Hello I am interested in studying computer science in college, anyone have any general tips in terms of preparation?
I’m an incoming freshman and I’m practicing Java coding. Check in with the college you want to go to, they may teach CS majors some other language.
I’d recommend you start coding in your free time before you get to college. All the CS majors at my school who have survived the weeder classes had at least a year of coding experience under their belt before they came to college.
Java, Python and C++ are some of the common intro programming languages. I’d recommend you pick one (preferably Java or C++ as they’re slightly harder to learn than Python and are more common in intro CS classes). I don’t know C++, but if you choose to use Java, download Eclipse so that you have a coding environment.
Now, the reason that many people drop out of CS is not because they can’t pick up languages/ data structures. It’s because they don’t have give good problem solving skills. You’ll spend a lot of time looking at code you’ve written to figure why a program you’ve written isn’t working the way it should. To develop those skills, I’d recommend you try some of the challenges on Project Euler and Hackerrank. Project Euler has a lot of math-based problems that can be solved with code. Hackerrank has a lot of challenges of varying difficulty. Good luck!
Thanks guys, and could someone give a sample of a typical 1st semester freshman year schedule for computer science
Yes sir/ma’am. Here’s my schedule:
English 101
Math 100
Language 150
Africana Experience 160
Atmosphere and Weather 170
Notice that they’re all general education classes. In my college, any student who wants to major in BA/BS CS must take some pre-requisite CS courses. Most people do this in their sophomore year and are then accepted into CS in 2nd semester of sophomore year or 1st of junior year. Once they are in the CS major, they then start taking all the major CS classes.
It should also be mentioned that at many colleges you have a choice: You can study computer science for a bachelor’s of arts, or in the school of engineering for a bachelor’s of science. These two routes have very different prerequisite courses. Engineering majors have a lot of calculus, physics and other general science classes that are required.
I also suggest you search for other computer science threads as this has been discussed before.
My son (a CS major) had this for his first quarter schedule:
Freshman Seminar (required)
Calculus I (he had AP credit for it from Calc AB but wanted a refresher)
Honors CS I
French I (he’d had Spanish in HS and wanted to start a new language for his requirement)
By the end of his Freshman year, he’d completed his foreign language requirement with a year of French, his 1 year of writing requirement, CS I, II and III, Discrete Math, and Calc I and II. Over the summer he’s doing a theater course for his minor in theater. Next year he’ll do more CS courses (I think data structures in the fall, also algorithms, systems design, stuff like that, but I’m not exactly sure), a year of physics with lab (a year of lab science is a requirement), and a few other gen eds and/or theater courses.
By junior year he’ll have most of his gen eds out of the way and will be taking more CS, math, and digital art courses for his CS degree with a concentration in game design/programming.
One nice thing about the quarter system is that you get to take more, shorter classes, so it’s easy to fit in a minor or more electives.
I don’t understand the reasoning behind this. Wouldn’t it be a better use of a beginning student’s time to learn and implement computer science principles instead of dealing with historical baggage and language quirks?
[That’s not true anymore.](http://cacm.acm.org/blogs/blog-cacm/176450-python-is-now-the-most-popular-introductory-teaching-language-at-top-us-universities/fulltext)
For freshman schedule, it depends on your school. I had 2 CS classes both of my first semesters. The two intro class sequence, Discrete Structures (pretty much math) and then a theory class. So it’s not always all prereq’s.
Agreed that Python is a good start, then Java would be my next recommendation. My school starts in a scheme variant which is much closer to Python than Java/C++. Then we go to Java.
So, would you recommend computer science for a pre med route?
Why did you choose CS? It’s no cakewalk and takes a very math / logic oriented thinker to succeed. When med school values GPA so high, and you don’t have any prior experience (unless I read this wrong), I’m curious as to why you chose it.
I am only proficient in java, c++ and a little bit of C, so its not like I have zero skills with computers. I also enjoy math very much and am working hard on developing my logical thinking skills. If for some reason I do not get accepted into medical school, I was thinking of having my computer science degree to fall back on for a future career that I would enjoy.
Oh, I got a very different picture from your post. That’s a great background then, you don’t really need anything else then. That’s probably a bit more than your average CS entry student. Good luck!
@aldfig0 Hmmm I wasn’t aware that Python had made such a leap. I knew it was popular, but not more so than Java. My college is in that article that you sent and we use Java. I recommended Java/C++ (Java in particular) because it’s not that hard for a beginner to pick up and if you can learn the more obtuse language straight off the bat, then it’ll make some things easier down the line.
Look up the computer science degree plans at your universities. It’s usually pretty easy to find if you type in “[school name] bachelors of computer science” into google. That will give you the course list. On that page, there may be descriptions of the courses. If not, then go to the undergraduate catalog which is easy if you just type “[school name] undergraduate catalog.” This will have course descriptions somewhere in it along with their pre-reqs so it’ll help you find out which courses you would start with (if the undergraduate degree plan doesn’t already say the order). Most schools start with Java, Python, or C++. The main purpose of looking up the degree plan and undergraduate catalog now would be to see what the first course is and which language it is in because it’s not going to be the same language at every school. Either way, what you have now is already good enough in my mind.
And would most schools offer flexibility to accommodate for a pre med path for a comp sci major?