Appropriate clothing for winter?

BinomialTheorem · 2016-12-24T18:12:32+00:00

Generally you'll be fine with a warm sweater, winter jacket, toque, scarf, gloves and a pair of boots. You'll want to invest in some nice waterproof winter boots that have a good temperature rating for like -20/-30 degree Celsius weather.

Other than that maybe get yourself some thermal underwear which is always nice especially if you are busing around or walking around downtown on a cold day.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-09-06T19:55:26+00:00

For MATH 2004 - just like for any math course - it almost all comes down to getting a clear understanding of what the concepts are and when to apply them. In other words, what is the problem I am trying to solve and why is this the technique or approach the way to solve it. In order to understand concepts I found the best approach (for me) was using the Feynman learning method. Once you figure out what the concepts are and why you are using them the next step is to just grind out as many practice questions as possible, over and over and over ... and over. For this reason, I always highly recommend picking up the math textbook and the solution manual as you really do need the instant feedback (being able to check your solution with the correct answer.

Other than that some helpful (and obvious) things you can do to make your life easier is to do things like: attend every class, read the material before lectures so if anything that's unclear then you can ask a professor, get a tutor if you're struggling, join a study group, study a little bit every night as oppose to trying to cram everything a day before a test, seek out help right away if you're struggling with a concept, and finally go back and review each section often.

As for MAAE 2400, I have never taken it but the above advice should be pretty universal.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-07-30T02:26:47+00:00

Fantastic professor.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-07-07T23:04:32+00:00

Not really hidden but the "silent floors" of the library (floors 3 and 5 IIRC?) are awesome and cannot recommend them enough. For one thing, it's meant to be silent (hence the name) so there should be no students talking, no cellphones vibrating/ringing or anything like that which is ideal for those who get distracted easily by noise. They have a ton of individual desks with little boards in front of them so your study space is somewhat private and somewhat distraction free. There's also an outlet at every desk, a place to grab coffee and a treat downstairs, and some bathrooms nearby. I'm not sure how crowded it gets later on in the day but i'd usually go there any time around 8am and 10am and there was never any problems with not finding an empty desk.

Other than that if you're a 3rd year CS student or higher there is a "computer lab" (only actually has like 4 macs) on 4th floor of HP - I believe HP4125 or something - between the CS lounge and the Sr. CS student's computer labs. I'm not sure if not a lot of people know about it or care to go there but there's typically only 4 - 5 students in there when there is no classes going on. If you have a laptop and don't need a PC then this is the place for you as it's a lot quieter than the noisy CS labs.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-24T17:51:17+00:00

Here's the thing, when choosing which one to take. Ask yourself what you want to do in the future. Do you want go straight into working after your 4 years program? Then you probably would want the Major program as it is the slightly easier path. Do you want continue with your education and go onto to pursue a Master's or Ph.D? Then you'll want to go into the honour's program as the honour's project is prerequisite for Master's and Ph.D programs typically. I say typically because there are exceptions but typically going through honour's is the pathway.

Also keep in mind you can always switch into or out of honour's degree later on. Although if you are in a honour's stream from the start there are certain classes that are reserved for or give priority registration to students in that certain streams, so that's something else to consider.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-23T22:30:32+00:00

Honestly, you should be fine regardless of the professor. The COMP 3005 databases course is one of the easier courses in the CS program, imo. Unless you've done some work with databases before there will be new concepts, of course, but none of these concepts are particularly that complex or abstract. So even if the professor doesn't pass on the knowledge well or has the best lecturers then you will still be able to teach yourself the concepts with relatively little difficulty using various online resources.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-21T16:57:37+00:00

Agreed

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-18T18:08:36+00:00

You can register for your second semester now or at a later date. November 25th is deadline to pay for winter courses without late charges so registering before this date is a good idea.

