Introduction to Computing

I found that the teaching style was extremely helpful for learning the basics of computer science. Although the homeworks and labs were difficult at times, if you spent enough time on them you could typically figure them out. Even if you couldn't, office hours were very helpful with getting over a hurdle. Overall, I would definitely recommend any course with Professor Biester.

The class is fun and interactive with a few mini questions and PPTs. There's only one assignment and one lab work per week, which make it manageable but these tasks do need to take some time to finish as they sometimes are pretty tricky. Tests aren't very difficult as well if you spend time and review all the notes provided properly.

Professor Vaccari is an amazing professor, and for all the intro to CS students was always available for office hours, to answer questions, and supplied great supplementary material to clarify lecture concepts.

I really liked their teaching style. They teach the basic of these computing concepts really well. USually had a lot fo homework every week and also had Lab assignments that were due. Going to office hours really helped too. It is a really fun course.

Vaccarri is awesome and fun. Things are confusing at times but with only one homework and one lab per week there's not too much work and the links in canvas can help to clear up anything confusing. Exams are fine if you study.

Overall a difficult course for anyone new to coding. I'd recommend getting some form of experience prior to taking the course because it moves quick and you're going to want to have a decent foundation by the time week 5 roles around. Biester was a good professor, lectures were what you'd expect and homework not that long. Cheat sheets were provided on the exams but they felt difficult for the beginner coder

Overall a difficult course for anyone new to coding. I'd recommend getting some form of experience prior to taking the course because it moves quick and you're going to want to have a decent foundation by the time week 5 roles around. Biester was a good professor, lectures were what you'd expect and homework not that long. Cheat shee …Read more

This introductory computer science course is essential for anyone planning to major in the field, covering fundamental concepts and skills that are crucial for further study. While the course content is undeniably useful, providing a solid foundation in programming and computational thinking, the delivery by the professor was less than satisfactory. Despite this, the class materials and assignments ensure that students still have the opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge.

This introductory computer science course is essential for anyone planning to major in the field, covering fundamental concepts and skills that are crucial for further study. While the course content is undeniably useful, providing a solid foundation in programming and computational thinking, the delivery by the professor was less th …Read more

This course made me love Computer Science. I had no previous experience nor am I good in math. If you played video games and in particular puzzle solving / rpgs / turn based combat games growing up, you will find that coding is no different once you learn the language. The professor's teaching was not very helpful for me. Luckily the readings were easy to understand in the beginning until reaching the HW06 Images. You can teach yourself most of the material and you can always go to the TA's. Great class. Make sure to get a good professor if you can.

This course made me love Computer Science. I had no previous experience nor am I good in math. If you played video games and in particular puzzle solving / rpgs / turn based combat games growing up, you will find that coding is no different once you learn the language. The professor's teaching was not very helpful for me. Luckily the …Read more

Intro to Computing is necessary if you want to continue with computer science at Middlebury. The course consists of one homework and one lab a week which aren't too bad if you go to TA hours and are graded fairly easily. I found the lectures though to be very convoluted at times and not necessarily related to the information in the labs. Exams are easy if you are confident in the homework, but going to TA hours is often necessary as I found myself there for both the homework and lab each week.

Intro to Computing is necessary if you want to continue with computer science at Middlebury. The course consists of one homework and one lab a week which aren't too bad if you go to TA hours and are graded fairly easily. I found the lectures though to be very convoluted at times and not necessarily related to the information in the l …Read more

This year was Professor Biester's first time teaching at MIDD, and I think she did a very good job. She was understanding of us students and often asked for feedback which she incorporated as the class progressed. The exams are pretty fair and she makes sure to give us resources to study for them, especially the midterm. The homework can be hard sometimes, but TA and office hours help a lot so I recommend taking advantage of that.

