Hey everyone, I’m currently a CS/EngPhysics double major at UIUC. If you have any questions about either program, or the university in general, feel free to ask.
My only request is no “chance me” questions because those are useless and I’m not the admissions department.
Hi literallymarx,
What is the rigor of the math courses you are required to take as far as CS is concerned? Also, would you happen to know any CS related clubs at Urbana?
Thanks in Advance
You’re required to take Calc 1 to Calc 3, a calc-based Stats class, and also a linear algebra class. Calc 2 & 3 are really hard at UIUC from what I’ve heard. I got out of those classes because of AP credit and community college. Otherwise those are the only explicit math classes you need to take.
However, two of the CS core classes are theory/math (CS173,CS374), CS374 is very hard and all about rigorous proofs. I have a very good GPA but CS374 definitely cut into it.
There’s 2 main CS clubs, ACM and WCS. I don’t know much about them other than ACM has a reputation for being toxic but I’m not sure how true that is anymore. WCS is pretty chill but I’m not really a club kinda person.
Hope this helped, best of luck!
Thanks for the response, I have a few other questions:
Do you have any advice or insight on the “Engineering Pathways Program?”
Also, with the harder level classes, such as CS374, how much out-of-class learning is needed? Like are online supplements something you would say are useful?
For your first question, I’ve heard its an okay way to get into less competitive majors but bad for really popular engineering majors like CS, BioE, MechE where transfer is not guaranteed.There are stories of kids with 4.0s being denied transfer to CS.
Second, occasionally it helps to google stuff when doing proofs and other weird math. But the provided notes/lecture slides were usually good enough to get through the problem sets.
Hey marx,
I am very interested in both physics and computer science so I had a couple questions,
Thanks!
How did you survive calculus 1,2 and 3?
@NASA2014 Calc 2 and 3 are notoriously hard classes at UIUC. I know plenty of people that were “weeded out” by them. I survived by taking Calc BC and then taking Calc 3 at Oakton (community college in Skokie) over the summer.
The general advice I’ve heard if you’re not planning on taking them at a community college is the standard hard class advice. Do your homework, go to class, go to office hours if you have questions.
@SemperPi Yeah, I’m planning to graduate in 4 years. As for practicality, the Engineering Physics curriculum has an elective concentration in Computational Physics, offering a really nice overlap with my primary major. The physics department offers a ton of options which is great.
In general, double majoring is probably more difficult if there is very little overlap. I came in with a ton of AP credit so that definitely helped. Also, before they dumbed down the CS curriculum in terms of the hard science reqs, we had to take CHEM102/103 and 3/4 of the introductory physics sequence.
@literallymarx So I too would be coming in with lots of AP Credit, and would have already taken Calc 2 and 3 in high school. My only question is, is it possible to apply as an engineering physics major and then declare a double major in computer science?
I only ask because I got deferred for UIUC CS as first choice, and am having trouble deciding if I should submit a major change form. If I get denied during the regular round for CS, all they offer in DGS Engineering which I heard is a nightmare. If I change majors, I have great stats, (36 ACT, 4.00 UW GPA, In-state), so I think I should be able to get in other engineering programs?
Thank you so much for your help.
“is it possible to apply as an engineering physics major and then declare a double major in computer science?”
Nooo don’t do that, CS is almost impossible to transfer into, much less pick up as a second major. Every other CS double major I know was in CS originally.
As far as another major that isn’t the worst idea, but only if you actually want to do that major. If you really want CS you should probably go somewhere else.
I’ve got a long train ride ahead today, so if any prospective students want to ask questions. I’ll probably be online bored af (or playing a bunch of Rimworld).
What about for CS Astro? I’m a prospective transfer student at Community College. LAS admissions told me that having all of the prequisites finished and having the gpa gives you a pretty good shot for the CS + X majors. Is this true?
I’m not sure about transferring from community college. The posts about transferring were for people trying to backdoor into CS through DGS or another major at UIUC.
If the admissions people said you had a good shot as a CC transfer then you probably do. CS+X has more capacity (and is slightly easier to get into) because they don’t need the 400 level CS electives, so the CS department can admit more of them.
How difficult are the CS classes? Also, how much computer science experience/knowledge did you have coming in? (AP Computer Science A, other classes, etc).
