 Alright guys, so, as you guys know, you probably know these guys, they were in the muckbang I posted earlier and we're all, like as I mentioned, we're all CS majors or like former CS majors, we're all taking the CS curriculum here, and a lot of you guys were curious about what's CS is like at Yale, what's STEM is like at Yale, like what's, like, how competitive is it, what's the workload look like, and so I thought we'd take some time to really dig in deep to what CS is really like at Yale and what we really think of it. So without any further ado, we'll get into this. There are a lot of paths you can start out with CS, I think like a very good one for people who maybe like have less experience or like want to like learn, like dive in and like kind of like have a survey or like a sampling of a lot of different stuff with CS50. It's like Harvard and Yale teach it, I think only Harvard and Yale offer it, so it's like a really like cool opportunity like to be able to take it here, I mean you can talk about that, you took it. Yeah, yeah, I mean it's a, I came into Yale with like a decent amount of CS experience and I wasn't sure whether I should jump straight to the major required classes or maybe just take an intro class to feel it out first. So I decided to take an intro class my first semester, which was CS50 and like I was surprised how like probably close to half of the kids there had never done any programming before. So it was kind of a unique experience where like you really do start from ground ground zero and kind of build up, which is pretty cool. I mean you start like programming and scratch, which is something that elementary schoolers do. It's like puzzle pieces and by the end of the semester you're building your own front end, back end database of a website and it's just like it's crazy the transformation you make. And then it really gives you kind of a nice basis to like know what CS really is, whereas you're not just starting out with like boring object oriented like just dry content. You're actually saying like hey this is what you can do with CS now if you're interested in the major like you can get more into the theory of stuff in the more harder classes I guess. My experience is actually quite different from Josh's and I don't know probably also someone different from Nahom and Giants because I did absolutely zero CS before I came to Yale. And I entirely was studying something else and was taking a lot of classes in my former major which was molecular biochemistry and biophysics so I was thinking like chemistry, physics, classes and stuff like that. So I literally had my first ever experience programming in second semester freshman year when I took introduction to programming which in contrast to CS50 was very much that dry object oriented stuff that you were talking about. It was not that sort of wide ranging or that like it wasn't that flashy and trying to make people interested in CS to be honest. It was just raised a board teaching you how to use Java I guess and then like the next semester which this semester I took CS math with all these folks here and I'm taking the official introduction to computer science class. I think that even though I had zero experience whatsoever coming in here and even though for one whole year I thought I was going to major in something entirely unrelated. I still think that the CS major here seems very doable to me and it's going well so far with like the three classes that I've taken so far. So I think that's pretty encouraging that you can come in here and even be like a very late starter like Josh felt like a late starter having done CS starting like junior year of high school but I'm starting it like even three years after that. And we're still in the same classes. Yeah we're still in the same classes. We're both doing fine and both on track to like graduate out of here like a reasonable level of experience. Seven year plan. I don't know and also like the type of programming you would teach yourself is like I don't know very like project oriented like oh I want to build a website. Let's learn this or I like want to build like a game on my computer or something and you like learn Java or something to do that. Whereas the CS classes at Yale apart from CS 50 are very theory based like she starts Malik was talking about CS 201 which is like a class entirely in a functional programming language where there's no duration. Everything's recursion and I don't know. Now we're like I was in a data structure class this semester which was purely based on the data structure. So I don't know it's different. Yeah I actually think that's a good experience like because I'm also Josh and I both have this job on campus where we're learning how to like web developers and we're learning how to make applications really be on the rails and stuff. And like the experience of that which is super practically oriented is very different from. It was all for you. Yeah this semester I took a class about cyber security with one of the other teachers who teaches one of the intro classes. And that one was interesting because it wasn't as much coding but you learned about real world cases of when computer science was used in regards to security and like crypto analysis. And I would say that the CS department has a lot of different classes for people who don't want to code either so in that regard. Like I'm taking I'm taking a law class that falls under the CS domain this semester where it just talks about law and technology and like the ethics of like copyright and fair use and all that stuff. Yeah and next semester there's a class about cyber security and like the law implications about it too. So you can take like CS 50 and get a basic understanding of computer science and like know how some of these things work and then you can take these other classes to really do like the other aspects of computer science. Yeah because at the end of the day it's not all programming. So there's one math class that is required for the CS so I guess I should talk about like what the CS major actually consists of. So at Yale it's five major required classes then you have six electives and then a senior project. So the first two required classes you start off with like an intro functional programming class then you move on to data structures and then there's a systems programming class and those are like your hardcore like programming classes. And then like kind of the side track