I see that the University of South Carolina now includes “computer science with significant programming content” on its list of recommended academic electives under Required High School Courses. I know I have seen this on at least one other college’s list as well. I am curious what other schools may recommend this class as an admissions credential. I am a bit concerned since our high school does not have the capacity for all college bound students to take this class and it would conflict with other classes that are already required for admission. Please list any schools that recommend (or require) computer science for admission so we can see 1) if it is already a trend and 2) if school districts need to plan for more teachers, computer labs, etc.
Looks like there is a state level recommendation in South Carolina to this effect: http://www.che.sc.gov/CHE_Docs/AcademicAffairs/CollegePrepCourse_Prereqs101106.pdf .
However, not all South Carolina public universities mention it on their own web sites.
If your high school is in South Carolina, it should plan to have enough instructional capacity for college bound students to take suitable computer science courses.
We are not in SC but they recruit our students so we plan to check it out.
For a lot of schools, the amount of CS they expect is dependent on your academic interest. An engineering major, for example, is expected to have solid comp sci background. On the other hand, an english or economics major may not be expected to take CS.
Still, taking CS is wise considering how much of this world is ran by computers.
In terms of practical usefulness for those high school students who have not been doing programming projects on their own out of interest, high school CS courses are best considered as a way to:
A. Determine interest in CS.
B. Understand how CS affects other areas, whether or not one will major in CS in college.
A course similar to AP CS principles or http://cs10.org would be most applicable to these uses.