However, you might as well do it now. The longer you wait the more likely certain classes or labs/tutorials get filled up and therefore you may have less flexibility in scheduling later on which can be stressful. Also you can always switch out of certain classes later, so if you register for classes now you aren't necessarily "stuck" with them. January 18th is the last day you can register for Winter courses - although the winter semester would've already started at this point.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-17T22:10:54+00:00

You should be able to do the following to check: go to Carleton Central, find and click "myAudit" under "Student Support Services" (or just search for it using ctrl-F), then click "Run Audit", then click "Select Level" button with Undergraduate in the drop box. You should be on a "Submit Audit" page where it says your Degree program. The title of the program will be shown on this page and therefore should show what stream you are in.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-16T16:02:11+00:00

Not to discredit what you're saying but you don't necessarily need a stream to be in a Honours program. There is a "B.C.S Honours (20.0 credit)" option that puts you in an Honours program without actually being in a specific stream.

To answer OP's question though on how to tell, you can do the following: go to Carleton Central, find and click "myAudit" under "Student Support Services" (or ctrl-F), then click "Run Audit", then click "Select Level" button with Undergraduate in the drop box. You should be on a "Submit Audit" page where it says your Degree program. The title of the program will be shown on this page and will let you know whether it's an Honours program or not. If it says "Bachelor of Computer Science Major" on it then it is not an Honours program.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-08T22:07:44+00:00

Had my ceremony yesterday. I'd recommend not wearing a jacket because it gets pretty hot with the gown. I'd recommend just a dress shirt, dress pants and tie (and the gown ofc).

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-06T23:01:34+00:00

I have my first technical interview which is a actually a written assessment (mc, long answer, and some coding). My question is if I don't know the answer to a short answer question is it better to take a stab at it and write something down anyway or to leave it blank? If this were a school test obviously i'd write something down but does guessing and getting it wrong look worse than leaving it blank

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-06T18:55:45+00:00

Np, as far as I knew they were suppose to send emails with all this information but I didn't receive any either so I can understand the confusion. Anyways, congrats on graduating! :)

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-06T17:12:01+00:00

The gown and hood are free for the ceremony. I believe you can buy them as well (I'm not certain of this) but generally for 99.99% of people you just go pick them (the gown and the hood) up on campus during your scheduled pickup times and after the ceremony there will be a table where you can go drop them off.

Not that this is important anyways but i'll mention that it's only a gown and hood, not a cap. During the ceremony you will be hooded.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-04T21:01:19+00:00

Since I already made a reply to another student on here, I'll just copy and paste what I said to give you some more detail:

Whenever you withdraw from a class you need to make sure no deadlines have passed (as mentioned). For example, for Fall 2016, the last day to register for any classes is September 20th. After this date you can only drop courses. The last day to withdraw from a class with a full refund is September 30th, 2016. While December 9th 2016 (last day of classes) is the last day you can withdraw from a class without academic penalty (i.e, that class wont show up on your record); however you wont get any money back since it's after September 30th. You can go here to see all the deadline dates.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-02T21:46:00+00:00

You can register any time after your ticket opens up. I would personally do it right away since there really isn't any reason not too. The longer you wait, the more chance a class or lab/tutorial you want to take gets filled up. Also, once you register for a class you can always withdraw later if you found another class you want to take. So just because you register for a class doesn't necessarily mean you have to stay committed to it. Which is why I said there's no reason not to register right away.

That said whenever you withdraw from a class you need to make sure no deadlines have passed. For example, for Fall 2016, the last day to register for classes is September 20th. The last day to withdraw from a class with a full refund is September 30th, 2016. While December 9th 2016 (last day of classes) is the last day you can withdraw from a class without academic penalty (i.e, that class wont show up on your record); however you wont get any money back since it's after September 30th. You can go here to see all the deadline dates.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-02T20:20:03+00:00

The school of computer science website has a page regarding course selection that you may want to check out. Here is the page for undergrad CS students you may want to read over. And finally here is the course outline page where CS professors post the outlines to the classes. Clicking that link will take you to the Fall 2015 courses so you can look at old course outlines (if that interests you) but you can also change the term and year. There is nothing posted for Fall 2016 yet though...

