<p>OK, so at the moment my major is Computer Science, but I took it during my senior year and had a lot of trouble with the class.. my teacher honestly didn't teach, he just assigned programs, and since I had no prior experience, I had no idea where to begin. SO basically, I'm not sure if Comp Sci is my thing, and I was considering switching to civil engineering, but I'm trying out CS for the first semester just to see. In order to transfer into engineering, I need to take a few courses, but chem specifically, but chem doesn't count for anything in my current major and so there in lies my problem. Right now, I have chem in my first semester schedule, but if i end up just sticking with comp sci, it would be a waste of a class and also an incredibly challenging class, when i could be spending the time studying for comp sci or other challenging classes pertinent to my current major..</p>
<p>BASICALLY, should I drop chem and take some CORE classes instead, and if I end up not liking comp sci, take chem 2nd semester? Or should I stick with chem and if I like comp sci just have wasted time & effort. </p>
<p>please help, any opinion you have would be super helpful. thanks!</p>
<p>I think as a general rule of thumb, you should take core classes early on in college regardless of your major so that you can get them out of the way. You should try out the introductory classes for computer science and not give up right away because you’ll never know how you flourish under a different teacher/environment. Also, I’m a compsci major myself, so I’m pretty biased :P.</p>
<p>chem would fulfill the lab science requirement, so if you don’t have that already, you WOULD be fulfilling a core requirement so chem won’t be a complete waste of your time. even if you do have a lab science from AP credits, you also need a non-lab, so chem could count towards that requirement</p>
<p>As others have mentioned, chem can fufill core requirements. I’m sure you can continue to play around with your schedule to leave paths available for different majors, without taking too many “useless” classes.</p>
<p>As a comp sci major, its alright to feel a little insecure about your programming abilities. There WILL be people WAY more knowledgeable than you, but don’t let it get you down. Second, all of the comp sci (or computer engineering majors) take CMSC131 or CMSC132 their first semester. CMSC131 is pretty much equivalent to AP Comp Sci (as far as I know; I didn’t take it), so there will be a lot of overlap. </p>
<p>I’ll just say that the fundamental difference between college and high school is that college focuses more on big projects rather than small exercises. Deadlines are strictly enforced (though usually not unreasonable). </p>
<p>If you still want to do it, go ahead. You can always PM me and I will try to answer any of your questions ;)</p>
<p>FYI - CMSC216 is the weeder-out class for comp sci majors. If CMSC131 or CMSC132 are WAY above your head, you will want to choose a different major because CMSC216 will honestly wreck you if you don’t know C or C++. I was really good at JAVA but didn’t know C or C++ or have any other type of comp sci experience and I got lowish B.</p>
<p>EDIT: Also a computer science minor is always really good, too! I won’t lie, I’ve been considering it occasionally.</p>
<p>@eddie can you explain a little more about why cmsc216 was so bad? I get that C and C++ are different than java, but how can it be so much harder (they’re both object oriented right?)?</p>
<p>C++ is object oriented; C is procedural. The class is pretty much all C (there is some assembly). It was more difficult for me simply because it was new (you’ll become familiar with UNIX very quickly and you ditch Eclipse for putty) compared to CMSC132 where a lot of it looked familiar from high school. I wouldn’t worry too much about CMSC216 though, you won’t take until sophomore year if you take CMSC131 first semester (@TheFatAnorexic, you might be taking CMSC132 depending on your AP score).</p>
<p>Just to make it clear, it was harder than cmsc131 and cmsc132 (for me at least), but it was not impossible. The idea was if you were struggling a lot before the class; your going to be struggling more during it.</p>
<p>Also, I don’t want you to think I know everything about comp sci. I’m going to be a sophomore next year. I took CMSC132H (Honors) in the Fall and CMSC216 and CMSC250 in the Spring (those are usually taken together). Before college, the only experience with comp sci I had was AP Comp Sci A and AB (I think AB has been cancelled) and some programming on a Ti-83. I am one of those scrubs who was easily impressed that people already had internships and has yet to be involved in an internship (even during this summer). </p>
<p>tl; dr
CMSC216 is harder because it has a lot more new material compared to the recycled CMSC131/132. And I am not one of those really smart comp sci people. :(</p>
<p>Also, make comp sci friends! All of my friends are engineers and they can’t help me with anything! Although they are more social :p</p>
<p>I got a 4 on the AP exam and UMD only accepts 5s :/. But I’m taking the exemption exam for 131 so I’ll hopefully pass this time around. And just to be clear, CMSC216 was mainly C and not C++? Or were there relatively equal amounts of the two?</p>
<p>
…this describes me too haha :(. How hard is it to get an internship summer after freshman year actually?</p>
<p>CMSC216 was almost all C (no C++). Didn’t mean to get you all worried about this class. Just be prepared to struggle a bit!</p>
<p>Evident by my lack of internships, I thought it was pretty hard to find one. Of course, I have no networking abilities (through people), so its not too surprising. However, last year the CIA came recruiting and they wanted mostly freshman and sophomores to apply because it takes about a year for background checks (not very surprising because they’re the CIA…) So you could try some applying to some Federal positions (CIA, NSA, etc.) and you might get lucky. The main thing is that if you want an internship, START EARLY!!! </p>
<p>Of course, my two roommates (engineers) are spending the summer as a trash man and a lifeguard. So don’t feel alone if you don’t get one. I’ve talked with some other Honors Computer Science students and they said not to worry if you don’t get one freshman year… though worry a little if you can’t get one sophomore year haha.</p>
<p>So I didn’t get into math 140 so I can’t take cmsc131 even though I took ap comp sci senior year. I was wondering if you knew someone who didn’t take cmsc131 their first semester ? I hoping I won’t be in the miniority.</p>
<p>You can take MATH140 and CMSC131 concurrently, so you still could take it first semester. </p>
<p>If you decide not to take it, I’m sure there will be other students who do the same. However, since I’m only an upcoming sophomore, the only comp sci students I know took CMSC131 or CMSC132 first semester freshman year. I do know one sophomore (now junior) who took CMSC131 first semester sophomore year because he transferred from a community college, but I think he’ll have to do an extra semester. </p>
<p>I don’t feel bad bumping this since its already at the top, but I just checked and there was roughly twice as many people taking CMSC131 in the fall as in the spring. So about 1/3 of the people take it during their spring semester freshman year (I’m assuming? Sophomore year spring semester seems too late…) So yeah, minority but still a fairly large size. So don’t worry about it :)</p>
<p>Also, if you guys have any other questions, just PM me. Since these questions have nothing to do with original post, I feel we should just let this thread die.</p>