Programming C, C++, Java, PHP, Ruby, Turing, VB
Computer Science Canada 
Programming C, C++, Java, PHP, Ruby, Turing, VB  

Username:   Password: 
 RegisterRegister   
 I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?
Index -> Student Life
View previous topic Printable versionDownload TopicSubscribe to this topicPrivate MessagesRefresh page View next topic
Author Message
pyrnight




PostPosted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:40 pm   Post subject: I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

I probably have decent enough grades to make it to waterloo. I was in gifted education, and I am capable of getting 95's but I'm usually to lazy, I'm sure next year in gr 12 I will finally get off my ass and try in school. I have around an 85% average right now (trying to hit 90%), but next semester is almost a garunteed 100% (comsci, com eng, tech, chemistry) so I should have a good overall average ( but this is just gr 11 so it doesn't matter all too much). The thing is, I've heard some bad stories about how much work you have to do....

I know I'm kind of just rambling here, but what I really want to know is, are you UW students enjoying your time, or being worked to death? Should I go?

Also, I enjoy programming for the most part, but not obsessively. I don't seem to really love doing any one thing.... Its the only thing that I haven't gotten bored of in a month so CS is so far my only option for what I would like to do as a living (but before I try to get a real job I'm definitely going to try to start my own business first).

1 more thing... I like fast paced teaching, I don't like to be taught things over and over again, or I just can't take it and lose concentration (the reason i have <80% in english class right now xD).
Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor
sponsor
Mazer




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:48 am   Post subject: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

I just hope you realize that Waterloo isn't a verb.
Clayton




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:06 am   Post subject: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

Mindless idiot on the internet wrote:
I just rofl'ed in my pants

Many things that aren't verbs seem to be used as one, so, just go with the flow?
Tony




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 1:37 am   Post subject: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

University is what you make of it. You can work yourself to death in any University, or sit back and cruise towards a general degree.

If you are going to Waterloo, co-op is definitely the thing to do. If you have a brilliant business idea, you should be working on that now already. Otherwise it's awesome to get some industry experience while you are thinking up that idea. It also helps a lot to take a break from school every 4 months.
Latest from compsci.ca/blog: Tony's programming blog. DWITE - a programming contest.
pyrnight




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 8:32 am   Post subject: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

I am working on a few business ideas of mine, and also trying to get some more clients for my little web design freelance.

Generally though, I'm still not totaly sure what I want to do out of school, so I guess I'll just take whatever oportunity there is and go with it.
PaulButler




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 11:56 am   Post subject: Re: I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

pyrnight @ Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:40 pm wrote:
I probably have decent enough grades to make it to waterloo. I was in gifted education, and I am capable of getting 95's but I'm usually to lazy, I'm sure next year in gr 12 I will finally get off my ass and try in school. I have around an 85% average right now (trying to hit 90%), but next semester is almost a garunteed 100% (comsci, com eng, tech, chemistry) so I should have a good overall average ( but this is just gr 11 so it doesn't matter all too much). The thing is, I've heard some bad stories about how much work you have to do....

I know I'm kind of just rambling here, but what I really want to know is, are you UW students enjoying your time, or being worked to death? Should I go?


I certainly don't feel worked to death, although it probably depends on the program. I'm in CS; there are three core courses in the first semester (2 math and 1 CS), all of which have one assignment per week. The assignments are long, but since it's all you have to do in a week, it's not usually a problem.

Quote:

Also, I enjoy programming for the most part, but not obsessively. I don't seem to really love doing any one thing.... Its the only thing that I haven't gotten bored of in a month so CS is so far my only option for what I would like to do as a living (but before I try to get a real job I'm definitely going to try to start my own business first).


I'm the same way; I would like to try a business or two first before getting into a career. Waterloo has a bit of a tech start-up community that puts on free events every few months.

Quote:

1 more thing... I like fast paced teaching, I don't like to be taught things over and over again, or I just can't take it and lose concentration (the reason i have <80% in english class right now xD).


