Maximum PC

Yeah it's still in my radar. I'd say that I'm decent in math. I had honors algebra 2 last year, and got a B+ on it (could've gotten higher, but doom on my fancy new graphing calculator kept me from paying attention in class ) Anyways, this year I'm taking Precalc/Trigonometry and next year I plan on taking AP calc. I'm doing pretty well in HS overall. I have a GPA of 3.7.

One of my friends is in College for computer engineering right now, and he's recommended the same thing to me: go to a community college for math. The thing is, that I'm not sure if they offer a math class at our local community college for high schoolers. I will definitly talk to my guidance counselor about that.

Today we took the last test on visual basic, and tomorrow we're going to start HTML. All in all, I like programming. I'm going to take the level 2 class next year.

Thanks for your help.

As a current college student, I would honestly recommend against going to a community college to take math classes.

The main reason for my disagreement is because some of the classes you take will not transfer over as regular credits at the university of your choice. For example, I had 3 computer classes transfer over (which were supposed to transfer over) and they didn't amount to anything besides credit hours. Make sure you check with the university you plan to attend before taking classes at a community college to make sure they transfer over properly.

I didn't think of that. Thanks for the heads up.

True, most CC math courses do not transfer. These are mainly the prerequisites for the ones that do transfer. The object in mind was concerning College Algebra (or whatever they call it at your local CC). Its a single semester course that's spread across 2 years of High School Algebra--Algebra I & II or Basic & Advanced depending on your curriculum. Since you're already looking at pre-calculus its likely if you attend a math course at the CC it will transfer as an undergraduate course or at least a prerequisite. To be sure you'd want to check the CC catalog for that magic "U" which usually indicates its a valid University transfer credit. This, of course, assumes a bit about your chosen University. You can't go wrong if you do the research first.

Sounds like you're a Junior in High School. For some reason I read your first post as you were just starting Junior High (7th grade out west). Sorry about the misunderstanding. I was trying to figure out what kind of 7th grader is that together to already consider what he's pursuing in college.

I remember taking Trig in High School. At the time it was called Math Analysis. The first half of it was trig. I can't say I really recall the 2nd half. But not because of a fancy calculator. Probably because I'm just getting old.

I'm not sure which college I want to go to yet, so I dont know if community college credits would transfer over. I took Pre algebra in 7th grade. I got a B in that. Algebra 1 in 8th grade. I had an A- in that, then I took geometry in 9th grade. I had a 103% . So taking algebra 1 and 2 again would be a waste of time.

haha when I was in 7th grade, I wanted to be an astronaut and a freelance artist lol. Being a computer programmer is more realistic.

It sounds like you're on the right track. Way to throw the curve. Astronauts could learn a thing or two from developers and vice versa. It sounds like you truly are inspired. A much better developer than I once said something inspiring to me. I hope I'm not pissing him off by posting his words here:

Yep I'd say I'm pretty much fixed in saying that I want to be a programmer. My dad wanted me to become a doctor, but I really don't want to spend 8 years in college just for the most basic doctoring degree. I COULD get into a 6 year medical school, but there is absolutely no fun in that. I'd either fail or by head would explode from that much work. I'd lose the entire college experience. If I would fail the medical exam, my entire life would be screwed unless I went back to college, but then 6-8 years of effort would be down the drain. Programming, I could go to school for 4 years, get a bachelors degree, then find a job somewhere, and then go back to school part time and hopefully have my employer pay for some of the education. Besides, I like computers .

I never thought of programming as logic so good that a machine could understand it. It makes sense though. Thanks for sharing that.

Re. Masters degree in computer programming. Perhaps it's different now, but when I was going for my Computer Science Bachelors, it was pretty much get a BS to get most jobs, get a Masters only if you wanted to go for a PHD. It was pretty much "You have a Masters so you are overqualified for 99% of the jobs, and underqualified for the 1% that want PHD's".

Parent's always seem to want you to become a doctor for some reason. Maybe it's the prestige "See my kid is smart enough to make it as a doctor". You never hear them bragging "My kid's a sociopathic serial killer" or anything...