you take a discrete math class and then use all that math and proof knowledge that you've learned in the discrete math class to apply that to an algorithm class the next semester like maybe two semesters afterwards. And then you kind of get to explore whatever electives you're interested in and finish off your senior program. I mean there's definitely complaints then so I'm also on like the advisory committee to the Dean of Science and QR and we talk a lot about obviously the different STEM departments here at Yale. So I guess there's complaints that there's not enough electives offered etc. But I have to say that CS as opposed to many of the other STEM departments here does a much better job. Not only in like you know not having these issues in the first place but also in addressing them when they arise like CS department here is pretty proactive. They have by far the most proactive departmental student advisory committee stuff like that. So I think that in the CS department you will definitely have your concerns heard and addressed. I feel like the CS professors are always trying to create new courses for their students. Yeah CS is always growing and I feel like the major grows and changes. I think CS is like one of the three most popular majors here. I think it may be number three or number four. Which at a liberal arts school like a majority liberal arts school is wide. I feel like isn't that the case among like all ID's where CS is like top three now? Yeah I mean maybe. I think it's showing behind MCDB which is molecular. I think MCDBs are bigger. Really? Econ and history. Econ history and CS. Maybe MCDB is the biggest STEM major. Yeah and there's also like a lot of like groups and stuff that like what like can help you. There's like young peer society and they have like talks and stuff and rides on that. Where like they bring people in from like various companies and they have like workshops where like you can like learn. I guess like interview prep for like jobs and stuff or you can go like there's like a hackathon where you like stay there for a couple days and try and like create something and there's like people from different companies. Just like walk around like helping out with like whatever you're working on. There's like a lot of ways to gain exposure and like CS can be daunting because like there's always going to be someone who knows like so much more than you and like there's so much better than you but you just have to like stay committed that like if you like what you're doing like you'll get better at it and like things will like pan out. Yeah and in general in terms of like curves and stuff CS department is pretty generous I'd say. But like almost every CS class is like curved to fit the CS grade distributions like the department wide grade distributions. So like honestly like a lot of people like I ended up I think I pulled a 62 out of 100 on my CS 223 final exam last week which you guys probably hear and you're like oh my god that's horrible right that's 62 that's like it's like a D but then you compare that to the grade distributions where like the average was like a 64 or 66 or something I don't remember where I'm just slightly below median you know which like isn't that bad you know. So you end up like rather than worrying about like what your actual grade number is like it's in high school like almost every class here is curved or fit to like fit to a certain distribution. So like honestly the only thing I compare myself now is median I guess just like where I am compared to like everyone else because that's the only thing that matters that's the only thing that's actually going to determine your grades so. Alright so I guess a big part of like being a CS student is possibly having the opportunity to get a software engineer or like maybe cyber security programming and like internship over the summer and Yale obviously has a lot of great opportunities to do that. I remember a couple months ago me and Nahom trekked over to the Omni hotel for like the the STEM recruiting fair and they had they had people there from like all the big companies Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Palantir and you could literally just get to talk sit there talk to recruiters talk to people that have experience working at that company and really handed me a resume and possibly get an interview and there's a lot of cool opportunities like that. You want to talk about the you're talking about the Yale Computer Society don't they have a lot of. Yeah so I was on the team that like establishes contact with recruiters and you try to bring them in and they had like last semester we had Bloomberg over and they kind of did an info session about what a Bloomberg interview might be like and they kind of helped you prep for it and we do that throughout the semester and because CS at Yale is continuing to grow at almost an exponential rate why CS is there to kind of help the community and as Nahom explained earlier host all of these events for students interested in CS. One final question we'll get in the deep stuff. What do we like a lot of people ask me why are you studying engineering at a liberal arts school? Like if you wanted to do computer science or electric engineering why did why are you not a Georgia Tech right now? They're like top ranked in the country. So I think it's very important to like maybe talk about like how CS not only is like a great program at Yale but how the blend with liberal arts really makes it just something unique and something you're not going to get in any other school because like I said that CS requirements like you have to take 36 credits to graduate from Yale the CS major is only 12. So you have other than like your distribution requirements you have about I don't know 14 to 16 other credits just to like literally take whatever you want which is something that I don't know you wouldn't get it like a straight STEM engineering school. Yeah I can speak to this because I'm double majoring in CS and German studies which obviously has nothing to do with CS I think that and also since I was majoring in something entirely different when I came here so I mean the primary reason I came here at all was because it's like Yale's giving me financial aid and it's portable for me but I really do appreciate the fact that this is a liberal arts school now that I am here now that I get to experience that like I got to think I came in here with like this