Freshman course load

<p>So, with my AP credits I think I will taking these courses freshman year for fall and spring semesters. I will be majoring in CS with a possible minor in math. With that in mind, is this course load manageable? </p>

<p>FALL:</p>

<ol>
<li>Engineering Exploration 1024</li>
<li>Math 1114 - linear</li>
<li>Math 1224 - vector</li>
<li>CS 2104 - intro to problem solving (can someone please tell me if this course is actually hard to get an A in?)</li>
<li>English 1105</li>
<li>CLE -- what is this?</li>
</ol>

<p>SPRING:</p>

<ol>
<li>EngE 1104</li>
<li>Math 2224 - Multi</li>
<li>CS 2114 - Data structures</li>
<li>Physics I</li>
<li>English 1106</li>
</ol>

<p>ANY SUGGESTIONS? How hard will my freshman year be? I will be using AP credits for Chem, Calc, CS. </p>

<p>Also, in VA Tech do we get to pick our own professors and schedules? If so, how do I get the best professors who are not harsh graders. I am aiming to get straight a's and willing work hard. An responses are appreciated.</p>

<p>Schedule is very doable and not difficult (especially Fall). As a Freshman, they schedule your required classes, you choose others based on open sections. You can try to switch classes during drop/add, but for the required Engr ones, it is next to impossible. On-going: you will submit a course request for the classes and times you would like. Normally, other than CLEs, the professor is not listed so you will not have the ability to “choose” one you like. Then, VT will schedule you in the classes needed and consider your requested times. What you get back may be what you wanted or totally different. However, you will get the required courses you need. When Add/Drop opens, you can then see professor names and try to move things around as availablity exist. If you want a good professor, hope you get them automatically, cause trying to switch to one is tough. Normally, the bad professors are the only ones with open spots. Do NOT drop a required course assuming you can force add in to another section…they will look to see if you did this and then re-add you to the orignial class. Basing all the above on my son who is finishing his Junior year in ME</p>

<p>Can someone name some CLE courses that are pretty easy to get an A in. Also, what do you guys think about my schedule.</p>

<p>If I score a 4/5 on AP Lang, what do you guys think I should replace English with in both semesters?</p>

<p>You will have the opportunity to speak with your academic advisor when you go to summer orientation for new students. I’d wait to finalize your plans for English until you arrive at VT. Son #1 was excused from first semester English and put in Honors in the Spring based solely on his SAT score. CS2104 should not be a difficult class if you are suited to the CS program. IMHO -shooting for straight As by searching for the easiest graders and the easiest classes is not the best approach for your upcoming college experience. Certainly it’s not always fair that two students take Physics and one gets stuck with a bear of a grader while the other sails through with little effort. </p>

<p>I’m a CS major and you’re schedule looks pretty doable. </p>

<p>Are new students able to sign up for courses yet? If not then unless you’re in honors, I highly doubt you’ll both your CS courses. The CS department gives priority to those classes to sophomores and above. You’re going to be less of a priority. If you do get both then congrats. It doesn’t look difficult. </p>

<p>@CloudyCloud‌ Yes I am in honors. do you know if some honor classes are worth taking such as linear and vector geo? Also do you know of VT students getting into microsoft explore internship? I thik it is amazing for freshman!</p>

<p>Also would u recommend the galileo housing? I am a pretty studious guy. Where did u live as a CS major? </p>

<p>CS 2104 is restricted to CS majors only and has a pre requisite of Math 1205 (Calculus). Maybe you have AP credit in Calculus, but if you are were admitted into the freshman engineering program then you are not yet a CS major. All freshman are admitted into ‘general engineering’ which is not degree granting, you will apply to a specific degree granting field of enge. after your freshman year. You cannot advance into an engineering specific major until after your spring semester is over in your freshman year. Getting into some field is more competitive then others. After you are accepted into the CS Engineering degree program, then you can start taking the CS major restricted courses. See this link for the typical classes taken by CS/Enge students. You will find out much more about how all this works at freshman orientation. </p>

<p><a href=“https://www.cs.vt.edu/undergraduate/checksheets”>https://www.cs.vt.edu/undergraduate/checksheets&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“https://www.cs.vt.edu/files/CSMajor2016.pdf”>https://www.cs.vt.edu/files/CSMajor2016.pdf&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>@gigagirl‌ what? I think you are talking about undecided… Pretty sure I can do whatever I want because I got admitted to engineering. Then what is the point of being accepted to engineering as opposed to undecided? Plus, I mean what would I even take then… I am gonna be bored at VA Tech. There are people with even more AP credits. I mean what would they take?</p>

<p>All freshman are accepted to General Engineering (not ME, CEE, CS, etc.) You must apply after so many classes to be accepted in to your choice of Engineering / CS. I would recommend you read the VT website which lays this information out or email an advisor once it is provided.</p>

