Some random questions and some about UW - related to comp sci

[Rahul]

Hey everyone,

I had a couple of questions,

1) Is comp sci harder than engineering?
2) say i get into comp sci major in waterloo, can i change my major to something else maybe in second year or third, like go into Actuarial science. Its still in the math faculty.
3) do you need to be really good in programming to do comp sci

thats all i have for now, i may post some later. thanks

[Dan]

Rahul @ 8th July 2009, 7:01 pm wrote:

1) Is comp sci harder than engineering?

Thats rather realative, some peoleop might find one hard and another might find one easy. Also there are alot of diffrent areas of engineering making it even harder to say.

Quote:

2) say i get into comp sci major in waterloo, can i change my major to something else maybe in second year or third, like go into Actuarial science. Its still in the math faculty.

Most universites will let you switch programs if you have good grades and the correct perrquisites however most of your courses will not carry over (at least as anything but electives) so it would mean starting back at year 1 again.

Quote:

3) do you need to be really good in programming to do comp sci

Well computer science is not just about programming but it is a magor tool used in it and alot of the consecpts and algortims are expressed in code.

Universitis do not noramly have clases teaching indvidual programming langues (at least aimed at CS students) however there inroductory clases do start from the basics. Some professors auctaly perfure students coming in with less programming training from the high school level as they pick up alot of bad habits and ideas from poor insturction on that level.

[[Gandalf]]

Let me give this a try.

1. Yes, it's harder, but less work.
2. Yes.
3. No.

[DtY]

Is there anything not involving programming you can do with a CS degree?

[Prabhakar Ragde]

DtY @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 9:09 pm wrote:

Is there anything not involving programming you can do with a CS degree?

Yes.

[[Gandalf]]

Yes, you study in the field of computer science, for one. I dislike going into how programming is only a tool used in CS, however that's basically the gist of it. CS as a whole is more akin to math than programming.

Think about it the other way around, what can you do after studying CS that you can't with experience solely in programming?

[aramadia]

1) Is comp sci harder than engineering?
Depends if you take 14x series (super advanced) or not. Regular comp sci is a little easier.

2) say i get into comp sci major in waterloo, can i change my major to something else maybe in second year or third, like go into Actuarial science. Its still in the math faculty.

Changing to actsci is unlikely as its a high demand program.

3) do you need to be really good in programming to do comp sci
No. To do WELL in compsci, you'll eventually have to be pretty good.
And all this programming is just a tool bs is really just bs. Programming is essential to compsci.
For all your first/second year computer science courses, its completly programming. Luckily there are things such as theoretical computer science (more like math) but that means its pretty useless in real life. Thats why the comp sci program has a lot of other courses that aren't compsci.

[x30Jx]

more questions: can co-op students pay their way through with their placement incomes after the first year? Like pay for the first year or year.5, then be living off of the coop income for the rest?

On the this, is the Coop Computer Science program aka "Computational Math & C. S. Co-Op"?

Rez or House first year?

Are there really tunnels connecting the UW buildings?
THANK YOU for any info.

[jbking]

I can't help on most of the questions but on the last one, there are tunnels connecting some of the Science and Engineering buildings, IIRC.

[aramadia]

more questions: can co-op students pay their way through with their placement incomes after the first year? Like pay for the first year or year.5, then be living off of the coop income for the rest?
Yes its possible, assuming you get a job for your first coop term. Usually if you do, it might be low paying. It also depends on how much you like to spend. But its doable.

On the this, is the Coop Computer Science program aka "Computational Math & C. S. Co-Op"?
Computational math is a different program.

Rez or House first year?
Rez for first year definitely unless you a) know someone living off campus in waterloo b)dire straits for money

Are there really tunnels connecting the UW buildings?
There are lesser known service tunnels that connect other buildings too. But unless you are in engineering, most of the traveling is above ground.

[x30Jx]

aramadia @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 1:25 pm wrote:

more questions: can co-op students pay their way through with their placement incomes after the first year? Like pay for the first year or year.5, then be living off of the coop income for the rest?
Yes its possible, assuming you get a job for your first coop term. Usually if you do, it might be low paying. It also depends on how much you like to spend. But its doable.

On the this, is the Coop Computer Science program aka "Computational Math & C. S. Co-Op"?
Computational math is a different program.

Rez or House first year?
Rez for first year definitely unless you a) know someone living off campus in waterloo b)dire straits for money

Are there really tunnels connecting the UW buildings?
There are lesser known service tunnels that connect other buildings too. But unless you are in engineering, most of the traveling is above ground.

thank you. So what is the CompSci's fancy name? I cannot seen to find the price quotes for it, and I really need to know, esp. since they changes the 'Finances' page so that you can only get the info from the linked document. Or is the prie the exact same for both the Computational Math program and the Computer Science Co-Op program [seems kinda unlikely...]?

[Prabhakar Ragde]

aramadia @ Wed Jul 08, 2009 10:34 pm wrote:

For all your first/second year computer science courses, its completly programming. Luckily there are things such as theoretical computer science (more like math) but that means its pretty useless in real life.

Both of these statements are completely untrue.

[Rahul]

thank you everyone. I took comp sci co-op at waterloo (reg math courses, not advanced), I hope ill survive =/ lol

[hotwire]

x30Jx @ Thu Jul 09, 2009 3:01 pm wrote:

thank you. So what is the CompSci's fancy name? I cannot seen to find the price quotes for it, and I really need to know, esp. since they changes the 'Finances' page so that you can only get the info from the linked document. Or is the prie the exact same for both the Computational Math program and the Computer Science Co-Op program [seems kinda unlikely...]?

The fees (for fall 09) can be found here: http://www.adm.uwaterloo.ca/infofin/students/UG_Schedule_of_Fees_Fall_2009.pdf
C.S. refers to computer science. So "Computational Math & C. S. Co-op Year 1A" shows you how much you pay for your first term (coop program).

You can switch into ActSci in 2nd year, but they ask for a 70% average.

Also engineering seems "harder" because the curriculum is more restrictive, and a greater % of courses have to be technical courses. But the actual CS/math courses are probably no easier than in engineering. I think even the MATH13x courses are harder than engineering math courses.