Should I get take this course based on my circumstances?

R

Ronald Liu

Joined
1/16/22
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I'm a high school senior that is very excited to learn more about C++ through this course. I have a strong programming background, for my age, and the course content seems manageable; the course difficulty shouldn't be a problem --- I think.

What I want to know is am I able to transfer credit to my future university upon completion of this course? Also, I am planning on majoring in Computer Science for my undergrad, with that information, is this course useful for me? (I believe this course is more geared towards students who doesn't have a strong programming background?) Are there better alternatives that I can spend my time on?

Thank you!
 
Ronald Liu said:
I'm a high school senior that is very excited to learn more about C++ through this course. I have a strong programming background, for my age, and the course content seems manageable; the course difficulty shouldn't be a problem --- I think.

What I want to know is am I able to transfer credit to my future university upon completion of this course? Also, I am planning on majoring in Computer Science for my undergrad, with that information, is this course useful for me? (I believe this course is more geared towards students who doesn't have a strong programming background?) Are there better alternatives that I can spend my time on?

Thank you!
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You can take it, but it probably would not help you in the long run. Obviously I do not know your skills, but considering you are in high school, I am sure you would learn a lot. With that in mind, if you are majoring in CS, you will eventually learn all of topics covered in the course. Isn't the course like $2000? Save your money, and no, I seriously doubt it is transferable.
 
Ronald Liu said:
I'm a high school senior that is very excited to learn more about C++ through this course. I have a strong programming background, for my age, and the course content seems manageable; the course difficulty shouldn't be a problem --- I think.

What I want to know is am I able to transfer credit to my future university upon completion of this course? Also, I am planning on majoring in Computer Science for my undergrad, with that information, is this course useful for me? (I believe this course is more geared towards students who doesn't have a strong programming background?) Are there better alternatives that I can spend my time on?

Thank you!
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No you won't be able to transfer any credits. But you can get this confirmed with @Andy Nguyen. The course is excellent for someone who has a little to no programming experience or coding experience in some other language.

This is hands-down the best Pre-MFE course, and very well respected by the other the MFE programs. But since you will be majoring in CS, I don't think you will need this course.
 
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RamjiFormerPropTrader said:
How much time a day should a student of this course dedicate to complete within the stipulated 16 weeks?
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I finished the course in 12 weeks and was spending roughly 5-6 hours a day, 7 days a week. My advice is to make use of the fact that the materials for Levels 1 and 2 are publicly available—do all the homework exercises prior to enrolling in the course (and complete the quizzes for the first 2 levels) so that upon enrolling you can submit your first 2 assignments right away.

I had little to no prior programming experience.
 
Won’t get credit but well worth doing, especially if you focus on developing proper coding skills and practices. This are NOT taught in typical university CS courses. This will make it easier to get internships straight out of high school.
 
CourantMathFinance said:
Won’t get credit but well worth doing, especially if you focus on developing proper coding skills and practices. This are NOT taught in typical university CS courses. This will make it easier to get internships straight out of high school.
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I’m not from a CS background so I assumed these good coding practices (writing good quality code with commenting, etc..), and very detailed understanding about C/C++ compliers and programming are covered in Universities’ CS courses.


Cannot go wrong with this course.

Also, @Ronald Liu you’ll have life long access to the videos and the material. You can come back anytime for review or to view the new video uploads (if any).
 
The best course (based on C++ industrial experience since 1992) are the Quantnet C++ courses.
In general, HANDS-ON programming as a skill to be treasured is not on the critical path of CS educatiion.
Horses for courses.
Just saying.

Last but not least, QN's TAs provide round-the-clock support for those time-guzzling compiler errors. :coffee:
 
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I would add that it's not that uncommon for high school students to become top notch programmers and develop software that either becomes widely used open source software or leads to a successful startup. A bright high school student with a lot of free time on their hands can definitely learn how to write good C++ code and develop software.
 
