becomes too much, I’ll just drop? After all, I will have learned a good deal of MATLAB…</p>
<p>Given that you already have CS17, there’s really no reason to take CS4, especially if you are not planning on putting in much effort with the homework and projects. With what you’ve learnt from CS17, it should be trivial to pick up MATLAB from a good book or website. MATLAB is really not that involved of a “language”, if it can even be considered one. </p>
<p>And really, the use MATLAB in upper-division APMA courses is just a matter of calling existing functions, or at the very most, writing a few simple scripts. (I was an APMA concentrator.) And I don’t see how “MATLAB experience helpful” equates to “knowing MATLAB is essential to success”.</p>
<p>^Doesn’t APMA 1690 exclusively deal with MATLAB?</p>
<p>Mostly, but not exclusively. There’s some actual math you have to do as well. Nothing in the class will be algorithmically more complex than, say, your CS17 projects. At the end of the day, the class teaches you probability and statistics, not programming. Given that, literally the only thing you need to pick up is MATLAB syntax, which, as I mentioned, is trivial.</p>
<p>Edit: And really, programming is not even listed as a pre-requisite for 1690.</p>