A Quick Guide to DePaul’s Computer Science Curriculum
I’m Jeff, a computer science undergraduate student at DePaul University in my junior year, and I wanted to make this short guide for any prospective students interested in CS at DePaul. This guide is going to walk you through both the essential courses and essential resources to know about as a computer science student at DePaul. I wanted to make this because it’s something I would have loved to have going in, so hopefully it proves helpful for you as well!
Concentrations
I think it’s a good idea to first talk about how the degree is set up at DePaul. For CS majors there are three concentrations to choose from: Software Development, Game Systems, and the newest option Artificial Intelligence. The majority of students choose Software Development, myself included. The university has also recently introduced a four year path to follow on the degree tracking software available to all students, and it guides you through a recommended path for each year to ensure you have all necessary credits and can see what classes you will take in the future. The majority of courses are the same for each concentration, however there are a few differences, especially in junior and senior year.
Software Development gets you exposed to many different software engineering concepts and practices, Game Systems places more focus on C++ and game programming software, and Artificial Intelligence introduces data science classes and some more math. In my experience with Software Development, I have taken classes that teach you industry-standard skills and concepts for software engineering to prepare you for a career in that field and I definitely feel equipped for my upcoming software internship after junior year.
Courses
I want to walk through a few courses to give you an idea of the specific things you learn as you progress through the degree. You will start freshman year with CSC 241 and 242, which is the introductory sequence taught in python. If you have programming experience you can take the combination course CSC 243 and fulfill this requirement with a singular, more intensive option. After that you move to CSC 300 and 301, Data Structures 1 and 2. Largely known as the CS weeder courses, if you manage to get through these you should feel confident that you can complete the degree. They are challenging and definitely pick up in difficulty and demand from the introductory sequence, but they also allow you to build a ton of important and useful skills. Beyond those you explore C and some machine-level programming in CSC 373 and 374, Computer Systems 1 and 2. Those can be difficult, and what some argue are more difficult are the abstract classes on algorithms and design of programming languages like CSC 321 and 347. Those classes get away from coding and become more theory based which I personally think is more difficult and requires more effort to truly master. As you approach the later years of the degree, things open up for regular and advanced electives where you can explore a wide variety of topics, anything from networking to cybersecurity to higher level theory classes. This is where most people typically find the specific niche within CS that they like the most and want to pursue for a career.
You end with a senior capstone class, CSC 394, which is a group project where different members of the team build different pieces of a single application, and this is a great project to have for your resume and to talk about in interviews.
Resources
There are a ton of great resources available to DePaul computer science students for a variety of things. For one, there is a tutoring center staffed by students who all have expertise and experience with a ton of CS courses and are open to help you out whenever you struggle with classwork. There are also just a ton of computers and labs in the Computing and Digital Media building that you can use for your work or even just explore and check out, please refer to the website to learn more about what’s available. Even if you are not involved with those programs, you can check out and use the labs for game development or cybersecurity or anything else, they are open to everyone. If you are interested in CS, I am sure you are aware of the job market at the moment. It is definitely tough to find professional experience, and a great way to get your foot in the door is through research at your university. There is a ton of research going on in the CS department at DePaul, a lot of it in artificial intelligence, and you can get involved as an undergraduate. Check out our other blog post on getting involved in research for some tips and advice for that. The last resource I want to mention is RateMyProfessor. This is not DePaul specific but is incredibly helpful nonetheless. I am a strong believer that the professor really has a significant impact on how much you learn as well as the difficulty and enjoyability of the class. I highly recommend you check out the reviews for the professors you want to sign up for.
I really hope this guide was helpful for you. I wanted to include info about some things I had questions for when I came to DePaul, but also some stuff from my own experience that I wish I would have heard about. The CS program at DePaul really is impressive. The classes provide you with the skills you need to be successful, and the environment provides a ton of opportunities to go above and beyond, especially in the Chicago area. I hope to see you on campus soon!
~Jeff