5 ms·

Maybe I'm recent enough. I enrolled and took intro courses in Fall of 2001, graduated in 2005. My intro courses, IIRC "intro to CS" and "algos & data structures

by ahi 15y ago

Maybe I'm recent enough. I enrolled and took intro courses in Fall of 2001, graduated in 2005. My intro courses, IIRC "intro to CS" and "algos & data structures" were Ada. 2nd year Software Engineering was Java. I think students starting Fall of 2002 had an entirely Java curriculum. At the time I was kind of annoyed to be learning Ada rather than Java, especially because the faculty member who wrote the assigned Ada textbook couldn't be bothered to actually teach the course. However, looking back on it I think Ada is a better language for learning than Java because everything is so explicit. I still have Ada on my resume, mostly for shits and giggles. I'd take it off if I was applying anywhere that might ask me to prove it. EDIT: Reconsidering. Ada pushes you toward the waterfall development process which can be dangerous for newbs to internalize.

chopsueyar 15y ago
Out of personal curiosity, what was your reasoning when deciding to attend GWU? Would you recommend it to others?
- ahi 15y ago
  Location, location, location. Columbia said no thanks. CMU said "okay, but no CS major". Case Western offered better money and athletics but it's in Cleveland. Johns Hopkins seemed like 80% premed jackasses. I didn't consider Georgetown because when I was looking at schools my dad didn't want to pay for parking. I initially wrote out a very long description of GW before I realized you had attended. So shortened considerably: I went to grad school at U of Michigan and have come to the conclusion that most colleges/universities are basically the same. For such an important decision with such wide-ranging consequences, where you go to school is relatively hard to screw up. Undergraduate education is mostly foolish and cult-like behavior--Go Blue!--in a pretty setting where you can find an education and lifelong friends if you look for them. When people recommend a school they are usually recommending the cult. I went to Freshman orientation on my 18th birthday. I had been away from home a week and living down the street from the State Department and the White House when the Pentagon went boom. GW was my training ground for adulthood. The experience is so integral to who I am, to recommend it feels a bit odd.
  - chopsueyar 15y ago
    Thurston Hall?
    - ahi 15y ago
      Lafayette at 21st and I. I don't think I would have survived Thurston.
      - chopsueyar 15y ago
        You haven't lived until you've experienced 4 people living in a 400sqft room with one bathroom, all NAT'ing a single Ricochet wireless modem, simultaneously downloading MP3s from UPenn student's FTP sites. It was before Thurston had an ethernet network. All of the other dorms seemed to have direct fiber and media converters. 1300 people in a 9 story building. Especially fun, when a block from the dorm, somebody ran over a fire hydrant, and the water supply had to be shut off for several blocks, including Thurston (there were no tank toilets). 8 hours of clogged toilets on every single floor, including the public bathrooms and study lounges. ...or the false fire alarms, where all 1300 students evacuate from only two sets of stairwells. ...or when facilities management decides it is warm enough to enable air conditioning. Good memories. I have more, but this is enough for now.
hedgie 15y ago
"Ada pushes you toward the waterfall development process which can be dangerous for newbs to internalize." Why do you say that? We use ada with spiral development.

by ahi 15y ago

chopsueyar 15y ago

Out of personal curiosity, what was your reasoning when deciding to attend GWU? Would you recommend it to others?

ahi 15y ago
Location, location, location. Columbia said no thanks. CMU said "okay, but no CS major". Case Western offered better money and athletics but it's in Cleveland. Johns Hopkins seemed like 80% premed jackasses. I didn't consider Georgetown because when I was looking at schools my dad didn't want to pay for parking. I initially wrote out a very long description of GW before I realized you had attended. So shortened considerably: I went to grad school at U of Michigan and have come to the conclusion that most colleges/universities are basically the same. For such an important decision with such wide-ranging consequences, where you go to school is relatively hard to screw up. Undergraduate education is mostly foolish and cult-like behavior--Go Blue!--in a pretty setting where you can find an education and lifelong friends if you look for them. When people recommend a school they are usually recommending the cult. I went to Freshman orientation on my 18th birthday. I had been away from home a week and living down the street from the State Department and the White House when the Pentagon went boom. GW was my training ground for adulthood. The experience is so integral to who I am, to recommend it feels a bit odd.
- chopsueyar 15y ago
  Thurston Hall?
  - ahi 15y ago
    Lafayette at 21st and I. I don't think I would have survived Thurston.
    - chopsueyar 15y ago
      You haven't lived until you've experienced 4 people living in a 400sqft room with one bathroom, all NAT'ing a single Ricochet wireless modem, simultaneously downloading MP3s from UPenn student's FTP sites. It was before Thurston had an ethernet network. All of the other dorms seemed to have direct fiber and media converters. 1300 people in a 9 story building. Especially fun, when a block from the dorm, somebody ran over a fire hydrant, and the water supply had to be shut off for several blocks, including Thurston (there were no tank toilets). 8 hours of clogged toilets on every single floor, including the public bathrooms and study lounges. ...or the false fire alarms, where all 1300 students evacuate from only two sets of stairwells. ...or when facilities management decides it is warm enough to enable air conditioning. Good memories. I have more, but this is enough for now.

hedgie 15y ago

"Ada pushes you toward the waterfall development process which can be dangerous for newbs to internalize." Why do you say that? We use ada with spiral development.