Be honest: How smart do you have to be to be able to graduate with a BS in Computer Science?

Nocturnal

Lifer
Jan 8, 2002
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Please shed some light on this. I'm currently at the community college level finishing up my liberal arts.

I'm wondering how smart do you have to be in order to complete the CS program at a university level.
 

tnitsuj

Diamond Member
May 22, 2003
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Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Please shed some light on this. I'm currently at the community college level finishing up my liberal arts.

I'm wondering how smart do you have to be in order to complete the CS program at a university level.

How do you define "smart"
 

kleinesarschloch

Senior member
Jan 18, 2003
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Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Please shed some light on this. I'm currently at the community college level finishing up my liberal arts.

I'm wondering how smart do you have to be in order to complete the CS program at a university level.

i've met some pretty dumb people that had a CS degree... i think that anyone can complete the degree if they are motivated. it's not rocket science... ;)

 

CrazyDe1

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2001
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depends how you want to do...I could graduate a CS program with all C's doing 0 work. If I really tried I could probably get a 3.8...
I preferred to go the half try half BS route and got about a 3.2...I dont' think I'm all that smart either...CS is one of those things that if you hammer at it for enough time you'll get it...
 

Nocturnal

Lifer
Jan 8, 2002
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Originally posted by: TommyVercetti
You didn't say with what kind of grades? I graduated with a BS in Computer Science just this May.

What was your GPA at the time you graduated? Did you struggle/fail any classes whatsoever during your four years?
 

nativesunshine

Diamond Member
Jan 6, 2003
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Originally posted by: kleinesarschloch
Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Please shed some light on this. I'm currently at the community college level finishing up my liberal arts.

I'm wondering how smart do you have to be in order to complete the CS program at a university level.

i've met some pretty dumb people that had a CS degree... i think that anyone can complete the degree if they are motivated. it's not rocket science... ;)

Me too..to the bolded parts. But that person i know half cheated his way through cs. Yep...

But at least his economics degree was genuine. Thank goodness for that.
 

adlep

Diamond Member
Mar 25, 2001
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The classes are not that hard... but there is a lot of bussy work with them.
Although there is one class which is kind of difficult:
See the example here:
Data Structures and Algorithm Analysis
Look throught the material and notes...
It was a difficult class for me....
 

notfred

Lifer
Feb 12, 2001
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You need to be able to pass at least 2 calculus classes, and two calculus-based physics classes, possibly more, depending on what school you go to. You'll also need to be able understand some fairly difficult data structures like self balancing trees.
 

dighn

Lifer
Aug 12, 2001
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i think an average level of smartness should be enough if all you wanna do is graduate and you can spend a lot of time studying etc.


higher levels of smartness makes it all much easier & less time consuming, of course.

 

CrazyDe1

Diamond Member
Dec 18, 2001
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A background and good understanding of programming helps too. I had a friend who graduated in 3 years w/ a 3.6 and a 4.0 in CS going to 1/5th of all his classes. Programs that took other people all week and about 25-30 hours he'd do in a 1 night 5 hour session. This kid was smart as hell though. I'd ask him how to do something and he'd scribble all sorts of things on a piece of paper that no one could read or figure out and then he'd create something out of it that worked.

Oh yeah, this story is great. In DiffEq class he went the first day, left HALFWAy through the FIRST day of class never to go to class again. The first test he didn't know who the prof was and I had to point him out. Anyways, he ended up teaching all of us DiffEq at the end of the semester and ended up w/ a B+ while all of us who actually went to class pulled B-'s and C+'s...being smart helps..
 

Cat13

Golden Member
Nov 14, 1999
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I have 4 classes left for my Bachelors in CS and currently I am holding a 3.9. I don't feel I have struggled to hard, but in no sense am I saying it was easy. I did have a few classes that I had to put some lonnngggg hours into, but in the end I was able to get it.
 

Descartes

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
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A horrible question, really. You're asking someone to quantify the intelligence or another; this obviously assumes that those who are capable of quantifying the intelligence of another are more intelligent than those they quantify. We all know that those who are smart know that there is no way to quantify intelligence and therefore consider this question ambiguous and impossible to answer.
 

Nocturnal

Lifer
Jan 8, 2002
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Originally posted by: Descartes
A horrible question, really. You're asking someone to quantify the intelligence or another; this obviously assumes that those who are capable of quantifying the intelligence of another are more intelligent than those they quantify. We all know that those who are smart know that there is no way to quantify intelligence and therefore consider this question ambiguous and impossible to answer.

rolleye.gif
 

Ameesh

Lifer
Apr 3, 2001
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it really depends on what school you goto, i know some real idiots that graduated with MIS degrees. I know the CS program at UCSD is pretty tough.