Anyway, yep, going for an MD is a ton of work (more than that 8 years in college, you've also got internships, etc. then dealing with a practice. It's more than a decade out of your life. It's a hell of a lot of work and costs a ton of money. Not something to get into unless you really feel the calling. I give kudos to those that are willing to deal with it.

That is true in Canada.

In the US, both Masters and Doctorates are terminal degrees. You go from the undergrad straight to one or the other. It is unusual to do all three degrees, apparently.

Bear in mind that the last time I was looking at US grad schools, I was an English major hunting for a nice place to settle down and do my PhD ... over 8 years ago. Things change.

You confused me there. From my recollection (caveat, it is a while back now), in the US it's usually BS, then MS, then PHD. There are some programs that allow BS then directly to PHD, but for the most part those are only really special situations and you need to have an "equivalent" to a MS. It's not get your BS then go directly to the PHD program for the most part.

Yeah just about every Indian wants their kid to become a doctor. I'm fairly religious and at my temple, 7 out of the 12 high schoolers who regularly come to my temple plan to become doctors. 2 are still in freshman and sophomore years and they're undecided, one wants to become a biomedical engineer (that's still related to medical though..), there's one who wants to be a business major, and there's me who wants to go into computer science.

Also, my sister wants to become a doctor. She wants to get into the Johns hopkins medical school right out of high school. They demand a 2100 or higher on the SAT's. She studied for 2 weeks nonstop other than eating and school for the test, and regularly studied for 3 months before that. My cousin is studying for premed. He has to memorize a stack of books, cover to cover, stacked from the floor to his waist for 1 semester alone. Too much freaking work.

BTW, who would brag about being a sociopathic killer?

I have a friend who is on his 5th or 6th year of medical school down here at San Diego State. For some reason I want to say he's trying for surgeon but that may have changed. I can say that he's 5 years younger than I and he's losing all of his hair. Wwa ha ha :twisted:! He complains a lot more these but I have to respect him because he works 20-30 hours a week on a charter yacht as a bartender to just barely cover his tuition and lodging.

The lines between B.S., M.S., and Ph.D get blurry when you're out in the real world. For example, (U.S.) government work almost always lists requirements as 10 years of experience with a Bachelors degree. Since roughly 4 of those years are spent in school, there's still 6 years needed in the field. With a Master's the numbers are slightly shifted but either way you look at it (6+4)=10=(4+6). Pardon me for the mathematical palindrome. Figure this out, 4+3=10.
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-A (Folds@Home)

I think I've found a good school for computer programming. It's Carnegie Mellon, School of computer science. It's in Pittsburgh, PA which is only about 3 hours away from my house, and I have family living in Akron, OH which is less than 2 hours away. It's supposedly the 7th best college for computer science in the world.

Have you visited the campus yet? If you like the environment and can deal with the commute, can afford it, etc. I would go for it. The thing I've found in the real world is that after X point after college, the companies don't usually care what college you came from, as long as you got your degree (and it wasn't a degree mill).

It may be different to an extent for other industries (engineering types for example), but not really for computer programming as far as I have seen.

No I haven't visited the campus yet (I just decided about going to Carnegie mellon this week) It looks like a good school, and I've just found out that 2 of my close friends also going there . They're both 1 year ahead of me, and one of them is going to do computer science too. The other is going to do business. I could probably catch up that 1 year through summer classes.

I looked at Carnegie mellon's computer science cource a bit more. They offer a program to go straight from BS to a PHD. I'm not sure what is required for this, but I'm sure that it would be a lot harder than getting the MS in between

Re. BS to PHD. It's probably just as expensive as well. You'd probably want to see how long you can go before you have to commit to that though. Try out a few semesters and see how you like it.

For me, while I enjoyed college (it pretty much only comes once in your lifetime), I was happy to get out and start doing things.

You can go on-line to any University or College in the USA and navigate your way around to find out what Majors they offer. I know that UB, that University at Buffalo has a top notch school of Engineering, but so does UofR and RIT in Rochester, or maybe you would like Syracuse. Check a bunch out and apply to 4-8 and good luck, study hard and have some fun.