Potential BACS Majors Must-Read

Colleges & Universities University of Virginia
1

<p>Due to budget constraints and the realization that sociology may not be the most marketable major, my sibling reported that nearly all CS classes (as well as some Econ classes) were very difficult to register for this semester as they were all full. </p>

<p>From the chair of the CS dept:</p>

<p>There has been conflicting information about the Interdisciplinary BA in
Computer Science, the minor in CS, and restrictions on double majors. I
have been trying to resolve these issues as fast as possible, but it
will take some more time. In the meantime, I would like to clarify the
situation.</p>

<p>All our programs (BSCS, BSCPE, BACS, and the minor) have been growing
rapidly. There has been particularly explosive growth in the BA this
year (more than doubling!). At the same time, our faculty has shrunk due
to retirements. Unfortunately, hiring new faculty takes time.</p>

<p>In recent years, it has been necessary to give our majors enrollment
priority, in order to ensure that they get the courses they need to
graduate. The growth in majors has left fewer and fewer seats for
non-majors. The explosive growth last year and this year exacerbated
the problem to the point where it was barely possible to accommodate our
majors. Our resources are now stretched to a point that we cannot extend
or even maintain.</p>

<p>It’s wonderful that CS is so popular and we would like to continue to
serve everyone, and it’s very frustrating for us to have to restrict
enrollment. However, to be both fair to existing majors and not give
others false hope of getting into courses in a timely fashion, we must
suspend accepting most new BA majors, minors, and declarations of CS as
a second major (see some clarifications below) until we can get more
faculty and TAs.</p>

<p>Because we realize the suspension is disruptive to many students, we are
working with the University to find a way to accommodate more students
as soon as possible, and ideally remove the restrictions altogether. I
think everyone involved recognizes the urgency of this situation, and we
hope to announce some progress soon. In any case, updates will be sent
before spring registration.</p>

<p>Clarifications</p>

<ul>
<li>Minor declarations will still be accepted from 4th year students who
have either already completed all minor courses, or will do so this
semester.</li>
<li>For the BA major, without additional university resources, we can
currently only accommodate 25 majors per class year. As all current
class-year numbers are well above threshold, we generally do not expect
to accept new majors at the present time.</li>
<li>Students with majors with computing requirements and computing tracks
will continue to get secondary priority (e.g., Cognitive Science,
Electrical Engineering, Engineering Science, Mathematics, and Systems
Engineering).</li>
</ul>

2

<p>Does this affect the incoming BS/Computer Science majors?</p>

3

<p>No. But there may a problem getting all the classes you want in your second-year, unless funding increases. You may have to take more of the BS-specific courses. </p>

<p>This is a bigger issue for those that want to go BACS, whom I think outnumber the BCBS majors at this point. This may also mean general A&S students may not be able to take the intro CS classes until 3rd or 4th year.</p>

4

<p>It’s been mentioned on this board before, and I think now is a good time to repeat, for all incoming first year engineering students…</p>

<p>You will have a CS requirement unless you have AP credit. If you have room in your schedule to take it in the fall semester (AP credit for Chem for instance) please take advantage of this! You are looking at a much smaller number of students, as opposed to the spring semester. In the past Hazel had quoted the difference of 100 vs 400 I believe. That number could very well have changed, but the premise is the same. First year e’school students have the same requirements until you start looking at AP credits and can move things forward. Your CS is what you want to take fall semester if at all possible.</p>

5

<p>We have a student at UVA (SEAS) and got this and are NOT HAPPY. We know others that feel the same. This means you cannot minor in CS as was the plan. It really is bad for someone who could have gone to another university. </p>

<p>My student is only 2nd semester and already into the 2nd CS class. These problems just dont creep up on a dept and they should have planned accordingly. They should have told the students last spring before they confirmed UVA as their school of choice.</p>

6

<p>In addition to this, I’d like to say that yes, the classes are smaller, but it’s nasty to try and get in. I got priority registration (though I’m only a first year) and I still couldn’t even come close to getting in because engineers are required to take a class on the CS 111X track. 2nd years and older probably have it better but they try and schedule every possible first year engineer into CS 111X. I got in fairly easily in the spring, but the class is still ~1/2 engineers doing a pre-req. Add the math kids (+ a few other majors that require CS 111X) and it’s rough.</p>

7

<p>I’m doing the baCS haha. I wanted to take this human-computer interaction course, but my enrollment date got messed up. Class was open and a little less than half-enrolled. When I logged on to register the next day, I was already 80th on the waitlist. Yeah, never got into the class.</p>

8

<p>Haha I took HCI as a non-major in spring 2011, but that’s because I had worked for the professor and he pulled some strings to get me in. Got an A in that class. Best class ever. Horton doesn’t usually let non-4th years into that class though so on the brighter side if you have 1 more year you can get in next spring. We did a project about the death star at one point. Yup. Cool class.</p>

<p>The BACS did not even exist when I accepted my enrollment into UVA and the minor is completely useless to a math major - half of the classes you have co-req’s in the math department. It’s much more useful to e-school people though. This has been a problem the entire time I’ve been at UVA. The class in the spring is well over 600 including all 111x sections. Poor Professor Cohoon, his class is over 100 and he usually has only 60. I TA’d for him too, he runs an excellent intro class (minus only covering half of the material 1110 covers).</p>