<p>agg999 - I encourage you to research the different topics provided on this Engineering Education First Year Students link. I think it will answer many of your questions.</p>

<p><a href=“Undergraduate Program | Engineering Education | Virginia Tech”>http://www.enge.vt.edu/undergraduate.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>If you have AP credit for many freshman classes you will probably be able to take a lot of your ‘core’ courses (liberal art electives) and have them out of the way.</p>

<p>In refernce to is CS 2104 “easy” to get an A. Based on the Fall 2013 classes, there were 2 professors teaching (Barnette and Watson). Barnette had average gpa of 2.9 (between the 2 sections taught) with 25% A, 53% B, 15% C, etc…Watson had an average gpa of 2.1 with 17% A, 35% B, 17% C, etc… Since professors are not yet listed, you will be selecting a class blindly from a professor standpoint.</p>

<p>Search some of the threads on Honors housing and on the Galileo group in Lee Dorm. I’ve heard positive things from students in both.</p>

<p>I haven’t read the other answers. If I hit some things that other answers have hit, sorry.</p>

<p>Your schedule will be completely different than you outlined. Linear Algebra and Vector Geometry are gone. Not that they were hard, but you can thank the engineering department that they decided to toss those BS courses. Math 1205/1206 will no longer exist either. The concepts of Vector Geometry that you need are being added into the Calculus of One Variable courses. The new Math sequence for freshman General Engineering majors is simply Math 1225 (4 credits, not 3) and Math 1226 (4 credits, not 3) instead of four different courses. The rest of Vector Geometry is being added into Multivariable Calculus (Math 2224) from what I’ve heard. Multi is sort of a toss up on if it is going to suck. It typically depends on the person. I personally found Multi harder than Diff EQ, but others are vice versa. </p>

<p>You probably won’t get CS 2104. That course is now restricted to CS majors. If there are enough spots left after all of the newly declared CS majors get a spot, you’ll be insanely lucky. If you are socially awkward like I am, you’ll hate this class. You basically get assigned a logic problem and work in a group to solve it. You have to present your solution to the class and “defend” your answer.</p>

<p>EngE 1024 isn’t too bad. The formatting of all of the assignments used to screw a bunch of students, but they literally just did not care last year. The tests can be difficult, but they are manageable. This is an exploration class to see what different engineering disciplines do. EngE 1104 is one of the easiest classes ever. Go to workshop and you pass. Seriously. There is a group project, but you can BS the entire thing. As long as everything looks pretty, it’s almost impossible to screw up the project (30% of the grade). Workshop assignments are also 30%. If you can program, the Matlab assignments are a joke. The last four weeks are electronics/microcontrollers. There are three exams (10% each): Two Matlab and one electronics. The first Matlab exam and the electronics were common time, but the second is take home. My class had an exam dropped, but I’d say that is rare. Lecture activities are kinda stupid. Stuff like Workshop Leader evaluations and the Contemporary Issues Report are in there. You don’t even have to attend lecture for those. No idea why they are lecture activities.</p>

<p>Physics isn’t nearly as bad as it used to be. The three mid-terms aren’t curved anymore, but there is a decent final exam curve. They’ll usually curve the final grades a little bit as well. The most critical thing is to not skip labs. You get double screwed if you do. Not only are labs worth 15% of the final grade, but you also lose 1/3 of a letter grade for every two labs missed. Recitation is “mandatory”, but I didn’t go to a single one. No grade penalty. A lot of professors started doing these BS iClicker quizzes every lecture, but they are only worth 4%. If you know physics, literally just go to tests and labs. You’ll leave with at least a B unless you miss labs.</p>

<p>Engl 1105 depends on your GTA. Mine was an alcoholic, creative writing guy. We watched South Park and listened to him read his poetry. Had to write three papers, but he didn’t care and gave you an A if you met the page requirement. Last I remember, every class had 20 pages of required writing due by the end of the semester. Basically just figure out if your TA is a harsh grader or not and manage your effort accordingly. Can’t say anything for 1106. It wouldn’t fit in my schedule so I took it online at the local community college.</p>

<p>CS 2114 is different for everyone it seems. The class used to be really difficult until Allevato took over. He was on the frontline in redesigning the course around Android. Unfortunately for future CS students, he got his Ph.D and went to work at Google. The course was taken back over by Barnette and apparently got bad again. According to one of my friends who TA’d the course last semester, Barnette uses Allevato’s notes, but that doesn’t change the fact that Barnette is terrible at teaching. Test averages are usually in the 50-60 range according to her.</p>

<p>CLE courses are Curriculum for Liberal Education. They are basically General Education courses that you have to take to get a degree. I transferred most of mine from dual enrollment in high school, but I still needed three more. I highly suggest taking Tourism Management (HTM 2454) to fulfil Area 7. Very easy A. Anything in the HUM department is pretty simple as well. </p>

