<p>I find CS a pretty interesting field, ie, I think the math part of it is awesome!</p>
<p>However, I've never programmed in my life, nor do I know where to start.</p>
<p>I really want to major in CS, but would it be rational to do this without knowing how ot program? </p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>It isn’t that bad. Most students who enter CS programs don’t really have any substantial experience programming, even though they say they do. There’s like this macho culture surrounding programming aptitude, and most of it is just posturing.</p>
<p>I’m a 3rd year CS major. I did some basic web design with HTML/CSS in high school and didn’t know C++ until they taught it to me in college. Personally, I think it’s better to learn it as a freshman in college because if you take AP Computer Science they will teach you Java, which has easier syntax than C++ and C++ will be harder to learn. If your college teaches you Java first then I guess it doesn’t matter.</p>
<p>But the point is, it doesn’t really matter if you learned programming before college or not. If you learned it in high school you could carry on naive/bad programming habits to college. Some of the best programmers don’t realize how good they are until they start to program, and that could be at any age.</p>
<p>Programming is all about algorithms, problem-solving skills, being able to divide a problem into smaller sub-problems, the ability to think in terms of input and output, being able to strip a problem down to its bare essentials to see how it must be solved.</p>
<p>Any other thoughts?..Thanks to those who’ve posted so far!</p>
<p>Well, I am an upcoming sophomore in UT Knoxville Computer Engineering Program, I came in with no prior programming experience, and I am doing just fine right now, I would place my self in the top %30 of my class mates probably. In your first courses, you will have trouble with the syntax, but as you progress you will find what separates the better programmers from average programmers is their mind set, time management, and to some extent, talent.</p>
<p>Some people find that they have nacks for different parts of programming too! I for one am really fond of hash tables, while others find them complicated and hard to work with, while my friends really like AVL trees, which i am most definitely not so fond of lol.</p>