Question

Is there a recommended OCW curriculum for non-MIT students who want to get a feel for what a Computer Science major would consist of?

Answer 1

hi, I majored in CS

Answer 2

so I can answer some of your question personally.

Answer 3

as far as OCW goes, you can search through the progression of OCW cs courses that MIT students go through

Answer 4

the most popular starting courses are MIT Intro CS 6.00 - very accessible, and SCIP, which has a cult following amongst a lot of CS enthusiasts (but is functional programming and *sometimes* not considered as accessible)

Answer 5

your milage may very

Answer 6

I did the CS program at Stanford. and I can tell you our curriculum consisted of:
Intro to CS, using very abstract programming languages programming robots at first, an then moving on to an introduction to C

Answer 7

object oriented programming techniques (the course that weeds out people not into CS *enough*) - very challenging course

Answer 8

some electrical engineering

Answer 9

and a lot of math - algorithms, discrete math, stats, logic being the most pertinent to everyday programming

Answer 10

now in retrospect - I think a lot of the programming can be self-learned if you have a lot of self motivation. by far the most important skills to pick up through formal instruction are general problem solving, logic, and other discrete maths. being able to decompose problems into more easily understandable components, and prove to yourself that they will work when you put them all together

Answer 11

MIT Intro CS actually forces you through this

Answer 12

even though you may not know it (kind of like karate kid when miyagi taught daniel to block via painting his fence)

Answer 13

So if you want to get to know computer science - MIT Intro CS 6.00 is an excellent place to start. Here's another one - more math oriented: http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-042j-mathematics-for-computer-science-fall-2005/

Answer 14

The single best attribute you can have as a computer science student is curiosity and swallowing your pride - above even natural ability

Answer 15

curiosity as in you will do a deep dive into any topic until you understand

Answer 16

swallowing your pride as in you will seek out the best resource available for a topic you don't understand, unabashedly - be it google, OpenStudy, stackoverflow - because you will earn best by looking for explanations that click, and learn faster than anyone that won't take that initiative

Answer 17

The hardest part by far is getting started. Programming is tough for almost everyone at first. A lot of my classmates preaches me on "code maturity" - a state you will eventually hit where you realize you can learn anything and code anything

Answer 18

It takes time - it took me through junior year college - but the important thing is to struggle through until you hit it. You'll know when you do.

Answer 19

Hope this helps! Dive in!

Answer 20

Also, have a look at http://www.eecs.mit.edu/ug/newcurriculum/SBCS_6-3.html : it's MIT's curriculum requirements for their CS program.

Answer 21

hi jackd

Answer 22

Wow, Chris--Thanks for all that! And thanks Shadowfiend for the pointer to their curriculum.