Overwhelmed, what classes should I take?

College Majors Math/Computer Science Majors
1

I’m still a high school student and I looked through at some colleges classes for computer science and I was overwhelmed by the hundreds of classes for Computer Science alone. How am I supposed to know which classes to attend? Do counselors guide you through with this and are there workshops or guides on campus that help you with this? What are the steps to choose classes? Is it just choosing what looks like or sounds nice?

2

Your major will have required classes, and you will start there. You should have an advisor who can help as well - professors in your intro classes are also often willing to give advice. Older students in your major are helpful, and a reading of Rate My Professor (taking the entries that seem motivated by a poor grade with a grain of salt) isn’t a bad idea. Not every class is going to be offered every semester, so that is limiting as well.

3

Google a college you are interested in to see which Computer Science majors are offered. Then pick one of the majors and google the graduation requirements for that major. Often the courses for a computer science major are listed in a well-organized chart or sample curriculum for the four years. There will be the required core CS courses, and then there will be guidelines for choosing elective CS courses. You may have some idea of which electives might interest you now, but you will also develop clearer interests as you work your way through the core courses.

4

BunnyBlue, my dream college that I wanna go to is Rice University, however, I can’t seem to find a chart or sample curriculum though.

5

From here: https://csweb.rice.edu/undergraduate-program

Click on Engineering Advising Booklet. CS starts on page 32 (not the 32nd page of the PDF).

6

You can find something like these at most schools. I searched “Rice Computer Science Plan of Study”, then went to the “Bachelor of Science in Computer Science (BSCS) Degree < Rice .” result.

https://ga.rice.edu/programs-study/departments-programs/engineering/computer-science/computer-science-bscs/#requirementstext

https://csweb.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs1251/f/requirements.pdf

https://csweb.rice.edu/sites/g/files/bxs1251/f/CSchecklist.pdf

Plus the full document above.