very difficult like I guess this is a difficult mindset of people from India especially is very career oriented very hyper focused on like one field so I was like I'm gonna come here I'm gonna study like biochemistry whatever really hard and I'm gonna go out and either be a researcher or be a doctor or something like that but then I started taking like other classes I started out taking like couple of German classes just to complete my distribution requirements that I realized oh this is actually just like fun and cool and I'd be happy to continue with this and kind of the same thing happened with CS and now that kind of became actually my primary focus and my primary interest so I gotta say the liberal arts experience was pretty great yeah I mean like it seems like like a no-brainer like why would you go to like a place like this if you wanted to CS or like electric engineering or like mechanical engineering or whatever like they don't really seem like they go hand in hand you know like a lot of times at least for me like as like a STEM major I feel like I find myself a lot like seem like oh wow like I feel like I'm kind of or at least you can feel alone if you don't like establish like a network of people but I think it's like black and white if you're like trying to look good like you're trying to justify like okay like I want to be like a software engineer when I graduate stuff like that how am I going to like go to the school that like maximizes my chances of like getting a good like internship or like doing whatever like it's like the best ranked school that'll like help me along the way personally like that was never really like a consideration for me like I well first I like to like here there's no there's no like school of like school of like arch like school of engineering it's just like one student body who can choose to pursue whatever they want like when I like decided to come here a lot of people like oh like why don't you go to MIT like they're like really good or whatever and like obviously I thought about it and stuff like that but there I think ECS is like the most common major out of like all majors I could be mistaken and I think in terms of diversity of experience being in a place where like you might be like a smaller round even then we're like what like number three like biggest major so it's not really a problem but you know there's a lot of different stuff you can do here and like the liberal arts curriculum is definitely nice in that you become like a more well rounded student and like you have to take language which is like a requirement many places and it can be like a new sense I guess but like it's also like really cool that you like have to take language you have to take like humanities classes, writing classes like last semester I took a class where like we wrote it was called writing about food and we like ate cheese and like went to like a restaurant and like watched food movies so you're not going to be like lacking anything by coming here for CS there's still like a big support system we're growing and you're going to have like a breadth of experience like a lot of different classes being around a lot of different types of people like arts majors or like history majors whatever and like that's really cool to be around a lot of different kind of stuff and career wise if you'll do fine people intern at like Google, Facebook all that stuff and like they still come here and recruit so like there's no I really don't think unless maybe you're like hyper focused and like really just have like your whole life set out for you and know exactly what you want to do and anything outside of that like academically or otherwise it's just like an inconvenience maybe like feels out of school for you but I think for people want like a well rounded experience but like also want to like gain a lot of tangible skills in a lot of fields especially like the one they're doing in this case CS like the stuff like a good spot to be at Yeah and Yale is becoming a better CS school as time passes like obviously they're recognizing the growth of the major as you guys mentioned and like the need for good opportunities and facilities and everything like that and I think for instance now soon part of the thing that the Committee on Science and QR was working on was having better like better resources for job applications and tech improving for CS students, tech people specifically soon there's going to be people hired at the Office of Career Strategy specifically to help with tech and specifically to help students prepare for tech interviews and do mock interviews and stuff like that so it's adapting to the needs of students and it's definitely getting better and it's not that it's definitely not bad at all to begin with like you look even if you just look at like numbers and rankings Yale really doesn't thank as low as like you would picture it to and you just think of it as like oh it's an art school I think Yale CS is still like top 10 or top 20 Oh yeah it actually is and I was like when I was thinking about for instance research opportunities for the summer I can apply to dance that give me the ability to go conducting research anywhere so I was looking at where is the most interesting stuff happening There's a lot of cool stuff happening here Yeah there's definitely a lot of cool stuff happening here and like this seems to be the consensus not just from students here not just from people who are biased towards this university but from outside observers as well Yeah adding on to that in terms of like a shortcoming I'd say like the career office I actually didn't go there this year but last year I like I remember going and like asking I guess about like advice like for my resume and stuff like I want to apply to tech companies and it was like kind of sparse but that's also just like one avenue to like go through like Josh and I like one of our friends was like offering mock interviews for us and was like telling us what like books to get and stuff like that for interviews so they're like establishing the infrastructure like within the university but it's still like very present so like you will be prepared for whatever interviews and stuff you have to do Alright guys that's about it for this video Hope you guys enjoy a little peek into what computer science and what studying computer science is like a yell from the people that are doing it So with that let me know what you thought