CS Major Question: CS 61C, CS 70, EE 42?

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Berkeley
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<p>Hi there,</p>

<p>This is my first post and I noticed that the Fall Schedule has come out for 2013. I'm planning on doing a major in computer science and the pre-reqs I need are CS 61C, CS 70, and EE 42. </p>

<p>My question is, would you guys recommend taking them all in one semester? Would it be a heavy workload? Or should I only focus on CS 61C and CS 70 for Fall 2013 semester and take EE 42 in Spring 2013? </p>

<p>I'd like to get them done as soon as possible but I'm worried if I do take them all concurrently then it might affect my grades in them too. If you guys have taken CS 61C, CS 70, or EE 42 could you tell me about the workload and estimate how many hours per week I would have to dedicate towards the course? Any and all advice is appreciated.</p>

<p>Thanks in advance.</p>

<p>-A</p>

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<p>AFAIK, 61C instructors are the same as last semester (Katz & Asanovic) and they were both pretty good, though probably not at the same level as Dan Garcia. EE 42’s instructor also seems solid. I would advise avoiding CS70 with Vazirani unless you are a highly-motivated learner that can pick up the material yourself, in a class with no textbook. If you could do it in the summer with Tom Watson (who is very awesome btw), or wait until next spring until Sahai teach it again, that would probably be better. But that’s just my two cents.</p>

<p>As for workload. CS61C’s load is somewhat O(Hilfinger’s 61B) and Omega(Shewchuk’s 61B). Most of the loads come from the last two projects, matrix multiplication and processor design, along with understanding how pipeline, cache, and all those cray cray things work. The first part of the course is dedicated to C, number representation, map reduce, and those are pretty straightforward to understand.</p>

<p>CS70: Weekly problem sets. Expect at least 6 problems per week, and they can take as few as three hours, or as many as twenty. If you have a solid TA and a solid study group, CS70 is not as hard as it seems. CS70 with Sahai will be much more work than usual, but he is way better than Vazirani, so you could consider that a trade-off. Less work, worse professor. Or more busy work, better professor.</p>

<p>EE42: Same with the above - Weekly problem sets. If you don’t take EE43, the load is pretty light. I would say somewhat around 5-10 hours per week. Study groups may help, but you can get past the homework without one, unlike CS70. Pister in the Spring is a pretty good instructor - he started off horrible this semester, then improve every day :). I’ve heard good things about Poola, so assuming you put in some work into the class, you should be fine. </p>

<p>Summary: All three classes should be fine. One project-heavy class with somewhat hard concepts, and two busy problem-set-based classes. But make sure that your math is solid. EE42 doesn’t spend much time review differential equation for you. CS70 with Vazirani is basically learned from TA, peers, and google. If you could avoid doing CS70 with him, do it. Otherwise, expect to spend sometime out of class to reteach yourself the concepts.</p>

<p>Estimated hours (for me, at least):

  • CS61C (no project): 5-8 hours/week
  • CS61C (w/ project): 5-15 hours/week
  • CS70: 5-15 hours/week. Doing the problem set takes 3-10, but if you want to TeX it, or write it up nicely, it takes another 2-3 hours to do so.
  • EE42: 5-10 hours/week.</p>
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<p>I had 70, 61C, 20N, and a humanities last semester, and I’d say 20N was the real nightmare of that set. I dunno what 42 is like, but I’d say go for it.</p>

<p>Katz and Asanovich I thought were great, if they’re teaching 61C again. The early projects and MatMul I didn’t think were too bad, but the processor project (end of the semster) is really difficult and time consuming and will give you a headache. So, you should be okay until the last couple of weeks.</p>

<p>CS70, the concepts can be tricky if you haven’t seen them before, and Vazirani’s not really the best at explaining things. I think part of the issue with 70 is that all the EECS transfers have to take it, and they’re already familiar with most of the material before class starts. The problem sets weren’t that bad, usually 2-7 hours a week, I’d guess. Again, a big issue here is how used to proofs you are, and how quickly you can grasp Vazirani’s rambling. I’d worry more about lecture than the workload. Fall 2012 was webcasted, so you can see what you’re up against if you want.</p>

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<p>Definitely doable. I took CS61C/CS70/H7B(honors physics E&M)/humanities in the second semester of my freshman year, and got straight A’s.</p>

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<p>Thanks for the awesome replies guys, especially sparky. I’m not in a rush to declare so I think I’ll just do EE 42 with CS 61C for the Fall then. And CS 70 for Spring. Thanks again!</p>

<p>-A</p>

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<p>Just a heads up - Chris Hunn, the CS Advisor, told me weeks ago that there might be a new requirement in declaring the CS Major starting Spring 2014: a minimum GPA of 3.0. Note that this is NOT finalized yet, and you’d be better off go talk to him or David Culler, the CS department chair, for more information on this. If you don’t meet that minimum requirement, it might be better to finish all of them by Fall and declare at the end of Fall. That’s another thing you may want to consider :slight_smile: Hope that helps.</p>

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<p>This is off topic, but ideally what gpa should cs majors aim for if they want to work for a top tier company like google? What about just getting a job in general? Do they look at overall gpa or cs gpa?</p>

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<p>Google requires a minimum GPA of 3.5 AFAIK. In general, your GPA doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t suck too much ( < 2.5ish), and on your resume, just put the higher number, either your in-major GPA or your cumulative one. What usually matter are your own side projects, experience (internships, taught a CS DeCal/workshop, have an on-campus job, etc.), and the relevant coursework. I’ve had many interviewers question me why I haven’t got a class in operating systems (CS162) yet…</p>

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<p>Would you elaborate more on this? By “minimum GPA of 3.0” did he mean the in-major GPA or the total GPA?</p>

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<p>"In general, your GPA doesn’t matter as long as it doesn’t suck too much ( < 2.5ish), and on your resume, just put the higher number, either your in-major GPA or your cumulative one.</p>

<p>Do tech companies require college transcripts when you apply for an internship/job?</p>

<p>sparkyboy, where do you look for CS internship positions? I’ve looked at Callisto and gone to Career Faires in the past but the companies have required so many languages/skills that I just don’t have yet.</p>

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<p>Most likely in-major. Otherwise, people would just take some bluff classes to buffer their GPA. That said, you’re better off go talk to him in-person (he’s out-of-the-country right now, so return next next week), or see David Culler, than listen to me here :wink: </p>

<p>If you were admitted Fall 12 or earlier (meaning you have 3 semesters+ to take lower div) and still not yet declared, you may be able to figure out something with him. Otherwise, I think the policy will kick in starting Spring 2014.</p>

<p>–Internships</p>

<p>No, most of them didn’t even ask for a college transcript. If they do, provide it. If they don’t, forget it! Put the higher GPA on your resume</p>

<p>Yes, I look at Callisto and also go to Career Fair. Here’s the thing. If the list of technologies used for the job is <em>overwhelmingly</em> out of your league, forget it. If it’s just 1 or 2 language, e.g. “Experience in Ruby on Rails a plus”, put in on your resume and apply for the position anyway. Then if you get the interview, spend a couple of nights study/review it. You’re a CS major, you should be able to pick up the majority of a language’s syntax and uses in just one/two night :P</p>

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<p>craigslist sometimes have intership/summer jobs in the bay area. If you don’t get a job, find an open source project that interest you and work on it.</p>