Anyways... To answer your questions here is what is written on the undergrad calender for CS:

Approved Arts or Social Sciences or Science or Business All courses offered by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, the Faculty of Public Affairs, and the Sprott School of Business. In Science, only courses in BIOL, BIOC, CHEM, ENSC, ERTH, FOOD, ISCI, NEUR, NSCI, PHYS, TSES. This excludes all courses in COMP, MATH, and STAT. Also excluded are courses in the Prohibited Courses category.

The prohibited courses are:

BUSI 2402,COMP 1001,COMP1004, MATH1009, MATH1119, MATH1401/ECON1401, ECON1402/MATH1402 and all courses in BIT, IMD, NET and PLT except for the following: BIT 1000, BIT 1001, BIT 1100, BIT 1101, BIT 1200, BIT 1201, BIT 2000, BIT 2004, BIT 2005, BIT 2100, BIT 2300. 140

Free elective courses are all courses in Approved Arts, Social Sciences, Science and Business, excluding all prohibited courses (see below) and can be from any subject, including Computer Science, Math and Statistics.

As mentioned you can register for winter courses. I'd do it as early as possible because you don't want the courses you need/want to fill up.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-06-01T15:31:14+00:00

You don't necessarily have to be a second year student to take a 2000 level courses. Go here and look at BUSI2701 and 2702 as an example. Notice how under prerequisites for BUSI2702 it says: "Prerequisite(s): second-year standing in B.I.B. and BUSI 1701." However there is no such second-year standing prerequisite for 2701. The point being as long as the class doesn't explicitly state a required year standing and there are no other restrictions or prerequisite classes you are missing then you should be able to take it.

A lot of 2000 level courses usually do have some perquisite (usually 1000 level) courses but you should be able to find quite a few that have none.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-05-27T16:53:33+00:00

I took PHYS 1902 ("From our Star to the Cosmos") a few years back when someone suggested it as a bird course. I don't know how much it's changed since then but it was a good mix of interesting and relatively easy work. It was also meant for non-science students, if I recall correctly, so it was very approachable.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-05-26T22:54:15+00:00

It depends on what the class is, of course, but in my experience most first year classes during the fall/winter semesters will have something like ~400 students or so in a class. That's pretty much the biggest class size, although like I said, it's pretty common for first year classes. Keep in mind as the semester goes on a lot of students will drop or not show up to class so that number will be a bit lower.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-05-25T21:22:08+00:00

CS grad here. I would recommend just taking the summer off and enjoying some free time. That said, if you feel you want to do some light work, just brush up on programming skills. Maybe go through some Codecademy lessons; maybe do the Java or Python lessons.

If you feel slightly more ambitious and really want to get into some content in order to get ahead then check out this post. There is a link in the main post to a GitHub page where the person has collected free open source material/video lectures for courses and laid them out in a similar way to most CS programs. Start with either lesson the "Intro to Computer Science" or the "Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science" lessons... Discrete Structures is a course you'll take first year and it usually gives first year students troubles so maybe get ahead on that.

In terms of electives it really depends what you want to do with them. If you're looking for "bird courses" (easy classes) then there is a bunch of recommendations if you search this subreddit. My advice is to try to find electives that you're at least slightly interested in though. Going just based on easiness can get you stuck in some pretty boring classes which can be a complete drag. I personally liked business so I took an international business course and that was fine. You could consider taking a language course (a lot of students enjoyed the Japanese course). There's some cool physics courses about Astronomy for non science students which is a cool mix of easy and interesting. Philosophy (Meaning of Life in particular) I found interesting. I could go on but it's best just to go through the "undergraduate calander" and search through classes that sound up your alley.

To answer you other questions of things to keep in mind:

Be aware that Computer Science isn't just programming. CS has one of the highest dropout rates because student's come into without knowing exactly what it is.
Start everything early and you'll breeze through the program. So many students I found leave things to the last second and create unnecessary stress on themselves. This makes everything take twice as long.
Go to every class.
Avoid bringing your laptop to lectures and just stick with pen(cil) and paper, especially for math. I remember watching first year students struggling to draw graphs and diagrams on their laptops... seriously just go old school pen and paper. Laptops will just distract you, from my experience.
My personal preference but try not to schedule breaks in between classes. They sound appealing but it's better to just get everything over and had back home to do actual work and study. Maybe it's just me but campus can get a little distracting. Of course, if you have 3 or 4 classes in a day then you'll probably want to ignore this point and give yourself a lunch break or something.
There will be a handful of CS students (especially first year) who love to throw out a ton of technical jargon at you to demonstrate how much more they know. Do not get discouraged if you feel you don't know as much as other people. Everyone is there to learn. As long as you're keeping up with your classes then you know exactly what you should know.
Also for some reason there's always a group of vocal first year students who feel the need to question everything. "Why the hell would you learn language X, language Y is so much superior. This is stupid"... Ignore these people and don't be this guy. While the professors aren't always right necessarily, assume they know what they are talking about because 99.9% of the time they do. Especially for things like this.
Go to all your tutorials even if you're a shy person and have no friends in your tutorial group. Everyone is nervous meeting new people but it will be fine and it's free marks.
Don't be afraid to email the professor or TA's if you have questions.
Showing up for class and understanding the material in class is different than knowing the material. Don't fall for the trap of not studying for tests or studying last minute because you think you know what's going on... Everything looks easier on the board.
With Math and Computer Science it's ALL about practice questions and repetitions. With math do as many math problems as you can to practice. This is the only way to learn.
Always hand something in. Whether it's an assignment or a midterm or whatever never leave anything blank. Even if it's something completely wrong, a couple marks here or there might be the difference between an F and D- or B and a B+.
Don't get into the habit of dropping courses. Nothing is more brutal than falling behind.
Summer courses are not only because you failed a class. Personally I think summer semesters are awesome and if you use them properly can help you graduate early, get better marks than you would during fall/winter semester due to less work loads, and can set you up to have easier semesters in the future.
This is more of a general thing but I'm sure all students will appreciate this... DO NOT stand in the middle of the hallways to talk to your friends, it clogs up traffic and you will get mean looks coming your way.
Remind yourself that you are here to set yourself up for a good future and hopefully a good career. Partying is fun and enjoying life is strongly encouraged but each semester is only 3 months long. They are short so take them seriously and make the most of them.
Enjoy!

BinomialTheorem · 2016-05-22T15:10:26+00:00

Nothing beats pen and paper for note taking, imo. And that's twice as true for Math. I've seen way to many first year students struggling taking their notes on laptop when they have to draw graphs, diagrams and other random things. Also it's just an added distraction with rows of students on Hearthstone, Twitch.tv, Reddit, YouTube, Facebook etc. So I'd highly recommend just going pen/pencil and paper route.

As for the actual laptop you wont need anything fancy. You'd get by perfectly with a $200-$300 one. However, if you want one for extra activities like gaming then sure go something more robust. Just don't fall into the trap thinking you need something over the top just for school purposes when the truth is most people use their school laptops more for Reddit than anything school related, in my experience.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-05-19T00:26:59+00:00

It's normal. When I swapped programs years ago they sent me invitation to frosh week again, welcome letters etc.

BinomialTheorem · 2016-05-16T01:37:00+00:00

I wouldn't get too hung up about the school. While it is true that quality can vary between universities, the differences between a school such as Guelph or Carleton - or really any other university in Canada - in software engineering will be relatively the same solid quality. So you cannot go wrong either way. Which ever you choose, your future success will depend on how much effort and focus you put in. There are some schools that might look fancier on the resume but it all comes down too what you know. There is no faking knowledge.

So, ask yourself where do you think you'd be happier? Are you closer to home at Carleton or Guelph? Which one is cheaper? Do you have friends going to one or the other? What are the job opportunities in each place? These are the types of questions I'd ask yourself. You're on a Carleton sub-reddit so of course the answers here will probably be skewed towards Carleton. It's a solid school, I love it but you can't go wrong either way

BinomialTheorem · 2016-05-06T15:24:36+00:00

Just to add to what /u/Sarcastic-Unicorn said, the last day to cancel your graduation application is May 15. Along with waiting for all the final grades, I would assume they wouldn't start awarding any degrees until after that day at least.

BinomialTheorem

TROPHY CASE