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| Authored by: Tom on Sunday, May 15 2005 @ 09:24 AM CDT |
| Anyone know why the attrition rate has jumped? [ Parent ]
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| Authored by: CS Student on Monday, May 16 2005 @ 05:08 PM CDT |
My first year average was 88%, second 83%, third 65%, 4th 44%, 5th 60%
Why? Because after first year I realized that marks don't count for shit, as long as you graduate...[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: CS Student on Monday, May 16 2005 @ 05:08 PM CDT |
My first year average was 88%, second 83%, third 65%, 4th 44%, 5th 60%
Why? Because after first year I realized that marks don't count for shit, as long as you graduate...[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: John on Tuesday, May 17 2005 @ 10:10 AM CDT |
| Anybody have an idea what the current attrition rate is? [ Parent ]
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| Authored by: standards on Tuesday, May 17 2005 @ 02:12 PM CDT |
It is disasterous when a university has a dropout goal.
Because this sends the message that we students don't need to do shit, and still have fair chances of getting away with it. Standards drop and quality suffers when this happens.
Perhaps the reason the faculty got so worried is because droppout rate corresponds to lost revenue. For all the rhetoric about academic excellence, what the faculty wants is cash.
This should worry all math students. Grade inflation and damage to UW Math reputation hurts everybody who has B.Math,
just like inflation hurts anybody with hard-earned cash[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Prabhakar Ragde on Tuesday, May 17 2005 @ 10:00 PM CDT |
And how is someone supposed to assess your "creative spark" and "research
potential" when you have a 67% average? Marks are a first filter for grad
school: you don't need to score in the 99th percentile, but you do need a
decent performance. If you're not motivated enough to manage that, a
potential supervisor will wonder if you're motivated enough to spend money
on. In a technical field, creativity is not enough: you also need a solid
background and analytical skills. --PR[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: George Clooney on Wednesday, May 18 2005 @ 09:12 AM CDT |
A lot of the courses we have to take as cs majors are way too abstract. I mean take MATH239 for example, how many of you could actually tell me right now, without copying some definition what a 'Generating Function' is? Seriously, like wtf?
Daily, I find myself in situations at co-op terms saying "Hey boss, i can't really solve any of your practical problems, but hell, if you ever need help with generating functions, or some abstract useless math proof, give me a call." LOL.
Anyways, keep in mind that my bicep measurement exceeds any of your IQs.
PS: Contact for pics[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Prabhakar Ragde on Wednesday, May 18 2005 @ 10:30 PM CDT |
A keen sense of irony is the only thing that's going to get you through your
four years at UW. Throw away those smileys and walk, my son!
I said "half of all B.Math(CS) students took 494" in that letter, and I had twice
as many brain cells as I do now, so it must be correct, not the third I quoted
in my earlier comment. [ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Andrew on Thursday, May 19 2005 @ 03:21 PM CDT |
| Software eng isn't about WRITING software (neither is CS), it's about designing, implementing and maintaining large software systems. [ Parent ]
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| Authored by: I H8 NERDS on Friday, May 20 2005 @ 01:19 PM CDT |
This looks good on the "School of Computer Science" LMFAO
I laughed so hard when I saw this article it was great.
BCS/Bmath cs degrees will lose more and more value as UW CS lowers its standards for their students. HAH!![ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Louis on Saturday, May 21 2005 @ 04:17 PM CDT |
| UW is such crap. LOL!!! [ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Prabhakar Ragde on Saturday, May 21 2005 @ 07:22 PM CDT |
Here's a quote from an e-mail summary sent to CS faculty of recent activities
focussing on teaching. The quote is taken from a description of an event at
WLU.
"A School of Business professor mentioned that the Fall 2004 first year
class had not done as well initially compared with previous terms. With
extra work, however, they were able to recover to traditional levels of
performance."
Now, let's be charitable and take this at face value, after which I think it's
reasonable to assume that "extra work" was not simply telling the students
they'd get kicked out if they didn't pull their socks up, but some intervention
on the part of second-term instructors as well. UW Math didn't do this. Did
WLU lower standards by intervening? Would UW Math be justified to say, "We
didn't intervene, so it's your tough luck"?
I note that there is no academic probation in first-year Business at WLU. Some
other institutions, notably Caltech, have the entire first year be pass/fail,
thereby passing students whose cumulative average may be below that of the
students falling afoul of the current UW Math rules. Do Caltech and WLU
Business have lower standards than UW Math?
Is it possible that UW Math's academic probation rules are a trifle harsh? How
would we be able to decide if they were?
Would you be as inclined to think they were just right if you were put on
academic probation?
