Stanford and Pomona

aleaiactaest
Sat, 11 Apr 2015 06:17:10 +0000

1. An Econ and CS double major would be hard. As you can see in this chart:

http://exploredegrees.stanford.edu/undergraduatemajorunitreq/#text

Econ requires at least 80 units, and CS requires at least 96 units. That mean’s that you’ll be spending approximately all of the 180 units required for the undergraduate degree on your majors. You’ll have little (if any) time to explore other areas, and going abroad or to Washington DC during the school year will be hard. Having said all of this, though, I do know people who are doing this double major. They typically take 18 to 20 units per quarter, whereas the average Stanford student takes about 15 units per quarter. This means that they’re busier than average with academic work.

2. Except for the first week of classes, it always feels rushed. Most classes do not spend a “sufficient” amount of time on most topics. In fact, for any given class that you take, there is probably another class that spends the entire quarter on one topic from that class. For example, CS103 (Mathematical Foundations of Computing, which is part of the CS core) covers Logic, Compilers, Algorithmic Analysis, and some applications of discrete math to cybersecurity (among other topics) in 10 weeks. To spend an entire quarter on any one of these topics in particular, you can take Phil 151, CS161, and CS155. Another example: Math 51 covers the basics of linear algebra in 6 weeks, so for a complete, quarter-long course on linear algebra you need to take Math 113. You should also know that some professors attempt to cover a semester’s worth of material in a quarter. For example, Econ 1 covers both Microeconomics and Macroeconomics in one quarter, whereas (I think) these are distinct classes at universities that are on the semester system.

Having said all of this, I cannot say that we feel more rushed than students at semester system schools, as I’ve never attended such a school. I can say, though, that when I do some reflection after a quarter, I’m usually amazed by how much I’ve learned in just 10 weeks. In CS106A, for example, you go from knowing nothing about programming to building a miniature version of Facebook in 10 weeks. The quarter system also gives you the opportunity to take more classes (12 per year versus 8 per year, on average) than students at semester system schools.