Im a currrent senior who is applying to colleges
So i want to be a computer science major and i got a C in ap computer science junior year…
I know that lt looks bad especially since its my intended major
The only reason i got a C is because we had to write the code on paper and therefore could not check whether i was correct or not…
But this year(senior year) i am taking a class called advanced topics in computer science-(our teacher basically copied the curriculum from the college course: data structures and algorithms).
And i currently have a 94%
AND i even have solid extracurriculars which are related to computer science:
I have developed 2 iPhone applications
I did an internship at a startup where i developed an iPhone app that 51 hospitals bought and are using
So would all of the extracurricular activities make up for C in ap computer science? Since i show passion for the subject outside of the classroom??
Would the C affect me a lot?
Some schools im applying to are:
I live in new jersey
Rutgers
Carnegie Mellon
NJIT
UIUC
Umass
Drexel
Purdue
Penn state
Univ of Maryland
Univ of Pittsburgh
I predict that you will survive the C and you will be admitted to one of these schools. However, I hope you edited your application for punctuation.
This is a very big problem, but not for admissions. I am a computer science major at an LAC. In all of my CS courses, I’ve had to write code on tests, on paper. One particular professor I’ve had multiple times has very difficult programming questions on tests that are up to 60% of the points on the test. Many of these take two pages to write out the code. This is all without a computer. We also have to write code on our homework and the majority of us do not compile that code- we just type it up in word.
To succeed as a computer science major, you must be able to write correct code. That includes on paper. Relying on compiler and runtime errors to tell you there is something wrong with your code is a bad habit. You need to learn to think more about your code and to re-read it critically. Track what the code you have written actually does, not what you think it does. You can and should do this with code written on paper.
If you actually go into the field of computer science, especially software development, you’ll also often be working with code you didn’t write. You need to be able to track what that code is doing and understand it to be able to edit it. No debugger or compiler is going to be able to give this understanding to you. Yes, they can help, but they cannot do everything.
In other words, the reason you got a C is because you failed to learn a very crucial skill in computer science. I would recommend you practice this and learn it before you get to college.
Everyone has already said what I was thinking. My concern is your college list. You have a bunch of OOS public Us on there. Are your parents prepared to spend $50K/year for some of them?
@ErinsDad most likely im going to attend rutgers university due to the cheap tution