Should you major in Computer Science if you suck at math ?

[CrimsonTider]

Of course they are good at math, but they will readily admit that those who put in the work and practice can do better at math as well. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses. Performance in math has very little to do with brain function, as neuroscience is the study of brain function and the nervous system. The whole left brain right brain theory is a fallacy. The brain works in concert, some may have strengths in problem solving and analyzing, that's not to say one can't work on those strengths. With practice you can. Some reach cognitive decline earlier than others, some have developmental delays, and cognitive impairments, but generally for those with normal functioning brains - they all work the same.

STFU

 

[Elle Driver]

Well I never disagreed with that, i'm just saying that if your goal is a CS degree, you gotta deal with the testing bullshyt. Some people simply aren't cut out for that.
However if you want to become a Dev, fukk CS its not that crucial.



Vanderbilt didn't do jack shyt to make him a good programmer. He was a good programmer before he stepped onto that campus.
Not to shyt on Vandy, but I took an Assembly Code class at UTD one summer that was conceptually lightyears ahead of anything I learned at Vandy.

Granted I was a CE major but still.

Going back to what @Elle Driver said, and this is something I've said multiple times on this board, I feel that if you want to get into programming... CS and CE is not the way to do it.
It would be like wanting to learn Spanish and someone telling you the only way was to Major in Spanish in college
Or wanting to learn how to play an instrument and someone saying the only way to learn was to go to a music college like Berkeley

I dont want to get on my anti-college soapbox, but undergrad is utter bullshyt. If i had to do it again I would have gone to a community college, xfered to state school, and avoided over 100k in debt. Fukk private colleges

Wow that's ridiculous. I never would've gone to a private school if I didn't have a scholarship.

 

[thelonious21]

Yall the 6 cert niccas..

 

[Gold]

Wow that's ridiculous. I never would've gone to a private school if I didn't have a scholarship.

I scholarships amounting to around ~100k total

At the time I went, for students in the shool of eng, the cost was 208k if you completed your degree in 8 semesters.

Private school is fukkin expensive

 

[agnosticlady]

Well I never disagreed with that, i'm just saying that if your goal is a CS degree, you gotta deal with the testing bullshyt. Some people simply aren't cut out for that.
However if you want to become a Dev, fukk CS its not that crucial.



Vanderbilt didn't do jack shyt to make him a good programmer. He was a good programmer before he stepped onto that campus.
Not to shyt on Vandy, but I took an Assembly Code class at UTD one summer that was conceptually lightyears ahead of anything I learned at Vandy.

Granted I was a CE major but still.

Going back to what @Elle Driver said, and this is something I've said multiple times on this board, I feel that if you want to get into programming... CS and CE is not the way to do it.
It would be like wanting to learn Spanish and someone telling you the only way was to Major in Spanish in college
Or wanting to learn how to play an instrument and someone saying the only way to learn was to go to a music college like Berkeley

I dont want to get on my anti-college soapbox, but undergrad is utter bullshyt. If i had to do it again I would have gone to a community college, xfered to state school, and avoided over 100k in debt. Fukk private colleges

I went to Community College my first two years. I just finished and I received a full ride to the school that I am transferring to. Going to community college is one of the best decisions that I have ever made. I was able to network and gain life experiences that will help me in the long run. I am glad that I made my mistakes at CC than at University. I never paid out of pocket for anything, and I received scholarships with over $6,000 in refund checks each year. My classes were smaller (of course private schools have that too) so I was able to become personal with my professors and develop great relationships with them. The only time I would tell someone not to go to community college is if they receive a full ride that will cover all four years. I know people who laughed at me for attending CC and they are not even done with their degree yet have more than $10,000 worth of debt. I promised myself in high school that I refuse to go into debt for my bachelors. My only regret is having a 3.30 GPA. I worked full time while going to school full time. I had a 3.54 GPA. I promise to myself to maintain a 3.5 or higher at the school that I am transferring to. I WILL get into a fully funded masters program

Am I saying that CC is the only way? Absolutely not, but it is a great option that I wish many would take advantage of.

 

[BasketCase]

Mostly spam bots in python (programs that post my advertisements to various websites) and simple desktop applications in C#.

A poker bot isn't my goal, but I was poker player and have spent thousands of hours playing NL Texas Holdem... which is why I know that creating a good poker bot isn't a trivial project. Just thought it would be helpful to hear how you worked your way up to tackle a project like that.

