Harvard Computer Science?

<p>I actually know many kids who have taken courses at MIT (the accounting course is the most popular), and although the calendar is a pain, if you get here at the beginning of freshman week, which most kids do, regardless of if they're froshies or not, it's pretty easy to get into the MIT swing of things.
New calendar should make it even easier.</p>

<p>@tokenadult - Intro CS is taught primarily in C, although assembly + PHP are also introduced. Students are free to do their final project in whatever language they'd like. In general, the instructors try to teach language-agnostic skills.</p>

<p>I can comment on the upper level graduate CS courses if anyone has questions.</p>

<p>What undergraduate colleges do the Harvard graduate computer science students come from?</p>

<p>The students I know in the CS department did their undergrad at Princton, Yale, Brown, CMU, JHU, Virginia Tech, Georgia Tech, 6-7 from MIT, 3 from Columbia, 3-4 from Cornell, UCLA, Purdue, and many from Harvard. </p>

<p>I don't know too many from the west coast.</p>

<p>As for internationals, I know 2 from Tsinghua Univ., Univ. of Toronto, ENSAE ParisTech, Ecole Polytechnique.</p>

<p>This is just based on the students I know and is by no means representative of the student body.</p>

<p>hey Harvard engineer,
could you maybe tell us more about your experience with Harvard CS? What you don't like, what you do like, if you could would you choose Harvard again, etc.</p>

<p>The Harvard CS major I know best worked in programming for a while, then went on to do a master's degree in theology. </p>

<p>A summa cum laude classics major I know got his only B+ in college in CS 50. He thought it was the single most intellectually stimulating class he'd ever taken.</p>

<p>Harvard CS and engineering is great. Harvard is spending a lot of money expanding the engineering and CS departments. There's a huge research building being built right now. Plus, Harvard just opened the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences this September. When Harvard wants to expand and strengthen it's engineering and CS, you can expect it's going to happen pretty damn fast with all the money they have.</p>

<p>I'm in class with some of the brightest students. Everyone is motivated and have huge ambitions. A lot of the CS people I know want to get into business. The resources are amazing. Recruiters from all the big name companies want to hire here. I wouldn't pick any other school.</p>

<p>the calendar hasn't changed this year - looks just like last year...The Crimson had talked a good deal about the need for change last year, but none was announced, and I have seen nothing recently....</p>

<p>at the end of last year we officially got word that exams will be moved to pre-xmas or the 2009-2010 school year. This does absolutely NOTHING for me (class of 09) but should do worlds for the students at the college when it happens.</p>

<p>I want to go to Harvard for grad. school in CS. What do I need to do during my undergraduate years to get myself prepared to apply for Harvard 4 years from now? Is applying for grad. school similar to applying to undergrad. at Harvard? You know, with the top notch grades, leadership and ECs?</p>

<p>to the OP;</p>

<p>as an undergraduate, unless you are exceptionally exceptional, you will not feel limited by the CS dept. at Harvard. there are certainly enough professors, courses and things to do in the CS dept. that you could not exhaust all and hit up against any walls as an undergrad. as a graduate student maybe, but you are talking about college now.</p>

<p>college is about doing a lot of different things, not just the field of your major, and when talking about the different things outside of your major you can explore and the other opportunities you have, nothing beats harvard in this area. here is where you will find differences between CMU and Harvard</p>

<p>I am currently taking Cs50, harvards intro compsci class, and I love it, I have never had any programming experience before. the professor is very nice and it seems that they are really looking to make CS a more prominent major on campus. I also know a lot of the teaching assistants in the class, and they are not typical "nerdy" CS students.</p>

<p>you will come out a much more well rounded person having gone to Harvard than to a school like CMU, and probably, unless you already have a very very substantial knowledge base in CS, you won't hit a plateau in your studies of CS as an undergrad at Harvard.</p>

<p>to Mika08; unfortunately I don't know enough to answer your question, best to wait for someone who knows what they are talking about regarding this issue to come along</p>

<p>
[quote]
you will come out a much more well rounded person having gone to Harvard than to a school like CMU, and probably, unless you already have a very very substantial knowledge base in CS, you won't hit a plateau in your studies of CS as an undergrad at Harvard.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>So I am not a CS professor, but I know quite a few, and I have to address several of these points. First, Harvard is a wonderful university, and it deserves its fame and reputation. However, I think it is a gross oversimplification to claim that a student will end up much more well rounded from H than from CMU. The CMU CS curriculum requires quite a few courses from outside the SCS. Plus, CMU is unusual among top colleges in the level of the performing arts program. They may rarely drop by the SCS, but CMU will have a large number of people who will end up as professional artists, actors, dancers... This offers lots of opportunities for interacting with a wide range of people.</p>

<p>Second, both Harvard and CMU have full graduate programs in CS, as well as related areas. In order to exhaust the opportunities at such a place, one would have to finish a doctoral degree while and undergrad, and still have a few semesters to go. This is impossible. If one really entered college having mastered the full content of an undergrad CS program and ready to start grad school on entry, the faculty at either place would joyfully set you to work in graduate courses and research. Since people typically take 6-7 years to get a PhD in CS, this hypothetical undergrad who topped out at Harvard would have to enter college at a level past a master's degree. There is almost no one who can do that.</p>

<p>You can start a career in CS from many different places. The real difference in choosing between these two top institutions is the extent to which you want to do things outside of CS. No mortal undergrad will run out of CS education at either place.</p>

<p>My son is a happy freshman at CMU having turned down Harvard. I think CMU has enough requirements outside the major (including a required minor for CS majors) that you can get a well-rounded education at either place and there are some fields like drama and undergrad architecture where CMU offers courses you can't get at Harvard. That said, I think there are probably more big name professors at Harvard and superior ECs. For my son who is involved with a Game Creation group and a Turing contest group the sorts of ECs that are Harvard's strength are irrelevant. He wouldn't have taken advantage of them. I sometimes wish he were more well rounded or open to other experiences, but he's not.</p>

<p>Is the CS50 website <a href="http://www.cs50.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cs50.org&lt;/a> viewable to those outside of Harvard? Poke around if you're interested, the problem sets have been pretty cool so far.</p>

<p>
[quote]
Is the CS50 website <a href="http://www.cs50.org%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.cs50.org&lt;/a> viewable to those outside of Harvard?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Yes, it is publicly viewable. Thanks for posting the link to that cool site.</p>

<p>the problem sets are great fun, they don't even feel like homework at all, they are so fun, but they do take up a ton of time.</p>