Advertisement

After highschool

Started by December 04, 2002 09:27 PM
19 comments, last by llvllatrix 21 years, 11 months ago
llvllatrix,

I reccomend a general computer science degree. If ANNs send you nuts, theres probably plenty of other algorithmic/logical/mathematical "constructs" that will send you nuts too that you''ve yet to dicover. Keep an open mind - deciding that you want to do a masters in ANNs in 3 or 4 years time is probably a little preemptive! With the speed at which this (computer technology) changes, there could be a million new things by then to send you nuts too.

You''re (probably?) young - chill out, the world is your Oyster.

Tim.
Right, i figured out which university im going to. Im off to university of Waterloo for systems design. I sat down with the guidence councelor and we figured it out. The course is ment to expose you to a wide variety of systems from ANNs to robotics. Ill try to keep an open mind The only problem i have now is getting credit for my programming skills. It would suck if i have to sit through a lecture on "an introduction to variables". One of my friends (who fast tracked and is going to waterloo now) said that they only reach functions in c++ half way through the semister

Thanks for the feed back guys
Advertisement
Well just to warn you, there might be a lot of lectures that you will have to sit through that you find very boring...fastracking perhaps or not...just dont get discouraged and drop out I know a lot of smart CS people that dropped out because of the one semestered mind-numbing class they just "couldn''t handle" sitting through...ugh such a waste of talent.

-Shane
I also found that in university 'required' means 'required only if you don't talk to someone about skipping it and doing something else instead'. i found the heads of my department to be higly flexible in allowing me to skip classes in which i was already strong and replacing graduation requirements with similar but harder classes. the nicest thing about college is that it's so flexible. even if any particular major is frustrating, i know plenty of people who designed their own. so don't stress about being bored, it can almost always be worked out so you can do something different

-me

[edited by - Palidine on December 5, 2002 5:32:45 PM]
llvllatrix,

University of Waterloo should definitely be your school of choice. No matter what program you get into, be it CS or SE, you are guaranteed a job when you graduate. Just keep in mind that your average should be above 90%, and you should make sure you have all the mathematical requirements such as Discreet Geometry and Mathematics, and Calculus.

But yeah, I wish you the best of luck! ^^
Marks:
Calculus: 99%
Algebra: 95%
Physics: 98%
Chemistry: 96%
English: 96%
Finite: Havent taken yet


i think ill be all right
Advertisement
I can''t see a career directly in ANNs to be honest. As part of my course last year I did a presentation to my seminar group and academic tutor and although they are very useful I discovered that they should only be used when there is no straight forward solution.

The only career involving these kind of things directly I guess are AI research, game programming and consulting.

If you really want to do a lot of AI (which would be wicked) I sugest you go and visit the universities you''re interested in and see what courses they offer in computing and tell them what you want to do and what they can do for you! Getting in to uni is one thing but really you want them to do more for you than you do for them.

-Meto
As an undergrad you will have a chance to take courses in things other than computer science. Please, please look into these other departments, maybe go to a liberal arts college or think about a second major in the arts or humanities. If you are intertested in AI, these subjects will provide you with a much more solid foundation for thinking about intelligence than any CS sequence.

But whatever you do, stay away from cognitive science.
If you hadn''t already selected the school, I''d recommend Vassar College''s Cognitive Science program. I actually studied there with Dr. Kenneth Livingston, one of the first pure cognitive scientists. Vassar''s program is the oldest, and probably the best, in the world. If you like neural networks and cognition models, that''s exactly the sort of thing you should look into. Of course, it''s a lot of work, which is one of the reasons I flunked out, but if you''ve got what it takes, it''s extremely rewarding to be on the cutting edge of a new field.
What''s your beef with CogSci, Starchy? Despite being entirely too hard, I thought it was, and is, an excellent source of experience and knowledge of various theories and their applications. Granted, it''s about as much work as getting separate degree in computer science, anthropology and biochemistry, along with a handful of other disciplines, but if you make it through, you''ll be hella tougher than you were before.

This topic is closed to new replies.

Advertisement