Computer Science Scheduling at Waterloo

[gosensgo101]

From what I've gathered, my first year will look like this:

Semester 1
CS 135
MATH 135
MATH 137

Semester 2
CS 136
MATH 136
MATH 138

And on top of that I get 2 electives each semester if I am correct in my thinking.

With that in mind, assuming its right, I have a few questions:
1. Do electives have to be non-math courses, or are there other 1st year MATH and CS courses that are available to CS students and would be useful/interesting?
2. Can someone direct me to a page that shows an clear outline for CS students? I've found a few, but none are very clear going past 1st year.
3. Any suggestions on either interesting/useful classes to take as electives?
4. I'm sure I had more questions in mind when I made this post, but they're escaping me. I'll ask them if they come back to me.

[jbking]

I'd just put the caution out there to be aware of a few different kinds of elective courses:

1. Courses with multiple choice exams that determine most of your grade. Math Elective 101, Economics, some first year science courses and various non-language arts courses are of this group. I'm not saying these are bad courses but I do think it worth stating somewhere that these courses are generally handled by doing previous exams in order to prepare. 6 of my 10 non-Math courses were of this type, including a couple Biology and Chemistry courses, a Math elective and a Macroeconomic course.

2. Courses with oral and short-answer exams. First year language courses are of this group and can be fun if you attend class regularly and put forth some effort. I enjoyed taking a couple classes French and Russian in my Waterloo days.

[chrisbrown]

gosensgo101 @ Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:39 pm wrote:

I get 2 electives each semester if I am correct in my thinking.

You are correct.

gosensgo101 @ Tue Jun 15, 2010 5:39 pm wrote:

With that in mind, assuming its right, I have a few questions:
1. Do electives have to be non-math courses, or are there other 1st year MATH and CS courses that are available to CS students and would be useful/interesting?
2. Can someone direct me to a page that shows an clear outline for CS students? I've found a few, but none are very clear going past 1st year.
3. Any suggestions on either interesting/useful classes to take as electives?
4. I'm sure I had more questions in mind when I made this post, but they're escaping me. I'll ask them if they come back to me.

1. Technically they don't, but I don't think there are any available first year. Besides, you'll have more than enough to keep you busy with the core three.

2. Checklists of required courses:
BCS
BMath(CS)

Suggested sequences:
BCS
BMath(CS)

And my personal favourite:
Just Awesomeness

3. If you're intrested in physics PHYS121 then 122. Philosophy is also fun, and complements the logical nature of math and CS pretty well.

4. We'll be here. Cheers.

[Brightguy]

1. Elective courses do not have to be non-math (so long as at graduation you meet your 10 non-math course quota). In first year there aren't really extra math courses you can take, though you can take STAT 230 in your second term if you'd like.

3. I got this recommendation from this board, so I'll pass it on: ECON 101/102 with Larry Smith (if not for the economics then for the showmanship). The only other non-math I took which really stood out was PHIL 145 (Critical Thinking) but it might not appeal to everyone.

chrisbrown @ Tue Jun 15, 2010 6:13 pm wrote:

Philosophy is also fun, and complements the logical nature of math and CS pretty well.

Though, it also contrasts with it as well... did you know you can just make stuff up and get marks?

[gosensgo101]

Thanks for the quick responses guys.

If there is one thing that I can do besides mathematical/cs stuff, its make stuff up.

A few more questions:

1. So by the looks of it, there are no CS or MATH prerequisites for classes in upper years that aren't the 6 required courses I listed?

2. Does taking physics open up any more doors than other non-math courses would?

3. What's the physics workload like?

4. How do the physics courses compare with High School physics? I got 86 in grade 11 and 76 in grade 12. Grade 11 I could've actually gotten 100% if I had of tried, I found grade 12 kind of challenging, but still could've worked harder.

5. Is there much paper writing in the core CS courses? Are there any english courses that would help with this?

[chrisbrown]

1. Those 6 give you everything you need.

2. Every course leads to a world of opportunity. Sounds cheesy but it's true. If physics interests you, there is a whole department dedicated to it. The same can be said about just about everything you could want to pursue.

3. About as much as a math or CS course, I'd say 4-6 hours per weekly assignment is a fair range.

4. Broadly, PHYS121 expands on grade 11 and 12 material, 122 introduces new stuff like fluids and basic quantum.

5. Nothing more than short answers on tests. Take english only if it interests you (my opinion).