What is majoring in computer science like?

Question

This is kind of a weird question, but to anyone who went to college/is still in college for computer science: how demanding were the classes and workload (did you find yourself staying up all night/every night debugging your code?).

How much programming experience is needed in order to do well? I'm a junior in high school and I've only taken an intro course and AP comp sci, so although I did very well in both of those classes, I only know Java. I'm hoping to start learning another language this summer (any suggestions?), but I'm not sure if I'll actually be productive enough to follow through with that.

Also, what were the comp sci classes like in college? Did you just have lectures and take notes? Approximately how many girls were in your classes, and what were the guys like? (I'm a girl, and to be honest it was a little weird being one of only two girls in my AP class).

Lastly: for comp sci student, what kind of laptop is best? I'm totally a Mac person, but is Windows required for some things you do?


Sorry for all the questions, but any advice on this is REALLY appreciated! Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

I graduated from CS in the fall of 2010.



The classes are composed of a lot of lecture and projects mostly. There was a little bit of homework, but not overwhelming. They usually give you ample time to complete projects and homework. I am talking 3 to 4 weeks per project, so as long as you stay on top of it, you shouldn't have to stay up all night often or anything like that. You don't need any experience whatsoever, they will start you at the very bottom of teaching you what the word "programming" means. You will most likely start with Java though, because they start you with the most current rudimentary language, then once you have the basics, they will move you into the object oriented world and the most popular languages like Visual Basic, C++, C#, and ASP.Net.



We started with about 6 girls in our program when I started. When I graduated, there were 2. The guys aren't as weird as you would think. Not like revenge of the nerds or anything. Windows machines will definitely be easier to deal with. You are creating a huge headache for yourself if you go in with a Mac. Plus, most universities offer a software bank, which in my case, only offered Windows based software.



You will enjoy it! It's awesome stuff to learn and when you create those applications, it's awesome to show people your code and have them say "oh my god, I don't know how you can understand that". haha. If you're interested in the field of CS, then it will be great and you will love it. Plus the money is pretty good. I live in the low end of the national salary average and got a job 1 week out of school making over 50k.



The scariest part of it were the exit projects, when you had to do a semester long project, which comprised of coming up with your own, new idea for something, and do the entire project yourself, documenting as a professional, creating the 60+ page documents (mine had 3 separate documents for a total of over 190 pages lol) and designing documents and testing procedures. It was pretty detailed. No one told me about it until I was almost to that point, so I was very scared. I literally did not think I could do it, but somehow I pulled it off. You can do it, it's not that bad and you will be very happy you went through with it.



Let me know if you have any other specific questions and I will be happy to help.

Answer 2

I'm currently doing a Computer Science degree, and I have two modules in mathematics alongside the computing ones. The maths you have to do isn't too tricky to be honest! There's obviously the basics such as binary, hexadecimal, and a small bit of octal(!), these are for obvious reasons because it's how a computer operates. There's also a major part in differentiation and integration (I can't remember what for), there's a major part, also, in statistics (for networking, the chances of a network going down etc.). Before I went to university, I had a B in mathematics at GCSE, I completed a BTEC National Diploma in ICT (which taught me little maths), then went to uni and that's where I am now (doing my exams in the first year), I've currently learned the maths required now, I'm just being examined on it. My advice: go for it; the worst that could happen is after one year (or even within the first few weeks of the course if you feel you're that bad at it), if you feel you're failing, you can change course (to perhaps a Computer Science related degree, that isn't so heavy on the computing and maths section (perhaps Business Computing).

Answer 3

I am currently in my first year of college, and I'm majoring in computer science. I too am a girl, and it does feel weird to be almost the only girl in your class. I have taken Programming 1 with C++, and am currently taking Programming 2 with C++, and there were two girls besides me in each class. I started learning C++ on my own before I started college, and it is not that hard.



As for what those classes were like, there was one class period for lecture (you could take notes if you wanted), and another period for lab, where you worked on homework problems. I never had to do any homework at home; there was plenty of time in lab to get everything completed.



We did not have to have our own laptops; we worked on the computer lab's computers. However, when I program on my own, just for fun, I use a Windows laptop, with Microsoft Visual Studio Express software.