<p>I am a rising sophomore at Boston College, a top tier school, although not known for it's Computer Science department, still a very difficult and rigorous school. I am considering a double major in finance and computer science, and I have never taking any CS courses. If I were to take Computer Science 101 at UMass Boston this summer, and then Computer Science 102 at Boston College in the fall, would that be too much of a jump? I am fascinated in the field, but I don't know too much about it. Is computer science, specifically early level Computer Science basic enough where a jump in university rigor and prestige not be that much more difficult in my scenario?</p>
<p>Basically would taking CS101 at UMass Boston a school that is very easy and not that rigorous screw me in preparing me for CS102 at Boston College, a difficult school, or is the material early on just your basic python and java courses and so wouldn't be too difficult.</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>IMHO, CS curriculum is less standardized than 1st year calc, physics, chem, etc. It is possible that 101 at College A is totally different than 101 at College B. Compare the syllabus for the 101 class at both schools.</p>
<p>There was some crazy place that taught CS 101 in LISP… We tried Ada for a while in the 80’s (memo to faculty: please ensure compiler actually works)… If both 101 and 102 focus on the same language at least you should be OK, these days it’s all Java or Python or what not. If one is Java and the other Python you might have to re-learn some things unfortunately.</p>
<p>Post #3 is correct in that the introductory CS courses are not very standardized. You have to compare the syllabus for each course at each school.</p>
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<p>MIT from the early 1980s to 2005, using this book:
[Welcome</a> to the SICP Web Site](<a href=“http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/]Welcome”>http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/)</p>
<p>Other schools also use or used that book:
[SICP</a> Adoption List](<a href=“http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/adopt-list.html]SICP”>http://mitpress.mit.edu/sicp/adopt-list.html)</p>
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<p>In some cases, the first two or three courses use different languages by design. For example, Berkeley’s CS 61A uses Python and/or Scheme, CS 61B uses Java, and CS 61C uses C and assembly language.</p>