question for all you computer majors

[carolcat]

well you're probably more competent than 99% of people getting cs majors anyways

^^^^
so many people in my intro to programming course didn't have a single clue about anything in python

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[RedGajin]

p much what everyone else said, they’ll teach you everything you need to know. at my school at least, i am def regretting the degree, because everything im learning in terms of coding i could have taught myself, and all my other classes are just business bullstuff (accounting, management, etc)

[Aide33]

p much what everyone else said, they’ll teach you everything you need to know. at my school at least, i am def regretting the degree, because everything im learning in terms of coding i could have taught myself, and all my other classes are just business bullstuff (accounting, management, etc)

are you in computer science?

[Drydess]

out of curiosity what makes you want a cs major anyways? unless you've got plans you may want to have a backup plan if that doesn't work out

[devildogelite]

If you're going into CS without getting enjoyment out of CS you're going to hate it.  A lot of people I went to school with went CS because of the money but quickly realized they hated everything about it.

But as others have said almost all programs make the assumption you're coming in with zero background in CS.  Programs also vary a lot by school, at mine the intro course was in java, a single class on assembler, some classes using C++, and one that used C.  Most of the broad courses were choose the language that you're comfortable with and works best for what you're doing. 

[Headcrab Zombie]

this really depends on your degree and school

yeah true
I said that in the other part of my post but I guess it slipped my mind in that part

out of curiosity what makes you want a cs major anyways? unless you've got plans you may want to have a backup plan if that doesn't work out

CS is a really solid and dependable field to get in to. As long as you have the technical mindset it's not really something you can go wrong with.

If you're going into CS without getting enjoyment out of CS you're going to hate it.  A lot of people I went to school with went CS because of the money but quickly realized they hated everything about it.

This is true but it sounds like he does:

I already have a basic knowledge of syntax from my experiences with Torque and my knowledge in Python and JavaScript

[Plethora]

From what I've heard, matlab tends to be used more within a research environment, and python more where there's actual developing.  I just took a computer vision course this past semester, and we all pressured the prof to go over to python for next time around.

I started out in high school with C, then Java.  Rehashed both at college, learned, in order, L3 assembly, some C++, JavaScript, (I guess matlab counts), python, SQL, and am using C# for my capstone project.

As someone one semester from the end, here are my impressions, you may find them useful:

• Understand discrete math well, because it's the logical foundation on which most everything is built.  They weren't lying when they said that (some) math would be important.
• Machine learning is a big thing and has bled into every higher level course I've taken.  Look into it; you don't have to know the cutting edge stuff right away, but having at least a conceptual understanding of this stuff early will save you a lot of hassle down the road when you're trying to wrap your head around it and what it's being applied to.  Some beforehand knowledge on matrices, vectors, and the linear algebra that goes with them will be useful.
• Beyond just languages, familiarize yourself with development environments.  Eclipse, Visual Studio, etc. have a lot of functionality that most can't and don't use to the full.  Knowing how to use these and other tools (like git) well will give you a leg up.
• Network, network, network.  And do it early.  (duh)