@literallymarx as a Stats and CS major, how much of a disadvantage it will be not doing the 400 level CS electives when it comes to interviewing for internships/jobs or even entering the job market?
If a student comes with lots of AP credits that will open up credits and time to be able to take 400 level courses, how easy or hard will it be to register for those classes? Are Stats and CS majors allowed to even take 400 level classes?
@catlover99 I took APCS and got a 5. APCS doesn’t get you out of any class as a CS major, but I think the experience is super helpful for CS125 (the intro class for CS majors). That being said, CS125 assumes no prior knowledge of programming.
Difficulty is pretty subjective. As long as you keep up on the assignments and study you’ll probably do well I think. Certain classes are definitely harder than others. Also, different people have different skills so they’ll have different opinions on classes. e.g. I loved CS241 and thought it was easy, while some people think it’s the hardest class in the CS curriculum.
@cmd7131
It depends on what you want to do. CS/STAT is super useful for data science jobs which are pretty big right now. However you can specialize in a different field with relevant classes. (The lower level classes like Computer System Org. (433), Security I (461), and Embedded (431) generally aren’t a struggle to get into from my experience.)
Also, Stats/CS majors are definitely able to take 400 level CS classes, they just don’t have priority for them. Registering might be tricky but you can just go to lecture until someone drops and then take their seat.
AP credit definitely helps open up time, especially if its Calc BC or Physics C.
@literallymarx - thanks for the reply. My D is definitely interested in Data Science and Machine Learning. For sure she will take the recommended CS 427/428, SW Engg I & II or CS 492 & 493/494, Senior Project I & II or CS 499 Senior thesis even though these are not required. Hope these are not hard to register.
Additionally she is interested in Intelligence and Big Data thread that CS in CSE students have an option to do and is hoping to take CS 412 Intro to Data Mining and CS 440 AI. She will pick CS 446 Machine Learning for her group 3 requirement. Leading from this is CS 546 ML in NLP - I don’t know if this is a grad level course. It requires a NLP course or relevant knowledge - it may even be an overkill at undergrad level.
She does have decent amount of AP and dual credits - Calc BC, Eng Lang & Comp, US History, Psych, Speech 101 (CMN 101) and Spanish 4. Hopefully she will have Macro Econ, US Gov & Pol, Env Sciences and Comp Sci Princ end of this semester. She is already currently doing Illinois MATH 241 (Net 241 offered through her HS). Hopefully this will open up time to do more of what she likes in upper level courses. With Stats and CS, she does not have to take any Physics and the only Math required, if she already has MATH 241 under belt, is MATH 415 Linear Algebra. For her Stat requirements she has to take Diff Eq (or alternatively MATH 347) for Mathematical analysis and modeling group and required stats courses but she should be past the usual Calc I, II, III requirements for CS and quite a bit of Gen Ed covered.
Yeah anything in the 500s is a grad level class. Which you can take if you’re super interested in the topic and get an override from the professor.
SW Engineering isn’t one of the super popular classes as far as I know. The project classes are very new and I don’t know much about them, while doing a thesis just depends on finding a faculty member to sponsor your research.
Having the calc series done is a huge advantage because those classes are a time sink. Unfortunately with the new curriculum change, it’s harder to get into higher level elective courses early. Almost all electives have at least CS225 (Data Structures) as a prereq. The department wants students to have more programming maturity before taking 225. So they moved CS242 (Programming Studio) earlier into the curriculum as CS126. In my opinion this is a good change, but now most students can start taking 400-level electives in their 4th semester instead of their 3rd as a result of needing one more core class before taking CS225.
@literallymarx My D has been thinking lately about doing CS + Linguistics as she also has an interest for HCI (Human Computer Interaction). How easy or hard it is to switch from Stats and CS to CS + Linguistics? I know the difficulty of switching to any CS for that matter if you are not in some CS. However since she already has CS, I am hoping that wouldn’t be an issue. It is just switching from Stats department to Linguistics department.
This is all just thoughts at this point, we still have some time for decisions but just wanted to get perspectives to help with decisions.
@literallymarx I have few questions regarding PREP and transfer to Engineering.
Thanks