Earlier quoted context omitted.
Getting into class, naming things, cache invalidation, and off-by-one errors?
4?
No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!
Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
31–40 of 305 posts
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#32Why do US colleges over-admit like this? In the UK you apply to do a computer science course, and they have 50 places or whatever for that course, and so they admit 50 people. You can't get into the college and then be told that actually it's full. If they do accidentally over-admit it's their problem to solve, not yours.
And you would have had to have done related courses A levels for the last two years. You cant just rock up at a university and say id like to study X with out any previous education - this is what the Raspberry Pi was made for originally.
To be fair, you can certainly give it a go. There's no requirements to be able to submit an application, and university grade requirements are rarely total, only recommended.
You might not be able to get into a top flight oxbridge university, but show a history of interesting projects and maybe attending hackathons, competitions etc many universities will fight to have you
Worked for me.
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#33Why do US colleges over-admit like this? In the UK you apply to do a computer science course, and they have 50 places or whatever for that course, and so they admit 50 people. You can't get into the college and then be told that actually it's full. If they do accidentally over-admit it's their problem to solve, not yours.
The US university system is quite unusual (I believe Canada also has a similar system): at the undergraduate level you typically don't apply to a specific program; all students are expected to take a variety of classes (confusingly called "courses"), only some of which apply to a specific course of study.
Domain-specialized classes become an increasing proportion of your overall classes after the first or second year (when you choose a major) though never 100%. So while the school can get some idea of demand based on what people put on their application form, typically what you put on that form has little to no impact on whether you are admitted and doesn't actually bind you to a particular program.
I actually think this is a pretty good system, and was glad my own kid chose a US university (which luckily we could afford) rather than the free university education he could have chosen in either of his mother's or my countries. The theory is that you can get a broad foundational education to prepare you for a variety of possible futures, and also that there is more to education than simply work skills. Of course the reality isn't quite as utopian. It also means professions like law and medicine require whole additional degrees.
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overbooking increases the likelihood of full flights which increases the efficiency of the system and reduces costs. It's hard to see a problem with that.
> It's hard to see a problem with that. I think it's a value judgement. Is a lowered price of the majority of instances of a thing (flying or taking a class, in these examples) a worthwhile trade for the reward being a probability rather than a guarantee? Is the severity of the minority case (getting bumped) worth the trade? What actual probabilities for happy vs. sad path are acceptable to you? Those are subjective…
Also there's some worth in having spare capacity. When you're constantly overbooking and suddenly there's a spike in demand, you're SOL and there's no good way out of this.
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
And you would have had to have done related courses A levels for the last two years. You cant just rock up at a university and say id like to study X with out any previous education - this is what the Raspberry Pi was made for originally.
I think in CS that isn't such a concern. I mean they will want good grades in maths (and decision maths covers some parts of the CS curriculum) but little else, perhaps Physics - but other than that just good grades. The thing is that the Computing A Level wasn't widely available and the quality differed between qualifications and exam boards as well - whereas Maths is pretty consistent and is run at every school. I…
I sadly concur, as someone who did fine at Computing A-Level with no work, found Further Maths difficult and was lucky to get a B with extra tuition and some juggling of module results to maximise my two final grades, and dropped out of a CS degree.
I liked coding for fun but really had almost no idea what CS was when I applied. So maybe the US system would have been better for me in that I could have dipped into a bunch of 101 courses and changed my major.
In the UK system, most people don't go to other subjects' lectures and if you don't like what you're doing, you have to apply from scratch. There's usually no way to change course at the same university or even get any kind of help or advice about finding an alternative elsewhere.
One of these years I'll work out what I should have studied and do that instead... actually, I probably won't, now it costs £30k+. I'm glad there are MOOCs so I can satisfy my urge to sign up for random things, watch one week's worth of lessons, and then never go back again, all for free.
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#36I'm reading part of the problem is getting good teachers, because the tech industry wants them as well. Would the tech industry be willing to cooperate with universities and help pay for teachers / make them available to give classes? It's their future employees after all.
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#37I made an account just to comment on this link as I have personal experience in the matter.
I graduated from a relatively good school with a degree in Computer Science, yet wasn't admitted into the major until 2 weeks before graduation. I spent my entire college career in Computer Engineering while taking Computer Science courses and (thankfully) was able to complete the curriculum without actually being a part of it. I lucked out as at my school Computer Science isn't locked down like many of the other engineering majors, so anyone can take a CS course as long as they meet the pre-reqs. It would be an understatement to say the experience was harrowing.
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#38Some universities rank those that are majoring in CS higher up in the registration chain, than those taking it for elective, those that are minoring in CS and those that are returning back to school. This means multitudes of students face difficulty in getting into their 100 & 200-level courses. At my school it isn't uncommon to have three sections of 300 students each in the 101 class and 300+ people vying for limit…
There is also a factor with lag in budgeting. When I first started computer science at my school it was a smaller department (maybe 2-3 intro cources of 50 people). When I was a JR, my department didn't have the budget to put out a off schedule OS course. The budget was consumed by 13 intro courses.
As I was graduating, my program not only had 10-13 intro courses but had 4x as many electives as it had when I started.
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#39Getting a weird sense of deja vu... colleges were oversubscribed for CS just before the dotcom bubble burst too.
It will take a few years to realize the potential of AI (either side), till then bias is positive.
Re: Hard Part of Computer Science? Getting into Class
#40I'm reading part of the problem is getting good teachers, because the tech industry wants them as well. Would the tech industry be willing to cooperate with universities and help pay for teachers / make them available to give classes? It's their future employees after all.
I've always really enjoyed teaching people about programming topics at work and I've often wondered about trying to volunteer at the local high school or something, but having a wife who has worked as a teacher and a mother who is a college professor I have zero illusions about how much work it takes to do this well. I'd need a pretty significant amount of support from an employer to even consider this and I've never worked for an employer that I think would have supported it to that degree.
It's probably something I'll never do despite being interested in it because it would be too much effort.