<p>Okay, so I'm in EECS, and I just came back from CalSo today, and unfortunately for me, CS 61A is **full<a href="I'm%20on%20the%20waitlist">/b</a>.</p>
<p>However, lots of people are telling me "Oh, it's okay, there are people who will probably drop the class later"</p>
<p>So I'm kind of skeptical about this idea... why would people drop the class later on if they haven't started class yet. I mean, I get why people would drop classes after those classes start, but I don't why they would drop before classes start.</p>
<p>They wouldn’t. The word “later” doesn’t cease to apply just because school started.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, it seems that this year has had a record number of people in CS61A, because they are definitely at capacity - Pimentel only has 550 seats. Blame it on Facebook/other hot internet startups.
However, I’ve been told that usually roughly 10% of the total capacity will get off the waitlist (so 55 people).</p>
<p>Hopefully they open another lecture. - you never know.</p>
<p>Apparently, the limit is 573 for the lecture in Pimentel, though space in the labs may impose a different limit.</p>
<p>CS enrollment fell greatly in the early 2000s during the tech bubble crash (the L&S CS major went from a capped to an uncapped major). Now that it seems that CS jobs are relatively plentiful during an otherwise poor employment environment, more students are being attracted to at least attempting the CS major, so they are signing up for CS 61A.</p>
<p>Could having a highly rated lecturer/prof be another reason 61A is so full? Denero has gotten extremely positive reviews from what I’ve seen. </p>
<p>Also, based on what was said about the CS major becoming popular again, at what point would they start making it a capped major again? </p>
<p>Well anyways until they open up another lecture I better prepare to take CS70 or something then. This was a bad time for me not to be able to attend Calso it looks like.</p>
Everyone wants to be the next Mark Zuckerberg/Andrew Mason/people that founded Pinterest/founded Instagram.</p>
<p>@XCyoungX: I read something (forgot where) recently which said that currently, they are not considering recapping it yet, so don’t worry too much.
CS 70 is discrete math, though…
Do you have any programming experience?</p>
<p>Also, don’t worry about being a semester behind. I know a guy who was a math major, then switched to physics, then switched to CS 2nd semester sophomore year and he still graduated in four years.</p>
<p>So, if CS 61A still ends up being full, do you guys think CS 61AS is a good alternative? From what I heard, it is taught in another programming language than CS 61A.</p>
<p>And yes, I do have programming experience (and when I took AP Computer Science back in my junior year, I got a 4), though I’m not a “programming genius” who can like program something complex in like a few minutes or so.</p>
<p>61AS is an option. It will be taught in Scheme (a derivative of Lips). 61A is taught in Python.</p>
<p>61AS is a fine alternative - it’s structured differently and has a different instructor. It’s a lab-based course (no lecture, all lab). The instructor is Brian Harvey, and I have heard that he is is fantastic and just as good as, and is probably even better than, DeNero (he is also retiring soon).</p>
<p>The drawbacks to 61AS is that I presume (don’t hold me to it) that lab attendance is mandatory (while for 61A I can probably skip a few lectures and watch them online). 61AS is taught in Scheme, which is a functional programming language, and which IMO, is a very elegant language, but is only used occasionally in industry (in the form of Lisp), whereas Python is used very heavily for a variety of applications in the CS industry.
Benefits to 61AS might include, I presume, closer professor attention and smaller class sizes.</p>
<p>In the end, I think you’d be fine taking 61AS.</p>
<p>So since 61AS is a self-paced class, does that mean that there won’t be much teaching and that if you don’t get something, then it’s like “Haha, sucks to be you” unless you ask someone.</p>
<p>Anyway, are there still tests and stuff like 61A, and if so, how are they compared to 61A?</p>
<p>@terenc: I have some experience in java. Is 61a needed for cs70? Pre-reqs. just says “sophomore math maturity and 3 or above in Comp Sci AP.” </p>
<p>My other option is to take EE 42 (another req. for the major). I need a technical to replace CS 61a in the likelihood I can’t get in. Not too sure what to do.</p>
<p>So for 61AS, since all the teaching is done through online videos, then does that mean that a person hardcore enough could do all the work before classes actually start and then just sit back and relax for the rest of the semester? (I’m not saying that I am planning to do this; I’m not the kind of person who would take the trouble to do this)</p>
<p>By the way, just to clarify, 61AS does in fact satisfy the 61A requirement for EECS, right?</p>
<p>Try to stick with 61A unless you’re absolutely certain you’re not in the class after 2 weeks of school.</p>
<p>I’ve taken a number of self-paced courses and you really need a very strong self-discipline to keep up with track and it’s easier to take a class that is already paced…</p>
<p>Well, yeah, I’m only thinking about choosing 61AS only if 61A ends up still being filled. I emailed DeNero and he said that they are “hoping to add more sections, but these changes do take some time and require various approvals”.</p>
<p>And just curious, which self-paced courses did you take?</p>
<p>If you’re serious about CS, it won’t matter whether you take CS61A or CS61AS. You’ll eventually need the skills to easily be able to pass the finals on both while only taking one of them. The other one is simply the matter of learning another language, which should only take less than two days for any truly competent CS person.</p>
<p>In terms of Harvey vs DeNero: I think Harvey is actually better. He’s taught the course for decades, is extremely passionate, and explains the concepts well. Though, his personality is quite eccentric.</p>
<p>My advice is to just sign up on the waitlist and wait for hordes of people to drop in the first couple of weeks as they get slaughtered in the first couple of weeks. CS is one of those things where if you’re not meant for it, even an introductory class will seem (and likely be) impossibly difficult.</p>
<p>So… in comparison to AP Computer Science (for those of guys who took it… specifically AP Computer Science A since Computer Science AB recented ceased to exist), how does the ideas/work compare? Do you think they are like similar?</p>
<p>@cyoung: You don’t need that much programming knowledge for cs70. If you took CS in high school you should be fine; 61a is rather unnecessary. There’s a few pseudocode applications. It goes over a bunch of different math topics unrelated to calculus, so you might find it really interesting or really tricky (or both, I guess).</p>