<p>Note of advice: If you ever decide to take the EngE equivalents at a community college to “get ahead”, don’t. They don’t transfer correctly, have to be substituted on the degree, and the system doesn’t recognize them during course request. That means you have to force add anything with them as a prerequisite. I made the mistake of transferring EngE 1024 and it caused me a lot of trouble. </p>

<p>If you have any questions, please let me know. Sorry for the length of the post, but I figured you were looking for something informative. haha Your Fall schedule will need to be revised. It looks like you transferred 1205 and 1206. You should see if those will transfer as Math 1225 and 1226 instead. If so, you can move Math 2224 to Fall. If not, you’ll have to retake those at VT unfortunately. The new transfer guide hasn’t come out yet, so you may have to wait until your orientation to get some answers on that. </p>

<p>@james2014‌ Thank you very much! Well then, I got a 5 in Chem, Calc BC, CS, (maybe in gov and english), and us history. If I come in with all these credits, I am sure I will be exempted from a majority of the engineering courses. What courses would you recommend to fill in the HUGE space? I am going to major in CS. With linear and vector geo. gone, this is going to give me lots of room. Also, I asked these questions in previous posts but please try to see if you can answer them for me:</p>

<ol>
<li>How hard is it to maintain straight A’s at VA Tech for a CS major or at least say 3.85+ GPA?</li>
<li>Is GPA highly correlated to getting the best software jobs?</li>
<li>How is internship outlook for VT CS students? (for summer after freshmen year for instance)</li>
<li>How hard is it to get an internship in companies like IBM, amazon, google, microsoft? Did you hear about the Microsoft Explore Program? I mean what is the recruiting like at VTech?</li>
<li>I am in University Honors so what to think of honors version of courses? Are they really, really harder than normal courses? I mean do you think taking the honors courses is worth it and beneficial?</li>
<li>What do you think of Galileo housing? Or at least did you hear good things about it? I am planning to live in that community.</li>
<li>Finally, if you are a CS major what do you think of VTech?</li>
</ol>

<p>1) Getting straight A’s is pretty damn hard and I honestly wouldn’t expect getting grades that high. Unless you plan on straight studying day in and day out. If you plan on doing that then by all means. </p>

<p>2) Depends. Some companies wont look at your application if you don’t have above a 3.0. Some don’t care. I have a friend who is interning at Amazon with a GPA below 2.6 and I also have a friend who had a 2.4 and got an interview with Microsoft. Grades matter, but a lot of companies will overlook them if you’ve done some impressive side projects. As a side note: Google does seem to care about how high your GPA is, so I wouldn’t recommend just slacking off and building cool stuff. Have a balance. </p>

<p>3) Internships are pretty good. If you want more info on internships, here’s a sample of where some students are
interning over the Summer: <a href=“CS@VT 2014 - Intern/New Hire - Google My Maps”>CS@VT 2014 - Intern/New Hire - Google My Maps;

<p>4) See number 2. I’m currently interning at Microsoft and interned at IBM last year. Focus on getting good grades and getting involved with side projects. If you worry too much about which company you’re working for, you may get upset when you don’t get the job. Focus on you’re interests first. </p>

<p>5) Honors is kinda BS and I’m in honors. You truly don’t need it for CS. Most people are in non-engineering majors and honors is very beneficial to them, but for us it’s truly irrelevant. </p>

<p>6) I’m unfamiliar with it but people seem to love it. </p>

<p>7) CS is pretty legit. I enjoy my time here and I love my major. I honestly don’t feel like CS isn’t that difficult until your Junior year. Life gets crazy once you start taking Systems and Data Structures. But learn how to organize your time and you’ll be in good shape. </p>

<p>@CloudyCloud‌ Hey thank you very much! I just can’t thank you enough. What did you you do summer after freshman year? IBM? Also, what is the best way to get involved in side projects and when would you recommend me to seek those opportunities? </p>

<p>I heard that VT is removing linear and vector. That is going to leave me lots and lots of space now. What would you recommend me to take. Literally I can skip all the courses except for Physics, 2 EngE courses, CLE coures. I might even be able to skip freshman writing. So, what should I register for?</p>

<p>The map you forwarded is really, really cool! Are those people from all undergrad level? Thanks!</p>

<p>Also it would be great if someone can tell me if knowing java very well and python sort of well good enough for freshman year? Would you recommend to learn things like C, C++ HTML/CSS, Javascript etc. over the summer to be more comfortable in class? Also. in internships do they ask specific language questions? I doubt the things we learn in school is useful for interviews.</p>

<p>I’m a freshman engineering transfer student. Are linear and vector geometry actually being removed because I don’t see any changes on the engineering website. I was going to take linear over the summer but not sure now. </p>