<p>Hi everybody,</p>
<p>I am not starting to look at colleges for next year. What is your opinion on the overall atmosphere of these colleges? Are they super competitive, laid-back, nuetral, etc.?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>Hi everybody,</p>
<p>I am “NOW” starting to look at colleges for next year. What is your opinion on the overall atmosphere of these colleges? Are they super competitive, laid-back, nuetral, etc.?</p>
<p>Thanks!</p>
<p>First, tell us why you are interested in Princeton. Then we can give you more specific feedback. Or is your research limited to US News rankings?</p>
<p>They have a great computer science program plus the financial aid is amazing.</p>
<p>That’s it? Then it’s pretty clear that you should only apply to PMS. The other two should go out immediately.</p>
<p>Good point. I’ll think about that next year.</p>
<p>Are you happy at Princeton? If you were convincing me to go to Princeton (assuming I get accepted, haha), what would be your “selling points?”</p>
<p>Thanks again for your help!</p>
<p>Everything. I literally have no complaints whatsoever (a thought I echo in other threads).</p>
<p>The caution I would give you would be that you need to be willing to work hard, harder than at Stanford (probably comparably hard to MIT), in order to get good grades. But the people at Princeton are unbelievable, the professors, the connections, etc.</p>
<p>The COS department is amazing, as you said.</p>
<p>If you give me specific things to talk about, such as dorms, particular extracurricular activities, anything, I can help you more.</p>
<p>Hey, I’m a sophomore in the COS department here at Princeton. If that’s your area of interest, I absolutely implore you to check out the school some more and apply. Since I got here last year, projects I’ve written include: a shell, a kernel, a virtual memory system, a filesystem, and an HTTP proxy. So you will be expected to work hard, but there’s a ton to be learned.</p>
<p>As far as the atmosphere goes - there’s a few different “levels” as far as I see it, at least within the COS department. There’s some of your average “learn the material pretty well and do decently in the courses” people, and they still do a lot of work but they are a bit more laid back. If you really want to be getting As in the classes though, you will have to be seriously committed due to grade deflation - the upper echelon of the people in COS courses is very strong.</p>
<p>Baelor- thanks for the tip. Out of curiosity, why do you think Stanford is below MIT and Princeton? In your opinion, what would you say that Princeton values the most: leadership, volunteer, great transcript/test scores, etc?</p>
<p>branclem- this may be a dumb question, but what does the “O” stand for in COS? (I’m assuming “C” and “S” stand for Computer science.) What do you mean by “grade deflation?”</p>
<p>Thanks everybody for your help! Now, I’m strongly considering Princeton!!!</p>
<p>I don’t think Stanford is below Princeton. I have many friends who go there, and it’s pretty clear that in general Princeton students tend to spend more time on schoolwork for the same grades, a result of the grade deflation policy and the difference in environments (as a former West Coast resident, I assure you that I’m not operating in ignorance here).</p>
<p>Would that correlate to better name recognition of Princeton compared to Stanford? Sorry for asking a dumb question, but what is “grade deflation?”</p>
<p>That would be a reflection of grade deflation at Princeton. How would you compare the educational and curricular effectiveness of the two departments, though? Would you say that “Princeton students tend to spend more time on schoolwork for the same learning”, or not, vs. Stanford (or MIT)?</p>
<p>Hey bobby,</p>
<p>Sorry about the long wait - it’s midterms week so I’ve been busy. The O is just part of COmputer Science; all department codes here are 3 letters so it’s lengthened to COS from CS. Plenty of people call it just CS.</p>
<p>Grade deflation basically is an attempt by the administration to combat grade inflation (where the average grade drifts up towards an A over time) by suggesting that no more than 35% of students in a course get an A-level grade. This definitely means that you will face more competition if you want to do really well in your courses.</p>
<p>@BRANCLEM
My son has applied with the thought of a COS/MATH major. He really enjoys the algorithm aspects of coding. That and Cryptology. I was wondering how all that works into the course load that as COS major experiences at Princeton. He is currently doing a 224 level cos course now (i think that’s what he said). I guess i should search the princeton web site but I am grateful for any more information that you may offer. </p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>^^^^^^
upon further review, 224=226 @ PU. he did that junior year.</p>
<p>Thanks branclem. I will definitely consider Princeton when applying next year.</p>
<p>Toolmaker:</p>
<p>I tend to fall more on the systems side of things (computer architecture, operating systems, networks), but there is also a big section of the COS department focusing on theory and algorithms. A very good friend of mine is a theoretical COS major who also takes a lot of courses from the Math department. Right now he is taking courses on Theory of Algorithms and Cryptography, so I think that type of thing would fit very nicely into your son’s interests.</p>
<p>After completing the basic prerequisites (126/217/226), all you need as a COS major as far as specific course requirements are at least 2 about systems (things I mentioned earlier), 2 about applications (graphics, AI, vision, etc.), and 2 about theory (algorithms, more mathematical courses). Once you have those, you are free to pursue as many other of your preferred courses as possible - so there’s a ton of leeway to pursue your own interests within the department.</p>
<p>The only thing I’d like to note is that he may not be able to place out of 226 even having taken it before. 126 (general CS) he could definitely skip over, but whether or not the department would accept credit in lieu of 226 I really don’t know - gut instinct says no, but don’t quote me on that.</p>
<p>Anyway, best of luck continuing through the process!</p>
<p>bobby:</p>
<p>Glad to hear it, best of luck with your applications! If you do end up at Princeton you’ll definitely enjoy it.</p>
<p>branclem, Thank you. you are very helpful.</p>
<p>Is there opportunities for education in business with computing in the Princeton CS program?</p>