This year was Professor Biester's first time teaching at MIDD, and I think she did a very good job. She was understanding of us students and often asked for feedback which she incorporated as the class progressed. The exams are pretty fair and she makes sure to give us resources to study for them, especially the midterm. The homework …Read more

I really liked this class. I had taken a computer science class in high-school, and this course was the perfect blend of topics I was familiar with and things I had not learned yet. The readings aren't always necessary, but I found them to be very coherent and useful, especially because they were created specifically for this class. Homework can be challenging at times, but never unbearable, and office hours are useful. Most of the times labs cannot be completed within the lab period, so you do have to be prepared to meet with your partner outside of class, but typically it is not that bad. Overall the course is well-organized and interesting and I would recommend.

I really liked this class. I had taken a computer science class in high-school, and this course was the perfect blend of topics I was familiar with and things I had not learned yet. The readings aren't always necessary, but I found them to be very coherent and useful, especially because they were created specifically for this class. …Read more

I really enjoyed this class with Prof. Biester. She was very informative during office hours, and was very willing to give extra practice before exams. In terms of grading, 30% is homework, so you should really get a good start on them (she gives a full week for each homework assignment) to provide yourself with enough time to go to drop-in hours if needed. The homeworks and exams were really not that hard though as long as you pay attention in class. She gave us a lot of practice exams, which was nice.

I really enjoyed this class with Prof. Biester. She was very informative during office hours, and was very willing to give extra practice before exams. In terms of grading, 30% is homework, so you should really get a good start on them (she gives a full week for each homework assignment) to provide yourself with enough time to go to …Read more

This was my first computer science class that I had ever taken. I had zero prior knowledge which set me at a bit of a deficit but the class is taught from ground zero. Professor Biester was wonderful and there are countless TA's to go to for help during help hours. Although there is a good amount of time spent on the work outside of class, the work is valuable and interesting.

Reading reviews, I was worried about starting Computer Science at Middlebury with Basu. However, he has been great, the class has not been overly difficult. There are weekly quizzes on canvas, anyone can get an a, and labs and hws will be done by TAs if you ask.

Prof Biester so clearly cares about her students and their comprehension of the material and will take the time to answer questions and clear up any confusion during class or her office hours. Her knowledge and passion for the material is clear. The homework was sometimes a lot but never felt too excessive and the exams were fair.

CS 0145 was a good introduction to computer science for someone who has never coded before, could get difficult at times but never overwhelming or impossible. It's a good class to take if you are interested in CS. This was Professor Biester's first time teaching and I think she did a good job. This class does ramp up fast though and I spent most of my free time at the TA hours and it was very helpful.

CS 0145 was a good introduction to computer science for someone who has never coded before, could get difficult at times but never overwhelming or impossible. It's a good class to take if you are interested in CS. This was Professor Biester's first time teaching and I think she did a good job. This class does ramp up fast though a …Read more

I really liked the teaching style for this course. Professor Laura Biester was very organized. The upcoming assignments of the semester were all posted online and it was easy to find class slides, homework and lab instructions and any information you needed for the class. She was also patient and was able to explain concepts clearly.

Professor Basu's teaching falls short in several aspects. His lectures lack clarity, leaving students confused. Assessment criteria seem arbitrary, making it difficult to gauge progress. Overall, the learning experience under his guidance is disappointing and unsatisfactory.

This course is a good start for someone who is interested in computer science, it could be difficult for an absolute beginner in Python. The materials we learned in class may have little relation to the HW, meaning that you may encounter unfamiliar concepts and often time you may need to spend extra time in the CS help sessions to figure them out. Professor Biester is very organized and responsible. She sent out teaching feedback form for us to fill in and made improvement in her teaching method. She now started to explain a bit more about the HW before letting us to do it.

