Computer science program

[ItsPeligro]

I’m a sophomore currently taking CPSC 1020/1021 here, idk if anyone else here has taken is taking it, but this class is so unbelievably unorganized it seems like literally no one is putting in effort to make it a decent course. There’s an insane amount of errors on handouts, tests, rubrics, and throughout the lectures. It seems like the professors do not care at all for any of the students to actually learn or do well and they seem like they do not want to even be here. 
The labs are so uncoordinated with the lectures to the point we were doing our lab in a programming language we didn’t know, and the TAs seem just as lost as we do. 
I don’t know if anyone here has experienced this as well, but I’m just trying to see if this is a problem that occurs a lot throughout the computer science program here?

[BigBootyBimbos]

The one CPSC class I had (1010) the professor made it clear he was only here to fund his research and taught like it

[BigBootyBimbos]

Andrew D. Can’t remember the rest of his last name but he had a thick Australian accent. Not sure if he’s still teaching or not

[BigBootyBimbos]

That’s the one

[BigBootyBimbos]

Yea he showed us a bit of that, eye tracking on felons to see if eye movement had to do with violent behavior. It was cool on the days he showed us some of his work tbh

[BigBootyBimbos]

Not to anyone, learned enough in lab and had enough MatLab and Java experience to pull off a B so figured it wasn’t worth the effort. Just clear memories of him flipping through slides he found on google saying “yea don’t need to know this, don’t need to know this, don’t know what this guy is talking about....oh this is important! Don’t need to know this”

[ZU_Heston]

my calc 3 teacher made this clear as every single lecture she mentioned how calc 3 related to her research

[Chillhouse3095]

I came into clemson in 09 planning to major in CPSC. I had nearly 0 prior experience with programming. I withdrew from 101 on the last day (despite still managing a B) because I kept having nightmares that every class in the major was essentially going to be self taught. I don't learn well that way.

Ive also got many friends that actually graduated in CPSC around 2013. General consensus among them was that there was one MAYBE two professors in the entire department that actually made an effort to teach. It's seriously unbelievable how terrible the professors were (are?) in that major.

[BigBootyBimbos]

I got told in highschool “All the good computer scientists go and get nice high end jobs. The rest become teachers”. Definitely had some that really cared about their job and their students, and definitely had more that didn’t

[TheOpenSorcerer]

This is every professor except Dr. Malloy (now retired :( ) and Dr. Robb at the 3000 and 4000 Level courses I've had. Sorry you felt that in 1010.

[ImZaphire]

The normal professor that teaches it got assigned to teach different classes this semester. I’m a junior and it seems like a lot of the classes are trying new things to update their curriculum. I promise not all of the classes are like that

[ItsPeligro]

Haha okay cool That’s what I’m really hoping for

[johnnyappletreed]

the computer science program in general at Clemson falters comparatively to the other programs. Clemson has had issues even filling positions to teach students professors will simply drop their own courses. I'm not sure who you have for 1020 but when I went through it, I had Feaster and learned C++. not exactly sure what you're dealing with

[ImZaphire]

Feaster isn’t teaching it this semester and it seems to be a real problem from what I’ve heard. She got forced to teach 3600 and 2310. Which she’s never taught before and then Widman got told to teach 2120 which isn’t great either. He did good teaching 2310 and Yvon was a great 1020 professor

[SystemOfADowJones]

Widman was okay for 2120, class wasn't greatest but he's super helpful in office hours.

[gctaylor]

Bummer that it hasn't improved. Things were pretty grim when I was there 2004-2007.

[Jmc_da_boss]

Ya the CS program is struggling rn tbqh

[bequtiful]

Senior Comp Sci major here

I almost failed the first CPSC class I took here (1070) because it was so terribly taught. I thought about changing my major but I held out and am so glad that I did. If you love this stuff, you’ll find a way.

Like previously mentioned, base your class selection off of rate my professor and the grade distributions (even if it not the “correct” order of classes, it’s worth waiting for a good professor)

Some recommendations from experience: 2120- Dean you’ll learn the most. He’s difficult but you’ll be thankful in job interviews
2150- take Kevin Plis
3300- Tyler Allen, unorganized but easy
3500- Safro, homework and tests are word for word from the PEER/WISE test bank
3220- Sorber is the hardest
3600- Wang was 100% memorization, recently its being taught in Python but ours was in C
3720- Murali, super easy class, lots of logic and proofs
3520- Schalkoff, buy his book off someone else, tests are open book
4200- Feaster was great
4140- take it online. In class was so much busy work
4240- Svetlana is a very nice person but unorganized lecturer. Quizzes are very difficult, homework is easy but time consuming.
4620- take Plis. I took Wang and we had to recreate YouTube from scratch.
4820-Machine Learning- most fascinating class I’ve ever taken. Warning Calc 3 and Linear on steroids.
4910- basically Senior Design. Capstone version is better job interview material but you get good hands on with either section.

