Hi guys,
I’m planning on taking an online computer science course to boost my skills and increase my chances of admission to CS universities like UCB, UWash, etc.
I do not have much experience.
What are some good programs that are online and are completable with proof that will help my application chances?
Some ideas:
Harvard CS50
John Hopkins intro to java program
I would say that if you signed up for some Udemy or Coursera courses on programming languages and it’s applications, that would be a good start. You don’t really want to get into concepts that much until you are quite familiar with programming languages. You can save the concept classes for when you get to college actually, but most of the big name schools will expect you to hit the ground running as far as programming knowledge goes.
A beginning Python, Java and/or C++ course would be good. Maybe a Linux scripting or Powershell scripting (for Windows) is good too.
Agree with above. You may want to investigate several of the early course sequences at a few of the colleges you are interested in. You may find, for instance, that C/C++ may benefit you more that Java. That’s what my S found, but that may just be a function of the area of CS that he’s interested in. Additionally, for him, Linux skills have been very valuable as well as Python. Windows and Java not so much.
Which grade are you in?
I would suggest you consider APCS from your school first.
In addition to taking Udemy or Coursera courses, I would suggest maybe doing some remote research possibly. A rec letter from the professor could be the proof you are looking for.
I would also recommend maybe looking at MIT OpenCourseware to see if any of their classes interest you. While you won’t get a certificate, these classes are very interesting and delve into some topics that you will see as a CS major in college!