I didn't work my way up. The main reason I decided to build a poker bot was because I wanted to become a better programmer by pushing myself with a challenging project. I didn't wait for experience before I started, I started to get experience.

My goal is to work on more complex problems, and eventually work myself up to working on the most complex programming problems. I didn't even know what programming was 3 years ago so the biggest hurdle has been getting my confidence up to know that it is something that I can do.

I prefer to get started immediately instead of working my way up with less difficult projects. Start simple and then add complexity. Instead of creating a 100BB full ring bot, start with a 10BB heads up bot. Make it play simplified versions of the game like raise/shove before tackling the real thing etc. First get it going then get it good. I didn't think about building a winning bot in the beginning, I just wanted to get something up and running.

 

[↓R↑LYB]

Nope. You will take every math the school offers as a part of a computer science curriculum. And it makes sense as a lot of coding is math at it's heart. He'd probably take less math going in engineering to be honest.

Go deeper breh. Because I've written all types of code and outside of basic arithmetic, there's very little math involved

 

[↓R↑LYB]

Since when?

Physics, Physics, 2, Discrete Mathematics, Discrete Mathematics 2, and statistics.

I fukking hated math

 

[Software]

I'm majoring in computer science and the highest math I have to take is Linear Algebra which is right after Calc 2.

Computer Science is more coding and understanding algorithms. Math isn't a huge component at all really.

I suggest you take all your math courses over the summer in community college, because that shyt is hard af

at a four year university! Same with your sciences, I gotta take two science courses and lab.

If you put in the necessary work, nothing is too hard.

My nikka Im beginning to think we are the same person...

 

[Software]

As a person who's fresh in the game.

Where could I start and what I could I read to build algorithms?

Learn about discrete mathematics, big o notation and the growth of functions, study commonly used algorithms and try to work out their efficiency then start creating your own using problems from the Internet ans try to get the lowest order of growth possible
This is more about training yourself to think rather than memorizing things

 

[CarltonJunior]

Nope, this is why I switched to IT.

I was fine at programming but Calc 2 had me like



Though it wasn't a case of being bad at math so much as that I wasn't used to having to study anything (and the fact that it was taught by a Chinese TA I had a hard time understanding).

My plan is to finish my IT degree and get in the field, and sometime down the line go for a CS degree

 

[root_eruditorium_org]

I don't have time to read through the whole thread so I'm probably repeating what somebody's already said.

(1) The math in CS isn't really math. It's joke math. You are only going to go into the formalisms used to describe algorithms, whether it be their complexity class, their run times, the theory behind computation etc. Boolean algebra nikka? loool. If you go the machine learning route then you will be learning stats (i took my machine learning course with some stats majors and the class was a piece of cake to them). You will learn basic calculus (multivariate) but you won't go very deep because you don't need it that much for most things in CS.

(2) How do you know you suck at math? When I ventured into CS I didn't have a math background. So I didn't know enough to be like "aye this has too much math, it ain't for me". When I first did my first discrete math class, it kicked my butt big time. Hated the shyt. But then I got used to it. & then when i started reading popular math books on the side and got a broader context on the content everything started to make sense slowly and stuff that used to piss me off stopped pissing me off. Now I love math and wish I'd done a math major. I'm not Euler, Gauss,Von Neumann or anything like that (notice how they are all German), I'm just like most ppl, the stuff is hard to digest initially but you've got to stick with it. I think it was Von Neumann who said that you don't "understand" math, you just "get used to it". Now I'm not saying that it's all kumbaya, anybody can learn math, I understand some ppl just won't grok it no matter what, but you have to give it an honest effort before you give that shyt up. There's so many nikkas who don't take math serious and it saddens me. If nikkas took math serious and it was something that was held in high regard in our culture I'm certain we would body that shyt. We need at least one nikka to win the fields medal brehss.

So in summary, it's all context dependent, but I'd advise you to take the chance on CS, however slim. You shouldn't shelve it on some "its too hard" right off the bat. A lot of cats have been there and it turned out fine for us.

 

[Kitsch]

 

[Geek Nasty]

If you want a degree, hell no. I had to take a senior level applied probability class and linear algebra class that you won't make it through if you're not at least good at math.

And, anyone saying you don't need math in CS is full of shyt. CS is nothing but applied math. You may not take all the engineering physics and sophomore level calc classes, but CS is basically all math.

 

[Renegade47]

i'll tell you what my calculus professor told me. math is used as a filter with alot of these degrees.

when i was studying computer science math wasnt really a factor.

its more about logic.

its a pain in the ass tho. i hated it.