3 ms·

Holy crap, UW's CS only has 200 graduates per year? For a school of that size, that's tiny. That's close to as many as most Ivy League schools these days, and t

Holy crap, UW's CS only has 200 graduates per year? For a school of that size, that's tiny. That's close to as many as most Ivy League schools these days, and their undergrad population is usually around 1/5 that of UW. This is especially sad, as CS courses should be pretty easy to scale, especially when you have a group of undergrads who want to teach. Not to mention how hypercompetitiveness drives out diversity, especially of minds, because the more competitive it is, the more of the "correct" hoops you have to jump through. This means that, if you struggle in math but are highly artistic, and could bring a different perspective to your courses, you're effectively shut out.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
jacques_chester 13y ago
Most CS departments are small, because the 101 courses usually have enormous dropout rates. People come in thinking: I'll write apps. I'll write computer games. I'll be like the cool hackers in the movies. I'll be a billionaire. About halfway through their first cryptic gcc error message, these students discover that their burning passion is really for Arts or Business or whathaveyou.
nahname 13y ago
650ish enrolled with me when I went to school. It was down to about 250 after the first year. By the third year, only 4 of the 30 or so people I hung around with were still at it. Of all my peer group, I'm the only one currently programming (one's a QA, rest went to sales). Programming is way harder to learn than any of us can remember.
AlexanderMiller 13y ago
I was an undergrad TA for the intro CSE classes at UW, and I was impressed by the way the courses were run and proud to be a part of it, so it hurts me to read comments like this. You're right, there is a large pool of undergrads who want to teach, and the department takes full advantage of that. Unlike every other department at UW (that I know of), CSE pays undergrads to teach section (20 student classes that supplement the main lectures). Around 50 to 80 undergrads teach every quarter. Furthermore, the instructors are insanely dedicated to diversity of minds. They constantly try to incorporate different ways of thinking into their courses to encourage students who might not be the math-y or computer-y types to understand their own potential. As evidence of this: the principal lecturer of the intro classes, Stuart Reges, gives keynote speeches at educational conferences on the success of the UW CSE program in attracting and retaining women in CSE. There is a huge amount of diversity among CSE majors -- double majors in art, business, math, linguistics, etc. The problem is funding. Even though there is a huge demand for CSE degrees, the department doesn't have enough money to provide them. There's talk now of implementing differential tuition at UW, meaning that majoring in a high-demand field will cost you more than majoring in a low-demand one. This might allow the CSE department to fulfill the demand, but who knows if it's really a good idea. Sorry for the long winded reply! Didn't mean for this to stretch out. I guess I took your comment a little too personally. :)

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

jacques_chester 13y ago

Most CS departments are small, because the 101 courses usually have enormous dropout rates. People come in thinking: I'll write apps. I'll write computer games. I'll be like the cool hackers in the movies. I'll be a billionaire. About halfway through their first cryptic gcc error message, these students discover that their burning passion is really for Arts or Business or whathaveyou.

nahname 13y ago

650ish enrolled with me when I went to school. It was down to about 250 after the first year. By the third year, only 4 of the 30 or so people I hung around with were still at it. Of all my peer group, I'm the only one currently programming (one's a QA, rest went to sales). Programming is way harder to learn than any of us can remember.

AlexanderMiller 13y ago

I was an undergrad TA for the intro CSE classes at UW, and I was impressed by the way the courses were run and proud to be a part of it, so it hurts me to read comments like this. You're right, there is a large pool of undergrads who want to teach, and the department takes full advantage of that. Unlike every other department at UW (that I know of), CSE pays undergrads to teach section (20 student classes that supplement the main lectures). Around 50 to 80 undergrads teach every quarter. Furthermore, the instructors are insanely dedicated to diversity of minds. They constantly try to incorporate different ways of thinking into their courses to encourage students who might not be the math-y or computer-y types to understand their own potential. As evidence of this: the principal lecturer of the intro classes, Stuart Reges, gives keynote speeches at educational conferences on the success of the UW CSE program in attracting and retaining women in CSE. There is a huge amount of diversity among CSE majors -- double majors in art, business, math, linguistics, etc. The problem is funding. Even though there is a huge demand for CSE degrees, the department doesn't have enough money to provide them. There's talk now of implementing differential tuition at UW, meaning that majoring in a high-demand field will cost you more than majoring in a low-demand one. This might allow the CSE department to fulfill the demand, but who knows if it's really a good idea. Sorry for the long winded reply! Didn't mean for this to stretch out. I guess I took your comment a little too personally. :)