I finished my first semester at CMU about a month ago. Here’s how it went.
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❤️ Principles of Imperative Computation (15-122)
Rating: 4/5, Time: ~10 hrs/week, Grade: A
This was probably the course I learned the most from last semester. I think this is because going in, I barely knew any “real” computer science (DSA, memory stuff, etc). I liked that they introduced contracts/safety early on.
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❤️ Matrix Theory (21-242)
Rating: 4/5, Time: ~9 hrs/week, Grade: A
This was definitely the hardest course I took and I learned a lot from it. Became a lot more comfortable with proofs + I think I actually understand linear algebra now, despite trying to “learn” it several times in the past (taken a class in high school, partially self-studied Axler, random bursts to understand ML concepts). Worth the struggle.
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Mathematical Foundations for Computer Science (15-151)
Rating: 2/5, Time: ~5 hrs/week, Grade: A
If you did competition math or math summer programs in high school, this class was probably just review. Didn’t really gain much from this class. Except for countability. Those problems were pretty fun.
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Introduction to Linguistics (80-180)
Rating: 3/5, Time: ~3 hrs/week, Grade: A
This was surprisingly hard for a gen ed course. Or maybe it was just hard because I didn’t attend a single lecture after the first midterm. Anyway, linguistics is actually pretty interesting. Phonology and learning the IPA was /fʌn/.
That’s it for my main classes. I also had Freshman Immigration Course and Core@CMU but those were just busy work.
I think the biggest lesson I’ve learned this semester is to actually go to lectures because the “time saved” from skipping is rendered redundant by how much self-studying you have to do to catch up. It’s also not worth the stress of cramming during exam weeks.
Next semester, I’m going to force myself to satisfy the above goal, as well as fixing my sleep schedule since I have mandatory 8 AMs.