This course is a good start for someone who is interested in computer science, it could be difficult for an absolute beginner in Python. The materials we learned in class may have little relation to the HW, meaning that you may encounter unfamiliar concepts and often time you may need to spend extra time in the CS help sessions to fi …Read more

Fairly easy course until about halfway through. Professor is not very good at actually teaching the material and asking questions. Labs and homeworks are do-able with much help from the TAs. Exams are more difficult than one would expect, but exams are only 30% of the final grade so you can make it work. Definitely would not recommend this prof, but for a one off intro class it's fine. However, if you intend to major in CS I recommend taking this intro class with a different prof as the things you learn in this course are vital and you should have a good grasp on the concepts

Fairly easy course until about halfway through. Professor is not very good at actually teaching the material and asking questions. Labs and homeworks are do-able with much help from the TAs. Exams are more difficult than one would expect, but exams are only 30% of the final grade so you can make it work. Definitely would not recommen …Read more

I took the Intro to Computing -CSCI 0145- class, which was amazing! The professor was engaging, the assignments were relevant and challenging, and I learned a lot about coding, algorithms, and python. Highly recommend for anyone interested in computer science.

Prof. Vaccari was always super excited to teach basic python programming. I had never done any CS before and this class was an awesome introduction for me. Things definitely started out tough, and the course was never easy, but over the semester I felt more and more confident in my coding abilities. I would definitely recommend taking this class.

This course was very helpful in establishing a basis in computer science knowledge. It never really went too fast, and any questions you have could always be answered by the professor. There are also plenty of TAs available. The tests were basic and did not require much studying as long as you follow along with the lectures and hw.

Maybe the worst class I've ever taken at Midd. Professor was almost completely ineffective and assigned time consuming homeworks and labs every week. I learned nothing in lectures and labs, and spent hours almost every night in TA hours trying to figure out the convoluted instructions with the equally frustrated and confused TAs. The exams were really hard and often had material we had never discussed or reviewed. I learned nothing in this class which was unbelievable disappointing because I was excited to try comp sci and now I never want to step foot into the building ever again.

Maybe the worst class I've ever taken at Midd. Professor was almost completely ineffective and assigned time consuming homeworks and labs every week. I learned nothing in lectures and labs, and spent hours almost every night in TA hours trying to figure out the convoluted instructions with the equally frustrated and confused TAs. The …Read more

Learning mainly occurs from the difficult homework assignments. Being one of Professor Biester's first class, the course started off on a rocky start, but she was very accommodating in the needs of the students. Doable for students with no prior knowledge, just might have to read more.

The class was slow-placed and really didn't require any knowledge about coding prior to taking the class. The only challenging portion of the class was the final project where you will be asked to work on a project. The lab portions of the class helped me with learning more about coding(although it was not mandatory). Also, the exams are take-home online.

Laura is very nice and prepared, however, her lectures and readings are not enough to tackle the labs and homework she assigns. The class is extremely fast-paced, and her lectures are far too simple compared to the HW and labs she assigns. Not a fan of the autograder -- to picky. Also not a fan of her late policy, but I do think it's fair. Overall, there is something really wrong with this class. Far too difficult.

Laura is very nice and prepared, however, her lectures and readings are not enough to tackle the labs and homework she assigns. The class is extremely fast-paced, and her lectures are far too simple compared to the HW and labs she assigns. Not a fan of the autograder -- to picky. Also not a fan of her late policy, but I do think it's …Read more

The course material was easy to understand during the first half of the semester, and initially, I enjoyed the class and the professor. However, it hits a point after the first half where the material isn't easy to understand on your own anymore, and that is when I realized the professor is actually not prepped enough to teach a class of students. He doesn't even remember 80% of our names and had to ask most of us when handing back our midterms. Gives lectures and notes, but they aren't sufficient enough to do labs and homework on your own. You will most likely go to TA hours at least once or twice during the semester if not every week. If you have had prior experience with CS, you'll probably be ok. Otherwise, not friendly to beginners.

The course material was easy to understand during the first half of the semester, and initially, I enjoyed the class and the professor. However, it hits a point after the first half where the material isn't easy to understand on your own anymore, and that is when I realized the professor is actually not prepped enough to teach a clas …Read more

Professor Chodrow is absolutley amazing. I loved his class but would not recommend unless you want to explore the major. It is a lot of work. I beleibe that anyone can get an A in this class, it juts takes loads of time.