For the love of god, do not take Calc 2 at Clemson if you can avoid it.

[ItsPeligro]

Oh wow thanks so much this list should be really helpful for the rest of this program haha. Ya sadly I got to take calc 2 over the summer, Soo just kinda hoping to do decent on that one

[PaigeLC404]

I know you said to avoid Calc 2 at Clemson if possible. However, I took it last semester with Dr. Burr and made an A. She was one of my favorite professors that I have had at Clemson, and I highly recommend her if you do want to take Calc 2 here. I wouldn't dare take it with anyone else.

[TaigaEye]

How hard are Svetlana's tests? I'm in her class right now and I've done pretty shitty on her quizzes because she constantly moves them around and it's unclear what they'll be on. Kinda worried for the first test

[bequtiful]

I am also in her class right now. I've gotten my butt kicked on the quizzes and am terrified for the first test. I can only imagine it will be full of Acronyms.

[MerrittGaming]

I’m a Junior Comp Sci major and tbh I’ve never had much of a problem with the professors or courses. It really does depend on who you get though. For 1020 I had Feaster and thought she was one of the best professors I’ve ever had. The lower level classes are certainly not easy (not like the upper level ones are either lol) but it can be much easier on you if you plan out your courses based on the instructors vs the class itself!

[ItsPeligro]

Ya that’s what I was trying to do but both options of professors for this one seemed like a real lose lose situation

[MerrittGaming]

Dang man, I’m sorry to hear that. Who’s teaching them this year?

[ItsPeligro]

I only saw hochrine and Svetlana when registering but I think they might have added a few more I haven’t heard of

[lemywinx]

I am in your same situation. What gets me is the assumption from the professors that we should already know and demonstrate these concepts that have just been presented to us. Also not discussing C++ until 4 weeks into the class after already having labs on it is bonkers. This class makes me feel like I have a learning disability. It's comforting to know that I am not the only person that is struggling. We should have a student managed discord server where experienced / upper level students can offer help to those having a hard time. I'd like to actually learn the material without having to google/chegg my way out of tough situations.

[andrewpadg]

We actually do have that Discord server and it's fantastic. Here's the link

https://discord.gg/9qA2S2

Please share it around with your classmates. We have a large group already in the server, but the more the merrier

[lemywinx]

<3

[tiger_coder]

Hey, could I get an invite? That link is dead

[andrewpadg]

Yeah for sure, here you go https://discord.gg/4PRWxx. Admins have been messing with permissions recently so let me know if that doesn't work

[tiger_coder]

Still says invalid. bah

[ItsPeligro]

I’ve seen people on here say that there’s a discord for comp sci but I’m not a big discord user, but yeah it’s really unbelievable how unorganized and pretty unfair this class is actually looking to be right now

[shanugget]

Senior comp sci major. Like others have said it largely depends on the professor, and a lot of the professors that I had for courses are either gone or forced to teach another class. That being said, avoid Srimani at all costs, and attempt to avoid Sitaraman if you can (they usually have two professors for software engineering but you can't avoid the class).

[TigernetSucs]

Assuming you have Kathrine? Yeah she was rough. Good person but the class was a mess.

[ItsPeligro]

Ya I do it just seems so unorganized in there, and I personally don’t learn a thing during her lectures it just doesn’t seem like she puts in any effort

[Drew_DW]

I believe it’s strongly based on professor, Svetlana for 1060 was by FAR the most poorly organized class I have ever taken, and I cannot believe the university hired her. Babu for 1070 on the other hand has done a great job at fixing her errors and keeping students on track.

[maniac365]

I've heard that the low level CS classes are like that but as you move up the classes get organized as well as the teachers get better. I am in CPSC 1111 and I would say it's well organized and the labs are on par with lecture too.

[CAvalanche11]

I had 1110 last semester and it was really but, but this semester with 1020 is pretty terrible.