Note that all courses, failed or otherwise, appear on transcripts, and no
averages of any sort appear on transcripts. So we are basically talking about
circumstances under which students are given extra time to pull up their
socks. --PR[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: ngggh on Tuesday, May 24 2005 @ 02:19 PM CDT |
| Fuck all you guys. I think this is fantastic news. [ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Thanks on Wednesday, June 01 2005 @ 04:19 PM CDT |
I know i should prob read more in the article, but i am too lazy. Could someone tell me if this will be across the entire math faculty or just CS?
Thanks![ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Dave on Thursday, June 02 2005 @ 10:37 AM CDT |
| So I graduated way back in 2000 from Math/Bus and had a hell of a time, the problem wasn’t that I was a dumbass, at Laurier I was top of every class I took but at UW I was just getting by. The problem wasn’t the material it was the delivery. Instead of allowing students more passes at it, realize that it might be the poor quality of teaching at UW Math. Mathies if you take a course outside the big gray box you’ll realize what I’m talking about. It shouldn’t be a challenge to stay awake, understand or care about what a professor (note root of word) is presenting, they are professional (again root of word) educators, shouldn’t they be held to those standards. [ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Star E Knight on Friday, June 03 2005 @ 11:09 AM CDT |
I am currently on academic probation after this winter 2005 term. I am in CS and failed both cs341 and cs350. I got smoked. 44 and 48.
Now my cs average is 59 (below 60) and my overall average is 66. If these rules go through, will I still be on academic probation?
Interesting....and I need to find this out.[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: ariena on Tuesday, June 07 2005 @ 01:31 AM CDT |
It is a very nice change I think. :]
The marks for my terms so far have been 50s 80s 80s 90s.
I would really like to exclude couple of the courses from my first term. *grins*
However, a couple of clarifications:
1) Was this new policy approved?
2) As I understand, to be able to exclude a course I have to graduate with the plan requirements of year 2005 (or 2006, whatever). Does that mean, that having all the possible 3rd/4th/grad year CO/PMATH/CS courses behind me, I have to take that retarded CS 245? :-][ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Theodore Long on Tuesday, June 07 2005 @ 01:18 PM CDT |
I read somewhere that the graduation rate for Computer Science was 57% for one class. That is so low! No wonder they don't publish it. When high schools students start hearing this, they are going to think twice about Computer Science. If I knew this in high school, I would never have come to take Computer Science. What an unconscionable waste of resources and human potential.
Think about that for a second - almost half of the students that entered the program didn't graduate from it. Thats too bad because I know that these figures severly hurt UW CS's reputation, and I know many students in high school who have changed their minds about CS at Waterloo because of information such as this.
T.L.[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Albah on Friday, June 10 2005 @ 01:39 PM CDT |
Why is it not possible for the faculty of Mathematics to publish the number of students who graduate with a degree from the faculty of math vs. the number who enter the faculty of math?
What I would really like to see is, the this ratio for the CS program. I know they keep track of this, but they refuse to share these numbers -- probably trying to hide something.[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: MJ on Tuesday, June 14 2005 @ 11:51 AM CDT |
These rules force you to "bucket" courses that you have failed since Fall2004, -can you fail more courses than you are allowed to bucket? So say someone fails 5 courses and they have bucketed 4 of them and say their average is still like 75%. Are they toast? Or can they continue as long as they stay within all other degree guidelines? Basically, is there a specified max # of failures allowed now? Like it used to be 4, but can you now fail like 7 courses and still get your degree if you still meet all other degree guidelines?
[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Shaun T on Monday, June 20 2005 @ 04:05 PM CDT |
http://www.cnn.com/2005/TECH/biztech/06/20/techjobdecline.ap/index.html
Basically, the only high tech left in North America will be research positions. There will be about 150 CS undergrads each year and about 40 faculty. The rest will be in China, India, and eastern Europe.
If you're in CS now, get out while you can... It's a road to nothing.[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: ngggh on Monday, June 20 2005 @ 10:03 PM CDT |
The changes were passed this afternoon in a closed vote.
Cheers.[ Parent ]
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| Authored by: Prabhakar Ragde on Wednesday, June 22 2005 @ 03:11 PM CDT |
I don't know why you keep going on about CS when it now comprises 30% of
incoming students to the Math Faculty, and the rules apply to everyone.
But the US Department of Labor (Bureau of Labor Statistics) disagrees with
your pessimistic assessment. "Computer systems analysts, database
administrators, and computer scientists are expected to be among the fastest
growing occupations through 2012. Employment of these computer
specialists is expected to grow much faster than the average for all
occupations as organizations continue to adopt and integrate increasingly
sophisticated technologies."
Details here (worth reading)
--PR[ Parent ]
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