<p>Hello guys, I'm a CS transfer, and I was planing to take CS61A during this upcoming summer, and CS61B in Fall 2013, but while I was checking the schedule for Fall 2013 it turned out that Hilfiger is teaching CS61B, is it a good idea to take CS61B over the summer with Clancy, and then CS61A with whoever is teaching it? ( they haven't announced who is teaching CS61A in fall yet). Any help would be greatly appreciated.</p>
<p>From multiple sources, DeNero is teaching 61A in the fall. He’s cool.</p>
<p>I don’t suggest taking 61B before 61A. If you must get 61B done early, take it at the same time as 61A (which is what I did). Hilfinger isn’t that bad, as long as you’re willing to put in the time. I actually liked his class, and even though the homework/projects were long, I feel like I got a good deal of practice out of it. (Of course, if you’re trying to keep your courseload light, you probably don’t want to get Hilfinger.)</p>
<p>I’m asking this because everyone is saying CS is getting impacted again, and Hilfinger ruins your GPA. I just wanted to avoid taking a class with him. I’d much rather take 61A and 61B separately (61A in summer and 61B in fall), do I have any other options? I’m really confused.</p>
<p>Have you done CS before? If you’ve taken your CC’s comp sci courses (intro to CS and Data Structures, probably in C++ or Java) you should be fine taking 61BL over the summer, assuming you can get a seat. (I took 61A and BL together last summer, awful combination but it makes scheduling and stuff easier later… wasn’t the best move GPA-wise.)</p>
<p>Yes, I took C++ and Java last semester and taking Data Structure (C++) right now, and love the subject. So you think, I’ll do fine if I take it over the summer? do you know if Clancy is a good professor?</p>
<p>I heard the lab based 61B (61BL) takes quite a bit of time but don’t quote me on that. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t shy away from hilfinger. His class was the second cs class I ever took and I did fine. You certainly have more coding experience than me and you’re already taking data structures so I think you’d do fine in either case (summer or fall 61B). I do think hilfingers class will teach you a lot though.</p>
<p>I’ve only met Clancy once, I’m not sure how he is at lecturing. Most of the professors here seem pretty good, honestly. In BL you spend a LOT more time learning either from labs (which are posted online) or your lab TA, cause there’s only two hours of lecture a week (the equivalent of an hour a week in normal semesters). The class has 3 hour labs 4 days a week, but you can go whenever you finish, and if you’re good with the material you’re not gonna need the whole lab time. Projects… yeah, those can be time consuming. They’re interesting at least. (Not sure what they all are, I know the block puzzle project is coming back.)</p>
<p>In terms of coursework, you should be fine if you take B before A. A tends to be sorta a survey of CS things… so B builds on the knowledge of writing programs and object oriented programming and such (ie you shouldn’t dive into B with no CS experience) but a lot of the material from A doesn’t really show up in B, at least it didn’t when I took the courses.</p>
<p>Hilfinger I haven’t had either, but I know people say to avoid him, and it’s true that the averages for his classes are usually lower than the other 61B professors’. People also say he gives a lot more work than usual and has really tough projects.</p>
<p>Well thank you so much guys, all of your comments helped me a lot.
What kind of schedule do I need for fall to make Hilfinger’s class doable?
So I have no idea how a schedule should be like in Berkeley ( how many units/classes)
I was thinking a schedule like this should be fine?
61A in summer
and
these classes in fall:
EE42
CS61B
1 Elective </p>
<p>any ideas?</p>
<p>Er, usual Berkeley schedule is 4 classes, I think. Though maybe 3 classes is good if you have Hilfinger and this doesn’t prevent you from graduating on time or anything like that.</p>
<p>The number of classes you take per semester depends on how many classes you need to graduate. </p>
<p>As a CS transfer, I’m going to guess you need CA61ABC, EE42, CS70, and a total of 7 upper divs = 12 classes. Also for L&S requirements you’ll need another ~8 units of upper div (6 being non major) and maybe an american cultures class if you didn’t fulfill that requirement. The good news is the extra ~8 units I mentioned can be decals (if you’re decal is labelled 198, as it is for upper classmen, it actually counts towards L&S’s 6 units of non major upper div), so let’s say 2 units of decals per semester at min. That leaves 12 classes in 4 semesters so I think 3 is fine. Also, since you’re going to take 61A in the summer you actually only need 11 classes then. So from thinking about it briefly I think you’ll be ok with 3 classes + a decal each semester (assuming you fulfilled all other course requirements other than major requirements).</p>
<p>I had no idea what classes you actually needed to take other than the 61 series, upper divs and ee42 so I could be very wrong. Hopefully it was helpful somewhat though.</p>