Basu was not at all accommodating for his students. He showed zero enthusiasm during lectures, and was often unprepared to teach. He could not answer my questions on labs, and was often not available during office hours.

Philip (Professor Caplan) knows what he's doing. Despite having a strong background in not only computer science (of course) but also math and physics, he breaks down important concepts into understandable bits and spreads them out in lecture videos, labs and pair work. Perhaps (due to COVID, but) rare in introductory courses in the Computer Science department, the midterms and final exam were administered completely online, i.e., no handwritten component. There was a Canvas quiz for concept understanding, but the coding questions were on a fully functional IDE online so we could run the code ourselves and feel confident about the results. Personally, I pretty much always knew my progress in the course.

Philip (Professor Caplan) knows what he's doing. Despite having a strong background in not only computer science (of course) but also math and physics, he breaks down important concepts into understandable bits and spreads them out in lecture videos, labs and pair work. Perhaps (due to COVID, but) rare in introductory courses in the …Read more

This course was very difficult as a person with no prior coding experience, as Professor Basu didn't really know how to explain concepts to beginners and didn't have much of an understanding to the pace that we needed to go at. Homeworks were extremely difficult as we had no prior examples to the types of questions included in them. Labs were manageable.

I absolutely loved this course. I had not taken any computer science classes nor coded before joining this class. It made me fall in love with computer science and I can't wait to take more classes in the department! Professor Chodrow is a great guy and was very helpful and accommodating.

I came into this course with no prior experience in coding, and in the first few weeks the difference in level became clear especially with labs. Although it felt overwhelming at the start, there are many resources available to you!! Drop in sessions and additional help with Professor Chodrow made the class easier. He is always optimistic and motivating you. It was a challenging but enjoyable course which sparked my interest to pursue this as a major.

I came into this course with no prior experience in coding, and in the first few weeks the difference in level became clear especially with labs. Although it felt overwhelming at the start, there are many resources available to you!! Drop in sessions and additional help with Professor Chodrow made the class easier. He is always opti …Read more

The class is intro but doesnt seem that way due to the students with pior knowledge. Phil was a nice and accommodating professor, but struggled to bridge the gap needed to understand python, for intro students.

I took this course as a total beginner to computer science. I wanted to see what the experience would be like and it was very challenging for me. I thought the professor was very enthusiastic and nice but the subject was just difficult for me to grasp.

Course was well designed and structured, making it easy for students to manage assignments outside of the classroom. As someone who never had any prior experience in computer science before, I did find this course a little challenging and very time-consuming. The professor did a well job sharing the base knowledge to a concept but I personally felt that there could have been more explanation on the reasoning behind certain python concepts rather than giving us a formula (I did find myself having to take a lot more time to figure out how to apply certain concepts to different problems on my own) but then again considering the amount of content we had to cover in a semester I think as long as you sit down and figure thinks out and seek help from peer tutors and the professor AND study hard for your exams, you should get an A.

Course was well designed and structured, making it easy for students to manage assignments outside of the classroom. As someone who never had any prior experience in computer science before, I did find this course a little challenging and very time-consuming. The professor did a well job sharing the base knowledge to a concept but I …Read more

Professor Chodrow is a sweetheart. Not only is he extremely passionate about Computer Science, but he's approachable and empathic. He finds a way to help students when they are struggling and actually listens to our needs. Yeah sure, the work can be difficult but there is always someone to help you!

This course was amazing in general! The professor was really helpful at all times and was always ready to help out with any problem that you have. The workload was a lot but doable. I would definitely take this class again!

Professor Chodrow is super accomodating. Course progresses fairly quickly but builds on itself well. Might be hard to keep up if you're not at all familiar with any of the concepts, but we had a lot of help available from students and professor. Exam was reasonably hard but not deadly, nice thing is that work that goes into your final grade is more spread out in homework tasks and projects. A LOT of collaborative work, sometimes frustrating when skill levels differ between partners, but sometimes valuable also.

