I am a first year biochemistry major and I’m thinking about minoring in computer science. I have no prior experience in programming and so I was wondering if it would be difficult to pick-up especially in a class where students are majoring in the subject. If anyone can tell me about how the lecture and lab sections are set up, I would greatly appreciate it. Also, I wanted to know when is the best time to start taking classes for a minor.
I’m a TA for the intro CS class, and also a science major who is doing CS as a minor without programming experience before college.
The CS fundamentals class assumes absolutely no knowledge of programming before you start, so don’t worry about being behind before you start. The programming language the class is taught in (Racket) is also a language that very few of the students with programming experience will have used before, either. The class is set up to provide a lot of support. In addition to the lecture taught by the professor, you will have a lab section to work on a programming assignment with a partner. The lab sections are each led by 2 TAs and 2-3 tutors. All of the tutors, TAs, and professors have office hours, so there are lots of resources available.
Past the intro courses, there’s less structured support, but I’ve always felt like there were plenty of opportunities to get help if needed, and I never felt disadvantaged as a non-major.
The best time to start taking classes is as soon as you can. Especially in CS, fundies 1 and 2 are pre-requisites to most other courses, so you have to take those before you can do upper level CS classes. If possible, I’d take CS fundies 1 this coming fall semester if you can fit it in. I’d also recommend meeting with an advisor in the CS department. (You can sign up for an appointment on myneu). It can be useful to see what the best options are for your interests and major.
Do you have any experience in taking a comp Sci course during a summer session. I was thinking of taking funds for summer 1but I feel like the course is a lot of work and I don’t want to be overwhelmed. The course meets 4 times a week for lecture.
No, unfortunately I don’t have any experience with it over the summer. Sorry!