<p>
[quote]
At MIT, kids are there not for prestige
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Oh, I don't know about that. From what I've seen, prestige is indeed a factor that draws many students in. Obviously, it's not the only factor, but it is a factor. Some people really do get off on being able to say that they graduated from MIT. </p>
<p>Not that I think that's necessarily a bad thing. Even if you don't major in something technical (i.e. you major in management at the Sloan School), you will still be able to establish instant technical credibility when you're in the workforce via the MIT brand name. That's a tremendous asset because one of the most difficult things you will have to do in your career is establishing your credibility in whatever organization for which you end up working.</p>
<p>You'd want a Massachusetts class in case you want to reuse your code :-), say, to evaluate MA's ...liberalness? Then you can just add a parameter (don't think that's the right word... it's been a while since AP comp sci) to the class. (Sorry liberalness was all I could think of) That way, you don't have "MA = someint" in one program to mean the precipitation, and "MA = someotherint" in another program to mean the liberalness..</p>
<p>OK TIME FOR MY CHEM HW. lol <em>got to get off CC....</em></p>
<p>The State class seems much more practical to me, because realistically who would want information to relate only to MA; you'd want to compare things too, right?</p>
<p>if { Texas.getLiberal() > Massachusetts.getLiberal() }
S.o.println("Lolz, TX pwned MA in liberalness.");</p>
<p>With "liberal" being some non-static double or float to represent percent liberal or something. Because sure, you can make an MA class and then a TX class, but why do that when you can make one class and just have them both be objects with separate sets of attributes?</p>
<p>Actually the programming conversation taking place has very little to do with Java and much more to do with correctly interpreting the object oriented programming paradigm for this case.</p>
<p>haha, i was in OOP-mode so I chose that, although it would be extremely extraneous to make a object for one method =D</p>
<p>Someone else mentioned that kids at MIT do sometimes go there solely for prestige - I think generally you are right, however, I think the degree of this happening is less than, say, Princeton or Harvard. If you can get accepted to MIT, theres a decent chance you can be accepted to either of these schools, but I think most people choose MIT for the right reasons, not the difficulty factor or to stroke their ego or something</p>
<p>just have a look at the uni... their ideas, objectives, principles, their community, their outlook, tastes....its like finding a friend, won't u look for similarities? And MIT is the best suit for people who live for science... who breathe in math and enjoy doing other things they have an interest in.
Its Ideal. can't wait to get there, if i can.</p>
<p>ye and pls stop tht interface, static, boolean, class, object stuff. ( I take programming now ...nearly 3 months...and somehow dont feel satisfied with the learning methodology in my hs...got an A-)
it isnt all computers.... i am looking for a bio major in MIT...maybe neuroscience or genetics. Hopefullly i am looking at the right place.</p>
<p>I'm in AP Computer Science and really you can get by with knowing C++ as long as you know enough Java syntax as well. If you can't handle OOP, though, you will fail miserably (but then again why would you know C++ if you can't handle OOP?)
For example, know that
cout << "I want to go to MIT!";
in C++ is essentially the same as
System.out.print("I want to go to MIT!");
in Java. There are also technicalities such as how to handle user-inputted data and other things, so it's not all that simple... but I'd say you could pull of a 4 on the CSAB AP if you know enough C++, especially since a big part of the test is data structures, which are pretty much universal at the AP level.</p>
<p>everything depends on how u learnt it ... trust me! i learnt c++ b4 starting out boldly on AP CSC and as i hav already said ... not going too well at the moment. I think i am just going to start from scratch... with a barrons AP computer Science.</p>
<p>lol, I've been using C++ nearly everyday for 8+ years, and I still haven't fully learned C++ inside and out (although I'm getting there... maybe another few years).</p>
<p>I think C++ is a bad idea to base your knowledge off AP Java. Most kids who program with C++ in HS have a very poor understanding of the language and it often leads to misunderstandings in design principles, etc etc. </p>
<p>If you want to do well on the AP CS AB exam, I recommend:</p>
<p>A) Pick up a book that is suppose to rigorously prepare you for the java certification exam. Work through the non-pure-applications parts (although the more you do the better).</p>
<p>B) Pick up an AP prep book, since these give you details on the AP specific data structures you're expected to be familiar with. Then study the algorithms and data structures very carefully.</p>
<p>C) Program a LOT of java. This can't be emphasized enough. Getting into the mindset of a programmer lets you fly through this exam. This way you can develop a feel for how to implement a given algorithm in some context, and whether you're using an appropriate data structure.</p>
<p>D) Study the marine biology case study. I know lots of people who get by without doing this, but personally I feel that it's useful to read this because you're essentially getting free points on the exam.</p>
<p>In my school there arent any people who have the attention span (or intelligence) to discuss math and science in great wavelengths, and MIT is the perfect place to solve that dilemma...plus the fact that they don't rank students means I can be open with my classmates without being cutthroat about "outdoing" them.</p>
<p>USACO's online curriculum is also a great way to develop strong algorithmic programming skills. Note: there is a new simulation this year -- the marine bio model has been dumped overboard.</p>