3 ms·

Back in 2008/2009, I was lucky enough to be in the NU PhD program straight out of undergrad. I had the amazing opportunity, as a TA, to teach this curriculum in

Back in 2008/2009, I was lucky enough to be in the NU PhD program straight out of undergrad. I had the amazing opportunity, as a TA, to teach this curriculum in the second-semester CS course that all of the CS/SE students went through. This curriculum, along with NUs co-op model, creates some of the most spectacular engineers I've ever had the pleasure to work with. HTDP gives them the tools, and the the co-op gives them the experience. By the time they graduate, they are immediate contributors who are ready to accelerate and grow rapidly during those early years of their career. While my undergrad experience was exceptionally different (yet equally transformative), if I could recommend a model for teaching software engineering, it would be the structure developed by the folks who created HTDP.

adjkant 6y ago
Speaking as a combined BS/MS grad who TA'd the first semester intro course for 6 semesters and had the pleasure of having one of the authors advise me on a senior project type thing, a big +1 to this. I sometimes feel like I'm crazy when I tell people I wouldn't pick nearly anywhere else for undergrad CS, but time after time when I compare with peers on their experience, this model really is incredibly different and only a few others schools use it (the list is growing, but notable ones being Brown and Waterloo). If anyone wants a high level overview of the approach, I can't recommend this essay enough: https://felleisen.org/matthias/Thoughts/Developing_Developers.html https://felleisen.org/matthias/Thoughts/Developing_Developer...
- bostonsre 6y ago
  I went through the coop program at northeastern and it was amazingly pragmatic. You go to school for a career and they put a large focus on that part. They had classes like building resumes and their internship pipeline was amazing. They have tons of connections with companies and they help you with getting your foot in the door somewhere. After my first coop stint I kept working there part time through classes and I never stopped working through the end of school. I had a career and experience before I even graduated. Also, the comp sci classes were amazing like you said. I started out as a bored business major and took the intro class that used htdp and it immediately changed the course of my life.

adjkant 6y ago

Speaking as a combined BS/MS grad who TA'd the first semester intro course for 6 semesters and had the pleasure of having one of the authors advise me on a senior project type thing, a big +1 to this. I sometimes feel like I'm crazy when I tell people I wouldn't pick nearly anywhere else for undergrad CS, but time after time when I compare with peers on their experience, this model really is incredibly different and only a few others schools use it (the list is growing, but notable ones being Brown and Waterloo). If anyone wants a high level overview of the approach, I can't recommend this essay enough: https://felleisen.org/matthias/Thoughts/Developing_Developers.html https://felleisen.org/matthias/Thoughts/Developing_Developer...

bostonsre 6y ago
I went through the coop program at northeastern and it was amazingly pragmatic. You go to school for a career and they put a large focus on that part. They had classes like building resumes and their internship pipeline was amazing. They have tons of connections with companies and they help you with getting your foot in the door somewhere. After my first coop stint I kept working there part time through classes and I never stopped working through the end of school. I had a career and experience before I even graduated. Also, the comp sci classes were amazing like you said. I started out as a bored business major and took the intro class that used htdp and it immediately changed the course of my life.