<p>They had a number of faculty leave for non-retirement reasons (I know of 2 off of the top of my head) that they don’t want to talk about and can’t replace (not “it takes time” bs in that email) for various reasons. One of my close BSCS friends got a committee together his last year to express concern for all of this stuff so it wasn’t something that was a surprise, it just wasn’t published outside of the department.</p>

<p>Like I said, easy come easy go. I agreed to go to UVA knowing I couldn’t major in CS, and by the time I got there in the fall they had an A&S major that could not possibly fit into my other plans I had made by that point, and the minor was a poor fit. Now, there isn’t even a major. You’re right that they should have capped BA enrollment last year if they’re already over 25 per class.</p>

9

<p>MechWahoo, Thanks for posting this. My son is going to either major or minor in CS, and based on this info we’re almost certainly going to drop UVA from further consideration. As the stock pundits like to say, the trendlines are not encouraging.</p>

10

<p>hey hazelorb- you mentioned one of your BSCS friends got a committee together last year to express concern. What was the response from the UVA prof/dean/chair. </p>

<p>WE understand from others that the dept knew about this at least a yr ago and admitted to failing because they did nothing about it. We have a student in the SEAS dept and he knew exactly what he wanted to study going in. Now he won’t be able to get the cs minor. We know another family in the same boat. Both of these boys gave up better schools to go to UVA. They were never told last spring that the dept had problems in CS and you may not get your classes.</p>

<p>What irks us, is that they knew of problems but did not act upon them till recent. I should think that kids who are in the school know should not be affected by the dept making poor decisions and be allowed to take the classes they inteded rather than being shut out. </p>

<p>And why did prof leave. IS it the pay? And why are they taking so long to find someone (though I can imagine all the politics from last summer having an impact on this.) I woul dhope they began a search long ago, but saw a bulletin onlne that was dated dec 2012. kinda late. </p>

<p>I dont know what the options are–except transfer – I dont know what can be done to allow kids that were committed to the program in SEAS studying eng to allow them to take the CS as a minor or even double major… any ideas on what to do</p>

11

<p>A CS minor is not that useful honestly. They can get the same experience self learning. It would not be worth transferring over just to get a minor. I don’t have a CS minor and I was a TA for 7 semesters. I did independent study with professors when applicable. Math is an equally useful minor (it was my major).</p>

<p>It’s some shady stuff with the professors, I don’t want to post it on here. They literally did not have permission to hire to replace either of the two I know about until recently if then. There was a lot of budget stuff a few years ago (spanish minor also disappeared for example) and since the profs left under not ideal circumstances there was no incentive for higher ups to move money around to hire someone new.</p>

<p>I think the response was little from people in power, and overwhelming support from the 3 or 4 professors who get stuck teaching intro and upper level courses who are very overworked.</p>

<p>I also think it’s completely ridiculous that many eschool majors are capped but the BA was not capped. It’s about time there were fair procedures going around. I know the cap was 99% for systems engineers, but clearly there is a need in CS now so good for them for prioritizing.</p>

<p>Spanish got a lot of slack when it dropped its minor, but I haven’t heard anyone complaining anymore. CS will have a similar experience as they’re both useful minors etc. It’s too bad about the BA though but they overextended themselves and some professors let them down so they got stuck in a tight place. At least they’re acting now, though it seems it could have been handled much better (allowing all students enrolled as of the date of the letter to continue to declare if they had certain classes already taken). I wonder how much say professors have, if there are exceptions to this policy or not.</p>

12

<p>Subject: Interim steps regarding BACS and CS minor </p>

<p>As you know from my last announcement, the College of Arts & Science’s
Interdisciplinary BA program in CS grew explosively last fall (adding
almost 200 new majors just last fall), requiring us to temporarily
suspend new declarations while we worked with the university to
accommodate so many new College students. A side effect of the BACS
growth was that the large number of majors made it very difficult for
minors to get into enough courses to complete the program, so we
temporarily suspended that as well. </p>

<p>I am pleased to report that Dean Aylor has been able to arrange that CS
will receive some additional resources that allow us to support about 50
total BACS majors per class year. This means that in the current class
of 2016, we will have space for at least 25 additional BACS majors. We
will also be able to accept a small number of additional BACS major
declarations from the classes of 2014 and 2015. In addition, we will
have space for at least 25 SEAS students per class year in the CS minor. </p>

<p>This is just an interim step to ensure that we can meet more of the
demand for a CS degree. We are still working with the University to
accommodate much larger numbers of majors and minors, including minors
from outside SEAS, and expect to have more information before
registration for next semester. </p>

<p>Regardless of the eventual class sizes, we will need to institute an
application process for both the BA major and the minor, similar to the
current declaration process for SEAS students. For BA students, the
declaration process will likely occur in the student’s second year, to
align with College procedures. The exact process for the BA major is
pending approval from the College, but most likely will consider grades
in 11xx, 2110, and 2102; overall GPA; and a very short essay. We expect
to take applications and notify students before the start of course
registration for next semester.</p>

13

<p>Thanks MW. Glad to see movement on this. Hopefully we’ll see those caps increase again prior to next semester.</p>

14

<p>My understanding was that part of the CS department’s problem was that they provide an extensive course set for a large number of students from across the university and weren’t getting the cross-college funding to help with that funding load.</p>