The Center for Information Technology has been my home base in my time at Brown. Whether I am doing my homework there or leading TA hours, it’s a place I can go where I am certain I will be surrounded by friends. The students are kind and wonderful, intelligent and generous in their intelligence. And the professors, while being some of the most renowned at Brown, are on a first-name basis with the majority of their students. There is almost always free food somewhere in the CIT, and no matter what time you enter, there will be someone there who can help you with your assignments. When you take into consideration the fact that companies like Google and Facebook pay large sums of money to recruit Brown computer science concentrators, it’s shocking that more Brown students aren’t rushing to take introductory computer science courses.
According to data from the University registrar, only 25 percent of Brown students will take even one computer science course in their four years at Brown.
This dearth might be because computer science often gets a bad reputation, both at Brown and around the country. When I tell people that I do computer science, the reactions I get range from “Do you shower?” to “But you’re a girl!” to “Good! Can you fix Brown-Secure for me?”
There is an aura of mystery surrounding computer science. People come to Brown — and often leave Brown — having no idea what it is. Many of us think it’s a subject we get sucked into during our first years that prohibits us from seeing the sun and our friends until we graduate. We think pursuing an understanding of computer science is mutually exclusive with pursuing a love of music or literature or Mande dance. And often we think we need to have a background in the field before we can take even an introductory class. These are all myths, and I hope to debunk them once and for all.
If we want to enter the SunLab as first-years and never ever leave, we are more than welcome. But we will be in the minority. Computer science can be approached in a million different ways, many of which involve seeing as much of the sun as Providence weather allows. One great way to do this is to take just one computer science class before we graduate.
We can be biology concentrators or American Studies concentrators or Literary Arts concentrators and use computer science in a way that is relevant to our specific, non-technological interests. CSCI 0931: “Introduction to Computation for the Humanities and Social Sciences” is a course that allows us to do just that. It is aimed at humanities concentrators who would like to use computer science to analyze data for our own interests. Just this one computer science course can give students the analytical thinking skills needed for nearly every field we could possibly be interested in.
Even if we are interested in pursuing degrees in computer science and want to take more than just one class, we are in no way precluded from pursuing other interests as well. I do not know a single computer science concentrator who is simply that. There are computer science students who are also teachers, musicians, writers, actors, athletes and fraternity members. Many are pursuing second degrees in anything from music to literary arts to biology. I double -concentrated in computer science and literary arts, and I had friends both in and out of the computer science department. And I showered daily.
It is never too late to start studying computer science. I came to Brown having had some experience in computer science and knowing that I was probably going to concentrate in it, but I was one of the few. Many people who end up pursuing computer science have never seen the subject before their introductory courses. Sometimes they take that introductory course during their first years, sometimes during their senior years — no one way is better than any other. The computer science Bachelor of Arts degree requires only nine courses. Because of this, it is often possible to pick up a computer science degree as late as junior year.
And even if it is our senior year, taking just one computer science class can give us the skills we need to approach our own fields analytically and possibly even give us the edge we need when looking for jobs.
Only 25 percent of Brown students will graduate having taken even a single computer science course. But this number can change. So I urge you to register for a computer science class this semester. Whether you are a first-year or a senior, whether this will be your only computer science course or your first of many, there is no downside. At the very least, you will meet some wonderful people and possibly even snag a few slices of free pizza.
Aimee Lucido ’13 works at Facebook and thinks everyone should take a CS class at some point in their lives. She can be reached at aimee@cs.brown.edu.
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