<p>I'm currently trying to get an idea of what I want to study at Berkeley. I've have great interest in biology/chemistry and Computer Science. However, I don't know much about computer science. I've looked at the website, but what I'm really looking for is someone with real experience and could tell me things such as difficulty, and what you actually DO and learn in CS. I'm persistent because these two fields are very different so i'd like the most feedback possible. thanks to those who reply. I really appreciate any input.</p>
<p>It is my first semester here at Cal on the L&S CS track, and it has been fun so far. Although I am only in CS 3L (the intro to CS course), I am learning pivotal concepts such as the structure of functional programming and the different types of recursion, to name a couple... </p>
<p>I can tell you that even for an intro course, I have a 1-hour lecture and 6 hours of lab a week, which to some may seem like overkill, but it is well worth it. Previously, I signed up for the (weeder) cs-61a course, and I did not understand any of the topics Prof. Harvey was talking about...but after cs-3l I should be prepared to take the 61 series.</p>
<p>As for what you learn? I can tell you right off the bat that you do not learn any programming languages here at Cal. The department stresses the concepts; it is up to us as students to apply the concepts to different languages. </p>
<p>I find that belief of the CS department at Cal to be a huge plus...my friend down in UCSD was comparing his curriculum with mine, and his class is delving into Java using webpages as the GUI or something. I guess that is fine, but you can learn that stuff out of a book really.</p>
<p>I hope this blurb helped you...have any additional questions?</p>
<p>Oh and I will never forget the first day of CS 61A. Prof. Harvey stood there and told a class of 500 students that: "I'm going to introduce you to a different topic that will blow your mind away every week."</p>
<p>I do have additional questions for anyone that can answer them. </p>
<p>Does anyone know how math intensive CS is? Is a future career in CS tedious? logical and abstract? That'd be really great information because I'm interested, but I haven't been able to take any CS intro courses. I'm not sure if the kind of work will conflict with my personality or whatever. Like everyone else, I'd like a job where I wouldn't mind going to work everyday!</p>
<p>^^Lots of programmers become managers, go on to get MBAs, go into sales, support, etc. 15 years out, most CS majors are probably not still writing code, I would think. Maybe even 5 years out but I'm just guessing.</p>
<p>Yeah programming is extremely brain-intensive. Small mistakes could cost long hours of debugging. That's the dark side of a CS career, I suppose.</p>
<p>green-aw-lives:
1. 61A is NOT a weeder course. At one time several years ago a bunch of people suddenly started going into computer science just for the money and 61A was much more difficult and weeded these people out. However, since then the L&S CS major has become uncapped and 61A has gotten much easier and is no longer a weeder course. The midterms are really easy (noticeably easier than CS 3L midterms) and Harvey even said himself that the grades people get on midterms usually are more generous than their actual knowledge should permit. There's even a decent amount of extra credit in the class. Also, that comment about you learning something mind-blowing every week is a statement you should take with a grain of salt/should not intimidate you. In every course at Cal you're going to learn something new every week, and 61A is no exception. I took the course last semester and yes, you do learn a new concept/idea every week (gasp!), but you should have done the same thing in high school/in every other course here in Cal. Some concepts are bigger than others, and some are more interesting than others, but, unless you're completely fascinated by computer science or easy to impress, you won't be blown away every week (I think Harvey just had poor word choice here, giving new students the idea that being blown away every week, which probably won't happen to the majority of students, implies an intensive/difficult course).</p>