This sounds like me as well. I think you will find university anywhere more fast-paced than high school, not just Waterloo. Since everything you learn in the core courses is in the textbook, you could potentially learn at your own pace if you like, or at least learn in the format you like. For example, if you prefer textbook learning to lectures, you might find you're better off skipping some lectures to read the textbook.

Waterloo's CS program is more math-heavy than most universities (from what I understand), so keep that in mind too.
HeavenAgain




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:01 pm   Post subject: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

Quote:
Waterloo's CS program is more math-heavy than most universities (from what I understand), so keep that in mind too.
oh crap....... if thats true...... then i might have to consider about other school, since im so bad at math...........
and yea... i know comp sci and math are related in a big way.... yeek Neutral
PaulButler




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 2:05 pm   Post subject: Re: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

HeavenAgain @ Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:01 pm wrote:
Quote:
Waterloo's CS program is more math-heavy than most universities (from what I understand), so keep that in mind too.
oh crap....... if thats true...... then i might have to consider about other school, since im so bad at math...........
and yea... i know comp sci and math are related in a big way.... yeek Neutral


If you don't like math, I know of at least one school (Dalhousie) that offers a CS program without a lot of math (they call it Informatics). I'm not suggesting you move all the way to Halifax (although it is a beautiful city Smile), but I'm sure other universities have similar programs.
Sponsor
Sponsor
Sponsor
sponsor
pyrnight




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:52 pm   Post subject: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

Math is totaly fine with me, and if I can skip lectures and just read the book that would be great. According to my computer science teacher I know as much as most students do after first year univ computer science... I really don't wanna be bored out of my mind.

Only 3 classes sounds nice Wink How long are they each? like 2 hours?
Ultrahex




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 4:00 pm   Post subject: Re: I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

If you are going to waterloo (and other universities also I suppose), I would recommend going to lectures even if they are painfully boring or whatever... (as i found them).

And If you really want to do well in university... ITS ALL ABOUT NOTES!!! NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES NOTES! is all i can say... make sure you have them well before midterms and finals especially. (Well at least for me). It may also help to have questions handy that were hard on assignments or other related course work.

Most universities have more then 3 classes per term... CS at waterloo has 3 main classes at waterloo. Your CS class,Algebra, and Calculus. On top of your main classes you have two electives. Your CS class being twice a week (2x1 hour 20 min), your algebra and calculus being each (3x50min) a week. Your electives will vary.

Keeping on top of your work is the most important thing to do, and keep it in good standings (as in do not... please do not blow off assignments till last minute like most first year students do... it is one of the biggest mistakes for leaning the course content.)

Remember that university is a choice, there is a fair bit of math at waterloo in the CS program as you can expect for a Computer Science Related Degree.
PaulButler




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 7:04 pm   Post subject: Re: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

pyrnight @ Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:52 pm wrote:
Math is totaly fine with me, and if I can skip lectures and just read the book that would be great. According to my computer science teacher I know as much as most students do after first year univ computer science... I really don't wanna be bored out of my mind.


I feel a bit guilty if what I said sounded like I was advising you to skip lectures. When I got here the advice older students would give is "go to lectures". What I was saying is that potentially, you might find you are better off not attending lectures. It depends on your learning style and your goals. If you don't learn well from a textbook, go to lectures. If you want really good marks, go to lectures. I found that personally by not going lectures I could cover a bit more of the textbook (and stuff from other textbooks) and still feel comfortable with the course material. It probably cost me in terms of my mark, but it was a trade-off I was willing to make. But don't listen to me over the dozens of people who tell you to go to lecture, they are more experience with it than I am.

Edit:
Waterloo will have an advanced Scheme CS course next year (CS145), which will hopefully provide you with enough of a challenge. In addition, this year there were three advanced lectures that we could go to, which were quite interesting. There were also several CS club lectures on advanced topics that were good. I think no matter where you go you will need to teach yourself some things to keep yourself from being bored, but at least here you will have the time to do that.

By the way, if your CS teacher told you that, you should definitely look into programming competitions; I think you would enjoy them.
pyrnight




PostPosted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 10:09 pm   Post subject: Re: I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

Yeh, I've done the junior waterloo contests, in fact, my friend Leigh won it.

