<p>Anybody majoring or minoring in computer science at Northeastern currently? I’m applying as a philosophy major, but am going to elect a minor in computer science. I’ll be a junior transfer. I’m just looking for some insight on the courses, and just how difficult they are for somebody who isn’t math oriented, but wants to be more math oriented.</p>
<p>To get a minor in CS, one of the first classes you would have to take is Fundamentals of Computer Science, it’s considered one of the hardest courses in the curriculum. It also weeds out all the students that take CS for granted. </p>
<p>It’s focused mainly on the basics and concepts of programming, you’ll be writing lots of programs and banging your head on the table trying to figure out a problem, but once you start to understand how everything works, the class becomes a breeze.
It’s not very math oriented, but more logic and such.</p>
<p>The later classes get more complex and math oriented. Which I’ve yet to take.</p>
<p>Well, I guess as a philosophy major, I shouldn’t mind the logic aspects of computer science. Of course it’s very formal logic, but logic nonetheless. Now that you mention it, I did check out the Northeastern class catalog, and I noticed that you could take Fundamentals of CS 1 and Fundamentals of CS 2 concurrently. Would that be crazy for somebody who is just starting in computer science?</p>
<p>I think so, especially if your not sure if you want to go with a CS minor, Fundies 1 is a great way to see if it’s something you want to keep pursuing.</p>
<p>Fundies 1 is a very time consuming class… there’s homework assigned every week that’s due in a week. The homework will take anywhere from 2 hours to 20 hours depending on how well you and your partner understand the material.</p>
<p>You might need to contact one of the CS advisors if you want to take both classes concurrently.</p>
<p>They will definitely not let you take both at the same time, especially if you have never had computer science. Not only do a lot of people discover in Fundies 1 that despite being good at math/logic/whatever, they are pretty bad at programming, but Fundies 2 is a java-based class that (while not using any programming language learned in Fundies 1) uses a lot of the concepts learned in it. Fundies 1 is hard, but a lot of people struggle with java so Fundies 2 can be very difficult for some people. Plus if you’ve never taken computer science, it can be a little tough to get your mind around some of the computer science ideas-- even if you’re a philosophy major. Also I personally think that cs isn’t so much ‘logic’ as it is ‘problem solving’, but that’s just my opinion (and some people consider them to be the same thing).</p>
<p>What above said is also very true. The homework can range from three hours with your partner in the first few weeks just filling in the blanks on vocabulary related problems to meeting several times a week in order to create a game, to pretty much taking over your life in order to edit that game to do the random things the prof wants it to do. </p>
<p>I’d advise you to take Fundies 1, because it’s a pretty fun class and you learn a lot about programming, but don’t force yourself to try for a cs minor if you aren’t meant for one. A LOT of cs majors drop out because they are decent with computers in high school so they just assume they’ll be good cs majors. CS is a lot more difficult than most people think it is and it is NOT just programming. Take Fundies 1 and then move onto the harder ones if you can; if you take both I’m nearly certain you’ll regret it.</p>
<p>Very good posts. Thank you.</p>