<p>My D will be a freshman who is undecided about her major (at the moment favors psych and english) but wants to take a variety of courses to explore other areas. Was considering taking a comp. sci. class. What would you recommend? CS 131 (formerly 101G) will be offered in the fall and is taught by K. Goldman. However, in the spring they are offering intro to comp. programming being taught by Gross. The courses look similar, but the fall class is 4 credits and meets an extra hr. per week. Any recommendations??</p>
<p>Sounds like the 4 credit class includes a lab credit. If you are interested go to <a href="http://www.ratemyprofessors.com%5B/url%5D">www.ratemyprofessors.com</a> or Wash U has a site where students can check on teachers.</p>
<p>Goldman is a very good professor. The class does require a lot of work, though. However, I am not a computer science major and I still did well.</p>
<p>Note: I think Goldman has been voted professor of the year a few times.</p>
<p>We did check him out on ratemyprof and he sounded like a great prof, although my d wasn't sure if it would require too much work for her first semester of college, since she is currently not majoring in cs. It looks like the spring course (offered this past spring)might also have a lab, so we weren't sure why it was 3 credits while the fall course is 4. Also the descriptions of both courses sound very similar, although the spring course specifically states no prior programming experience required, while the course taught by Goldman stated that it is not required but helpful. I guess we were left with the feeling that the spring course might be a bit easier for a non cs major. However, since reviews of prof. Goldman indicate that he is a great prof. she is trying to decide if she should take it with him. It looks like he's taught it in the fall of the last few years. Do you think if she takes it first semester freshman year it will be more work than she expected since she is not majoring in cs?On the other hand if she waits until next year she runs the risk he might not be teaching it. Thanks for your help in wading through the course selection confusion for us.</p>
<p>BuffyAngel299 - did you take this as a freshman? If not what year did you take it?</p>
<p>I took it during my sophomore year. CSE 131 is very time consuming. For the harder labs you can expect to spend 15+ hours per lab. There are TA's that are very helpful, though. Whether your daughter should take the course depends on a few things. What does the rest of her schedule look like? Is she planning on doing a CS major or minor? </p>
<p>If she only mildly interested in CS, I would suggest not taking the course. However, if she is interested and willing to put in the needed hours, the course is not that difficult. Labs are worth about 50% of your grade while quizzes, a midterm, and a final make up the last 50%.</p>