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The US, especially liberal arts colleges, is pretty wary of premature specialization. A common thing here is that you apply to a university, take classes in a
by jefftk 8y ago
The US, especially liberal arts colleges, is pretty wary of premature specialization. A common thing here is that you apply to a university, take classes in a range of departments, and then by the end of sophomore year (two of four) you decide on a major.
I went to Swarthmore (referenced in the article) before CS enrollment surged (www.swarthmore.edu/computer-science/alumni) and there were some people in my CS classes who decided to start on a CS major their junior (year 3 of 4) fall.
- ataturk 8y agoAnd lots of people took 5-6 years to graduate, don't forget that part.
- Aeolun 8y agoI don’t get this. In the Netherlands I’ve studied for 4 years on hard computer science. Somehow someone from the US has done maybe 1.5 years of that and gotten the same degree?
- jefftk 8y agoHow many computer science classes are needed for your degree? I believe when I was in college it was 9 classes (each one being one semester, about half a year). I took more than that, because I liked it, but many CS students just took the minimum. (This doesn't count requirements outside the CS department, like math, or other graduation requirements like "some total number of classes, at least three humanities classes, at least three social science classes" etc.)
- chrisseaton 8y ago> How many computer science classes are needed for your degree? Most non-US universities don't work like this. You get a programme that you follow, sometimes with alternatives that you can pick from. You don't have a target number of classes or credits or hours to complete. Everyone takes the same classes (except for the alternatives) at the same time in one big cohort all the way through the degree. There's not much flexibility for a minimum or maximum - there's just the one set path.
- RandallBrown 8y agoMost majors have prerequisites to get in. I took CS classes during all 4 years, but wasn't considered a CS major until the end of my 2nd year.
- mcguire 8y agoI went to UT Austin and worked there until 2004 or so... In addition to the department (Computer Science, say) requirements, there are required classes for the college (Natural Sciences) and the university. A typical bachelors degree would be 120-130 semester hours, divided up into approximately 1/3 departmental, 1/3 college and electives, and 1/3 university and electives. Someone like me (and I know I was) would go into CS and take 1-2 CS classes per semester the first couple of years, then more after they have requirements out of the way and have the prerequisites for higher classes. Someone who didn't choose a major initially would take all the general requirements and electives until they did decide on a major. A semester hour is one hour of class time per week for a 14-15 week semester; most classes were three semester hours.
- tedmiston 8y agoIt's definitely different for US vs non-US schools, but I don't think counting in years is a good measure as it disregards depth, skipped courses, total # of courses, # of concurrent courses, etc. Even course stats like that are pretty handwavy. It's more useful to refer to the CS curriculum standards across ABET accredited schools. That said, we don't have anything like a comprehensive undergrad final exam for CS schools that would validate this.