I was just at Brock University for a extra after hours 'math club' kind of thing that my friend's father and his colleague put on every tuesday night. Its basiclly an opportunity for highschool students to learn more than the slow paced boring highschool curriculumn. He told me that a group of the CS students at Brock hold regular practice competitions, and that math prof is going to talk to the CS department and see if Leigh and I would be allowed to join Very Happy

I've been slacking off on programming for the last few months, usualy just tinkering with php and various e-business ideas, but now I want to get back into real programming ( thus the reason I'm back on compsci.ca)

I guess lectures would help a bit, but I usualy gather a lot more understanding by doing something, not reading or hearing about it. You could explain to me all you want about some abstract theory of anything, and I might not get it at all, but if you showed me, I would get it right away. This is exactly what happened when I was struggling with the "WTF IS THE POINT OF OOP" concept Razz

Thanks for the tips Very Happy
jernst




PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 2:04 pm   Post subject: Re: I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

pyrnight @ Mon Dec 17, 2007 9:40 pm wrote:
I probably have decent enough grades to make it to waterloo. I was in gifted education, and I am capable of getting 95's but I'm usually to lazy, I'm sure next year in gr 12 I will finally get off my ass and try in school. I have around an 85% average right now (trying to hit 90%), but next semester is almost a garunteed 100% (comsci, com eng, tech, chemistry) so I should have a good overall average ( but this is just gr 11 so it doesn't matter all too much). The thing is, I've heard some bad stories about how much work you have to do....

I know I'm kind of just rambling here, but what I really want to know is, are you UW students enjoying your time, or being worked to death? Should I go?

Also, I enjoy programming for the most part, but not obsessively. I don't seem to really love doing any one thing.... Its the only thing that I haven't gotten bored of in a month so CS is so far my only option for what I would like to do as a living (but before I try to get a real job I'm definitely going to try to start my own business first).

1 more thing... I like fast paced teaching, I don't like to be taught things over and over again, or I just can't take it and lose concentration (the reason i have <80% in english class right now xD).


I haven't actually gone to UW for CS, but I got in. Instead I decided to go to Laurier because I thought I would have more fun and all of that. In the end though I wish I had gone to Waterloo because of their reputation and for more a challenge. I found there were a lot of profs at Laurier who a) were extremely difficult to understand / very boring b) some that didn't care much about what they were teaching (one prof even got fired while I was there for making racist remarks and threatening to beat up a student after class) and c) the actual assignments were mostly quite easy. So thats just my two cents, thought it might be useful to hear from someone who chose not to go to UW. Good luck with the decision.
Prabhakar Ragde




PostPosted: Fri Mar 07, 2008 9:44 pm   Post subject: Re: RE:I could waterloo, but should I waterloo?

pyrnight @ Tue Dec 18, 2007 3:52 pm wrote:
Math is totaly fine with me, and if I can skip lectures and just read the book that would be great. According to my computer science teacher I know as much as most students do after first year univ computer science... I really don't wanna be bored out of my mind.

Only 3 classes sounds nice Wink How long are they each? like 2 hours?


Your computer science teacher may not have a clear idea of what first-year computer science students at UW do.

You take five courses (2 Math, 1 CS, two electives) per term in first year, and each one has three lecture hours per week, plus one tutorial hour, typically. Lectures are more intense, and you're expected to spend at least two hours working on a course outside the classroom for every hour you spend in a classroom, probably more.

Do not skip lectures. Most students who flame out in first year make that mistake.

For CS 145, you won't be able to "just read the book", as there isn't one textbook that covers all aspects of the course. Even the other CS options (CS 135/136) deviate significantly from the textbook at several points. --PR
Display posts from previous:   
   Index -> Student Life
View previous topic Tell A FriendPrintable versionDownload TopicSubscribe to this topicPrivate MessagesRefresh page View next topic

Page 1 of 1  [ 14 Posts ]
Jump to:   


Style:  
Search: