My graduate program was interdisciplinary, and attracted students with a variety of backgrounds, including social sciences, math, and CS. So there was a huge n

My graduate program was interdisciplinary, and attracted students with a variety of backgrounds, including social sciences, math, and CS. So there was a huge need to have a survey class like this to get everyone to a common baseline level of knowledge. Some knew math but not programming, others knew programming but not math, and still others knew a little programming and a little math, but not quite enough of either.