CourantMathFinance said:
I would add that it's not that uncommon for high school students to become top notch programmers and develop software that either becomes widely used open source software or leads to a successful startup. A bright high school student with a lot of free time on their hands can definitely learn how to write good C++ code and develop software.
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I cannot disagree with that, but it's not even wrong.
Being bright and having free time is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a "good" programmer. I'm talking writing real code, not copy-and-paste from StackExchange or using Python APIs.

It takes anything between 5 and 10 years to become a "good" professional programmer.
My C++ course are like judo belts and C++ knowledge can be precisely quantified.
 
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Ronald Liu said:
I'm a high school senior that is very excited to learn more about C++ through this course. I have a strong programming background, for my age, and the course content seems manageable; the course difficulty shouldn't be a problem --- I think.

What I want to know is am I able to transfer credit to my future university upon completion of this course? Also, I am planning on majoring in Computer Science for my undergrad, with that information, is this course useful for me? (I believe this course is more geared towards students who doesn't have a strong programming background?) Are there better alternatives that I can spend my time on?

Thank you!
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I would suggest taking the Advanced C++ course after maybe your junior year because that would be one elective that’s not offered in many schools. For the basic C ++ , you can learn it through online resources or books like C++ Primer, PPP etc.
 
Shashank_Choudhary said:
I would suggest taking the Advanced C++ course after maybe your junior year because that would be one elective that’s not offered in many schools. For the basic C ++ , you can learn it through online resources or books like C++ Primer, PPP etc.
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I don't think any schools do up to C++20.
And if they do, then well done.

And few even go to C++11.

 
Daniel Duffy said:
I don't think any schools do up to C++20.
And if they do, then well done.

And few even go to C++11.

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Agreed.
Daniel Duffy said:
I cannot disagree with that, but it's not even wrong.
Being bright and having free time is neither necessary nor sufficient to be a "good" programmer. I'm talking writing real code, not copy-and-paste from StackExchange or using Python APIs.

It takes anything between 5 and 10 years to become a "good" professional programmer.
My C++ course are like judo belts and C++ knowledge can be precisely quantified.
Click to expand...

You can be a solid programmer and write good apps without knowing more than the basics of C++ (which for me means the core of C++-11). There's no need to know enough to be a professional C++ programmer.

In fact, there's no real need to learn C++. Any modern language, ranging from C# to Swift to Haskell is good. You can always learn C++ later. I will suggest, however, that Python should be avoided, despite its popularity.
 
CourantMathFinance said:
Agreed.


You can be a solid programmer and write good apps without knowing more than the basics of C++ (which for me means the core of C++-11). There's no need to know enough to be a professional C++ programmer.

In fact, there's no real need to learn C++. Any modern language, ranging from C# to Swift to Haskell is good. You can always learn C++ later. I will suggest, however, that Python should be avoided, despite its popularity.
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It is heartening to read that top programs don’t recommend python :)
 
Shashank_Choudhary said:
It is heartening to read that top programs don’t recommend python :)
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Python has its place. If you are doing data science, you can't avoid it. But if your goal is to become a computer scientist or a software developer, it's to be avoided. It can only teach you bad habits and make developing sophisticated software way more difficult than it needs to be.
Daniel Duffy said:
From C# to C++ is the wrong direction.
Haskell???
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we’re talking about a motivated high school school student. Not someone trying to get a junior developer position in an investment bank. The more they learn now about the latest advances in programming paradigms, the better. There will be less time available later for this kind of open ended exploration.
 
CourantMathFinance said:
we’re talking about a motivated high school school student. Not someone trying to get a junior developer position in an investment bank. The more they learn now about the latest advances in programming paradigms, the better. There will be less time available later for this kind of open ended exploration.
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Ouch.
Any concrete examples?

Clever kids start their own companies. e.g.

 
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Python has its place. If you are doing data science, you can't avoid it. But if your goal is to become a computer scientist or a software developer, it's to be avoided. It can only teach you bad habits and make developing sophisticated software way more difficult than it needs to be.

This is too simplistic as a summary (IMHO). Real life is a mix of languages.

You learn good programming habits by learning C++. Everything else follows, believe me.
 
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