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Harvard's CompSci Intro Course Boasts Record-Breaking Enrollment

Posted by Soulskill on from the i-bet-you-liked-programming-before-it-was-cool dept.

alphadogg writes: Harvard College's CS50, the school's Introduction to Computer Science course for undergrads, has attracted about 1 in 8 students this fall — a new record for the school and yet another sign of just how hot this field is becoming for the job-hungry. Overall, 818 undergrads (or 12% of the student body) signed up for the challenging course this semester (PDF), and nearly 900 students are registered when factoring in graduate and cross-registered students. Topics on the syllabus include Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. David Malan, a Harvard CompSci grad, teaches the course.

17 of 144 comments (clear)

  1. Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 5, Insightful

    >Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript.

    That's computer science?

    What about algorithm complexity analysis, type theory, normal forms and well, computer science.

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    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
    1. Re:Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by SirGeek · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What about teaching "Data Structures and Algorithm Design", C/Pascal/Assembly Language ?

      Linux != Comp Sci ...

      This is why we have a generation of "programmers" who's solution to a problem is "throw more RAM into the system" instead of fixing their crappy code.

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      UPS Sucks
    2. Re:Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by i+kan+reed · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Because it's 101 and not 201?

    3. Re:Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Informative

      It seems to be structured as kind of an intro to programming, which is one way CS101 classes (in Harvard terminology, CS50) are structured. Not really an intro to CS the discipline, but a broad intro to computers/programming in general for people who may or may not go into CS. Traditionally MIT took the opposite approach, but many schools took this approach.

      Fwiw, you can find the 2013 version of the curriculum here (it seems to have been also co-offered as a MOOC). It does seem a bit like a grab-bag of "random stuff in computers".

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      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
    4. Re:Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

      When my community college could afford to renew the Microsoft site licenese for Visual Studio, the CIS department switched over to Java for all the courses. The Linux instructor fought back by teaching C/C++ and shell scripting in his UNIX administration classes.

    5. Re:Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by johanwanderer · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's CS50. It's not even a 100-level classes. This is their way of saying, pay us $X for 3 course credits and see if you would even like to continue down this path.

      The title should be: 1 in 8 Harvard students hopelessly undecided about Computer Science.

    6. Re:Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by Beck_Neard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you teach kids theory, people object that they're not being taught 'practical things'. If you teach them how to use popular software (like JavaScript), people object that they're not being taught enough theory.

      You can't win.

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      A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
    7. Re:Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by NitsujTPU · · Score: 2

      I can shed some light on this.

      This course is an introductory course for non-majors. That's why it's not like "Intro to Computer Science."

      The big deal with Harvard's CS50 course isn't that everyone wants to enroll in computer science, but that it is being taught in a very unorthodox way. Students have the option of attending lectures or watching video lectures online. There is a great deal of supplementary online material. They have all night coding sessions with food and games which are sponsored by businesses such as Microsoft and Google.

      More info can be found here: https://cs50.harvard.edu/

    8. Re:Linux, cryptography, HTML and JavaScript. by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's CS50. It's not even a 100-level classes. This is their way of saying, pay us $X for 3 course credits and see if you would even like to continue down this path.

      You obviously haven't bothered to look into Harvard's course numbering system (or credit system). Like just about everything else at Harvard -- from their wacko GPA system that had 15 points (instead of the usual 4.0) until recent years to the fact that they have a "concentration" instead of a "major" -- their course numbers aren't like elsewhere.

      If you want to see their CS offerings, look here.

      Basically, in Harvard's numbering system (which varies a bit by department), 0-99 are often undergraduate offerings, 100-199 are courses that could be taken by both undergraduates and grads, and 200+ are graduate-only classes. (Some departments with a lot of courses change the numbering so that the undergrad/grad courses start at 1000 instead of 100, and graduate courses start at 2000.)

      In many departments it's uncommon to take anything numbered 100 or above until your junior year (maybe earlier in CS, looking at their course offerings). So, saying this course is numbered 50 isn't saying much. In most departments, the generic courses for non-majors are often in the 1-10 or 1-20 range.

      And as for credits -- notice the catalog lists this as a "half course," from the old system where most Harvard students would enroll in courses that would last a full year (two semesters = "full course"). Harvard doesn't charge by the credit hour like a community college or state university might. They basically have a set tuition rate per semester and you're expected to take "four half courses" per term, five if you're ambitious. (You can take more -- generally for the same tuition -- but I believe it requires special overrides.)

      The title should be: 1 in 8 Harvard students hopelessly undecided about Computer Science.

      I have no doubt that some students are in fact taking this class to "try out" computer stuff, but it's hard to tell what those stats mean. Also, Harvard has a "gen ed" distribution requirement, and CS50 satisfies one of those distribution requirements. So, I'd imagine the bigger draw is "learn something in computers" AND "satisfy some stupid requirement," rather than "hmm... maybe I'll try computer science..."

      Anyhow, I know you (and most people here) didn't need to know that much about Harvard's wacko systems... but this post shouldn't be "+5 Informative" when it's based on wrong information.

  2. more a reflection of what Harvard decides by Trepidity · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Harvard gets far, far more applicants in every area than they can possibly accept to their relatively small student body. So shifts among disciplines and interests almost entirely reflect decisions on the part of Harvard admissions policies. They don't necessarily reflect shifts in either broader society or even the subset of society that applies to Harvard. It's possible they do, but it's also possible Harvard explicitly decided to accept more CS applicants for various reasons.

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    1. Re:more a reflection of what Harvard decides by Trepidity · · Score: 2

      Isn't it pretty explicit that the lights are on? Review of applications isn't some kind of blind-review process.

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      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  3. CS50 is available online by parbot · · Score: 3, Informative

    You can watch all the lectures online at http://cs50.tv/ .

  4. Re:I am shocked! by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 2

    You don't seriously expect English majors to read code?

  5. A liberal education includes computing by peter303 · · Score: 2

    I dont think it the reason is purely vocational (jobs). Young people know computers run the world and contribute to the human intellectual enterprise. Larry Summers tried to strengthen the S&E requirement for a Harvard degree (he was in my MIT class) and the faculty rebuffed him. MITs required six S&E courses for a degree makes them more liberal (broadly educated) in my opinion than Harvard.

    P.S. Computing is NOT one of the six MIT S&E requirements yet. But it comes up everytime the requirments are reviewed.

  6. Re:Computers and Computer Science by chubs · · Score: 3, Insightful

    No. Meaning every good astronomer can use a telescope, but not everyone that can use a telescope is an astronomer. You really should know how to program to do computer science, but programming computers is not computer science.

  7. Full course available online by plsuh · · Score: 4, Informative

    Folks,

    My son took the course last year as a senior in high school via iTunesU.

    https://itunes.apple.com/us/co...

    It's also available on EdX.

    https://www.edx.org/course/har...

    Heck, I took it way back thirty-odd years ago. :-)

    Also, here's a link to the original article in the Harvard Crimson:

    http://www.thecrimson.com/arti...

    --Paul

  8. Re:They will all get an A by Trepidity · · Score: 2

    Also true in actual careers like nursing fwiw. There's a nursing shortage (at least in the U.S.), and men are very underrepresented in the field, so nursing schools have been going out of their way to recruit men.

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    10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10