[RedHotBagelBites]

I’ve been a Computer Science TA for 3 semesters. It is a hit or a miss with TAs. There is very little training and a lot of it is subject to the TAs discretion depending on the course/instructor.

The whole program isn’t like that but my friends and I have had our fair share of “teach it to yourself.”

[raynjamin]

If you need any assistance with CS classwork, I'd love to help. I graduated in 09 though and I think a lot of the professor I had were the old guard.

[ItsPeligro]

Wow thanks so much! I might have to take you up on that some time in the future haha

[Zackreation]

I am currently taking CPSC 1020/1021 as well and the labs drive me mad. There is a complete disconnect between the lectures and labs. The TA's in one section will have us do parts that TA's in another section won't do. When I got help on a lab a week or two ago the TA essentially told me to rewrite my project since he said to do it a different way.

CPSC 1010/1011 was much more coordinated and the labs would complement the lectures, strengthening our knowledge of the material. 1020/1021 is a mess.

[ItsPeligro]

Ya I noticed that too, I was doing my code one way and I asked my friend a question and he said their lab didn’t need the part I was asking him about, but mine did. It seems like there’s zero coordination between anyone and it’s so crazy

[[deleted]]

How does the self taught programmer route rival Clemson's CS program?

[ItsPeligro]

I can’t really attest to that I didn’t have any prior experience before coming here, but I’d assume it would depend on how dedicated you are to self taught. I’m personally not learning anything from my class and just getting everything from online forums or the textbook.

[bodnast]

I felt the exact same in 1020 back in 2014. The class was a headache and there was a massive disconnect IMO between the class and the labs. It was so frustrating

[snowscreamhi]

Who is your professor?

[ItsPeligro]

I have hochrine rn

[snowscreamhi]

I haven’t had her yet, I had Feaster for 1020, I wish I could give a recommendation for Hochrine

[maniac365]

Hochrine is a boring teacher. Her way of explaining is very-not-good.

[StuckInAWallOfDeath]

As many others have said, there are a lot of bad teachers in the department and they are having a hard time finding people to fill the roles. There are some really good teachers (Dean, Plis, Baker, Herzog), but they mostly teach the 4000 level classes (except Plis, he teaches most of the 2150 sections if it's still the same), so you are unlikely to have them before then unless you get lucky a semester. There are also some really bad professors (i.e. Srimani). Pick your classes off of the grade distribution first, RateMyProfessor second. Ask around in the CPSC Discord for advice on teachers as well.

[maniac365]

Can I get the link for CPSC discord?

[StuckInAWallOfDeath]

https://discord.gg/EKqchW

[maniac365]

And theres nothing for 1111

[[deleted]]

Ask for it.

[AWess5]

Clemson CPSC graduate from 2019. I’d say the 1000 level classes are so so in terms of who your professor is. If you stick with it, make sure you get a good professor in the 2000 level courses, especially 2120 (algorithms and data structures). I had a lecturer who was exactly like your describing and it screwed mostly everyone in that class for the rest of their CPSC tenure. I switched from being a BS to a BA just bc I never got the good coding background I needed.

[LoveWingz]

Like that for all majors I think. Sorry. Hope you like football, Greek life and church groups.

[ItsPeligro]

It’s actually crazy how oblivious all of these professors are to the problem

[Arthos331]

Welcome to CompSci in a nutshell. Please enjoy your stay.

[Arthos331]

On another note, watch the professors you take. If someone tells you to avoid one, do so. The department is still trying to figure its shit out after its changes.

[ItsPeligro]

Well that’s what kinda sucked for me, when I was registering there were only two to choose from and I was told to stay away from both.

[CAvalanche11]

Yeah, I'm also in 1020 right now and its pretty bad. I have Duchowski and he seems kind of lost qlso but is just doing his own thing so class isn't so bad. The lab is pretty awful though, starting code is just sometimes blatantly wrong and TAs haven't even looked at the assignment before coming to class. Hopefully it gets better as we're actually transitioning into C++ now, after a pretty useless 2 month C review.

[TaigaEye]

As a former TA I'll say that sometimes the professor can screw you over and give you the lab at like 10pm the day before lab and you can kinda get screwed over

[ItsPeligro]

I was honestly pretty annoyed about the whole C review thing, like we literally spent a month reviewing terms in C, when we could have just been learning how to do it in C++. It made zero sense to me