<p>My son is required to take a Computer Science Course to do a change of curriculum into Chemical Engineering. He can choose from CSCE 110, 111 or 206. He does not have any computer programming experience. He was told that 110 is Pascal, 111 is Java and 206 is C. That really means nothing to him since he truly has no experience in any type of programming. He wants to find the easiest, least painful way of taking a computer science course. Does anyone have any recommendations? Also, Blinn only offers an equivalent course for 206. Is that a good option to take that course during the summer?</p>
<p>I have been told by comp sci friends that 110 is the easiest to learn with no prior experience. However, Pascal is not going to be near as useful of a language to know. Java and C are much more widely used languages, but they are not going to be as easy for a beginner to learn. However, that being said, it isn’t about what is easiest, it is about learning something that will be applicable. I took my first comp sci class in high school and it was C++ which is very similar to C. It was not that bad. I would recommend C if he wants a challenge and Pascal if he wants to just get it out of the way and not deal with programming again. The upside to Pascal is that if he takes it he will be better prepared to move forward to a different language if he ever needs to.</p>
<p>aggiemom, That is really strange. None of those courses are in the ChemE curriculum, are they? Why would he need those to transfer in? My friend’s daughter is also trying to change into ChemE and getting mixed information. One advisor told her she needed a 3.75 or higher in all the basic Engineering courses (ie first Calc, Phys & Chem). Is your son taking those courses too?</p>
<p>I’m a software developer and would agree that Java/C would be more advantageous career-wise (actually I think Java would be the better of those two). Java is pretty straight-forward. Our high school offers it.</p>
<p>Good luck!</p>
<p>@allthisisnewtome: My son does have to take math and physics. He already took chemistry 101 and 102. If he were already in the engineering dept. he would need to take engr 111 and 112 as part of the CBK required courses. However, you can’t take those classes if you are not in the engineering dept. So, to get into the dept. he must take the computer science class as well as an engineering design class to substitute for engr 111/112.</p>
<p>I would take Java, that is useful to have under your belt for both programing and web development. He might not need it now, but side-job wise tehre is always a large demand for java guys!</p>
<p>A 3.75 is quite steep, if true then that really is one of the most competitive majors on campus.</p>
<p>My husband is a VP of IT, he said C is the most relevant. He would recommend against Pascal because no one uses it. He said he took it 20 years ago when we were in college. Pascal will never even come up if he has to talk about it in an interview in the business world.</p>
<p>I realize that IT isn’t in his future, but obviously the business world is.</p>