Stanford and Pomona

aleaiactaest
Thu, 16 Apr 2015 00:11:25 +0000

@Planner Glad that I can help!

“For a prospective CS major, how many units would you recommend taking each year?”

It depends. The average number of units that Stanford students take per quarter is 15. This equates to about 3 solid classes, meaning that it is enough to keep you busy but not enough to really overwork you (unless, perhaps, those 3 classes are all really hard CS classes…). Also, 15 units x 12 undergraduate quarters = the 180 units required to graduate, so this unit load keeps people on track to graduate in time. To answer your question, then, it’s good to take around 45 units (i.e., 15 x 3) per year. That said, there are definitely some exceptions to this (see my answers below). As I mentioned earlier, you can also knock out lots of units with AP credit.

“Would taking fewer the first year, to leave enough time to adjust to college and get to know people, make sense, and if so, how many units would still be reasonable?”

Most of my friends and I would encourage taking fewer units freshman year, particularly during Autumn Quarter. It’s often said that adjusting to college is itself a 3-unit class. I personally didn’t take this advice (i.e., I loaded up Autumn Quarter freshman year), which is something that I now regret. I would say that you should not take more than 15 units Autumn Quarter freshman year. It would even be okay to take as few as 12 or 13 units (i.e., two solid classes and one small seminar that’s less work, which we call IntroSems). Since your son is interested in CS, I recommend that at the bare minimum he take the following classes during freshman year: CS106A during Autumn Quarter (5 units), CS106B or X during Winter Quarter (5 units), and CS107 during Spring Quarter (5 units). This will keep him on-track for a CS major. Note that he should skip straight to CS106B or X if he has prior programming experience equivalent to AP CS. He will also need to taking a Thinking Matters class (4 units) and a PWR class (5 units) at some point during freshman year, usually in different quarters.

“Is there a maximum number of technical/hard courses you’d recommend taking per quarter—for example, two of those plus maybe a course in the social sciences and another in the humanities?”

Yes. That’s the short answer. The longer answer is that it depends. In general, I would recommend no more than two STEM classes in any given quarter. Also, if he takes two CS classes, one of them should be a programming class (i.e., a class with programming assignments) and the other should be a problem-set class. I would not recommend taking two programming classes in any given quarter. You should also be advised that neither all classes nor all units are created equal. For example, CS107 and CS106B are both 5 units, but CS107 takes considerably more time and effort than CS106B. In fact, CS107 has a reputation for being a very time-consuming class (20-25 hours per week), so students are strongly advised to take CS107 with an otherwise light class load (maybe even with no other math/science classes). Some of my friends took both CS107 and CS103 (Mathematical Foundations of Computing) simultaneously and found themselves overworked, even though CS107 is a programming class and CS103 is a problem-set class. As another example of under-uniting: CS140 (Operating Systems Programming) is a mere 4 units but has a reputation for being one of the most time-consuming CS classes at Stanford. This is another class that should be taken with an otherwise light load.

Keep in mind that these are general rules of thumb and do not apply to everyone. I definitely know people who can handle three or more CS classes in a quarter, and one’s ability to take more CS classes simultaneously increases as one gains more experience with CS.