Blockquote - Thanks for the detailed response! DS21 is targeting CS as well and will be looking to take credit for APCS, AP Calc BC and AP Physics C - E&M. Did not get a 5 on the Mech. so will have to do that course. Shaves off a semester overall but plans to use those credits to do a minor in a foreign language (starting afresh).
Hysterical about the Spanish minor. If there is one thing my son hates more than anything it is foreign language. I think that was one thing he was really dreading if he went to Purdue although you could take other Culture type of classes. I also think that’s why he refused to apply to LSA at Michigan and transfer to Engineering even though the CS requirements are essentially the same other than the freshman ENGR100/101 sequence. So UVA not having foreign language requirement probably made his life. He made it through Honors Spanish 4 and did well but somewhere along the way someone or something just turned him off, or else it was one class he had to work extra hard in and he did not enjoy.
I originally did not want him to take the APCS credit but after he spoke to someone that’s a freshman there now from our hs in CS, he told him to skip it. It’s the same as our high school course other than a little C++ and that he should just take a quick C++ refresher mini course. They also were in Data Structures together last year for Dual Credit and that’s a class he is intending to retake no matter what.
I’m hoping with the extra 3 weeks he has between Mechanics and E&M AP Exams he can hit that 5, especially since he now doesn’t need a 5 on AP Chem. To get those all 3 out of the way and knock off the 3 science classes just buys him a ton of time to take some classes for interest, fun, double major, or minor. Unfortunately, thanks to another poster, I can’t remember who, I realized if he does take the APCS and scores the required scores on his AP Exams, he can end up with 37 AP Credits. That means he has to take 16 or less I believe first semester or else second semester he will be junior standing and at the higher rate. I understand we will be at that number no matter what for “soph” year but I would like to keep my $2k or whatever it is a few months longer. Maybe the trigger is if he takes 17 semester hours first but that’s a non issue I realized because in that case he wouldn’t have the 37 hours since he would only get the 37 if he gets all the Science credits. I also can’t have him go to summer school at a CC and submit the transcript.
It’s not hard to find CS majors in upper level classes. If you want me to find one I can. My neighbor across the street is one and she’s graduating with a great job. While she is in LSA she’s still in CS. She was in LSA Honors but not sure she stayed in that track. She definitely did not have as many AP Credits as my son going in, but clearly it didn’t impact her graduating on time. Send me a pm if you want me to ask her anything specific. You make a good point and I haven’t yet reached out to her myself so I can do it all in one text. Even though she’s in LSA the CS requirements are identical.
Also, I am pretty sure that after first semester registration, you register based on the number of hours you have, other than kids that have honors, so if your kid has 40 hours, and another kid has 18 your son will have first dibs at those other courses. My daughter in CS at Cornell has had some problems with long waits for TA help. They get on the que, it can be 4 hours long and then they only get 15 mins and have to get back in the que. She got her ass saved this week when she wasn’t going to finish a project in time and thought it would be her first C (her own issue because I don’t care about grades) but it was a partner project and she also forgot to sign up by the deadline with her partner so they each were stuck doing it on her own. The que wasn’t going to be help because she couldn’t wait 4 hours until getting help, she sought the help of my older son who lucky for her at least calls her back even though he doesn’t return the calls of his parents (yep one of those) and literally as she was almost done and knew she would make the deadline to turn it in, the professor extended the project another 5 days. But my point after that blabbering is the TA lines are a problem. But that said, you want qualified TAs that know what they’re doing and they will for sure at UM. Not sure about uvA. One thing I forgot to mention before about another reason he chose UM over UVA is he is interested in Machine Learning and UVA didn’t really have much along that track. So your son should also look at where his interests lie.
But again back to older CS grads PM me specific questions and I’m happy to send to her. I wouldn’t mind hearing the answers too.