Professor Chodrow is super accomodating. Course progresses fairly quickly but builds on itself well. Might be hard to keep up if you're not at all familiar with any of the concepts, but we had a lot of help available from students and professor. Exam was reasonably hard but not deadly, nice thing is that work that goes into your fina …Read more

It was the professor's first year teaching and I think overall she's doing a good job. There are times when I do wish she had prepared us more in class with more examples related to the homework (this was my first time taking CS and sometimes I felt really unequipped to do the homework), but I also understand its difficult to teach something that requires a lot of self-practice

I loved this course with professor foley. He made me want to take CS as a major. The environment for working on projects was relaxed because he wanted to make it as similar to the work place as possible. It was a steady pace for me but I can see how it may be a bit challenging to others. Must stay on top of your work to succeed but its not too hard to.

Phil is by far my favorite professor this semester. He is extremely passionate about the topics he is teaching and very patient with students. I walked into the course without any background in computer science, and walked out being interested in making it a minor/major. The class was quite fast-paced it wasn’t very difficult because there was loads of help and resources. I would strongly recommend taking a computer science course with Phil.

Phil is by far my favorite professor this semester. He is extremely passionate about the topics he is teaching and very patient with students. I walked into the course without any background in computer science, and walked out being interested in making it a minor/major. The class was quite fast-paced it wasn’t very difficult because …Read more

I had a great experience in this course, Professor Phil is a great instructor who's very enthusiastic when it comes to teaching. He always makes lectures interesting, however some topics of the course move quite fast but as someone who's had prior experience programming in Python, it wasn't an issue. If you have experience with Python I'd say not to worry to much. Professor Phil is also very easy to talk to so if you have any issues whether it be content or anything reaching out is your best option.

I had a great experience in this course, Professor Phil is a great instructor who's very enthusiastic when it comes to teaching. He always makes lectures interesting, however some topics of the course move quite fast but as someone who's had prior experience programming in Python, it wasn't an issue. If you have experience with Pytho …Read more

I took professor Chodrow class this fall of 2022. He’s an energetic, passionate, and great teacher. You might find his teaching to be a bit fast, but if you meet with him after hours or talk to him 1-1, this is where his teaching truly shines. Over all my experience with this class has been quite good, not much complaint.

The in class material was much easier than any homework or labs. Office hours were almost always a must for either the labs or homeworks. The auto grader made it very easy to have a high grade in the class. Readings are not important. Expect to be challenged with homeworks and labs.

Although the class has a lot of work, you learn a lot from it and Phil is a professor is really helpful and easy to talk to. Homework and labs took a lot of time out of my week to do, but again you learn a lot from it. Exams are also difficult on paper, but you can do it.

Course overall wasn't too bad. Homework was relatively easy. We did often have quizzes but they were generally easy to average and he was a fair grader. If a lot of people got a question wrong, he would remove the question from the quiz. Also exams were online. That being said near the end the difficulty ramped really quick with like 2 difficult projects.

This class was my first experience in computer science and it was really tough at times. Especially in the last month, it felt like we were going way too fast. That said, Vaccari was very kind and helpful and provided a bunch of useful resources on top of his engaging lectures. We had two coding assignments per week (one hw and one lab) and I frequently had to visit the peer tutors to make sense of them. The exams were also pretty tricky, especially the final because the last few weeks of content felt so rushed.

This class was my first experience in computer science and it was really tough at times. Especially in the last month, it felt like we were going way too fast. That said, Vaccari was very kind and helpful and provided a bunch of useful resources on top of his engaging lectures. We had two coding assignments per week (one hw and one l …Read more

One of the GOAT professors. Caring, understanding, and exceptional at teaching a difficult introductory course. You can always talk to him whenever and class passes by pretty quickly with him teaching.

I found the material of the class helpful and engaging however the lectures were not so much. I thought that he presented the material logically and and it was relatively easy to follow the class, however the class occasionally felt like I was there just for participation reasons. The workload is very manageable with only weekly lab assignments.

Professor Vaccari was the best. His lectures were really clear and always aligned to the problem sets. His class was manageable in terms of the workload, and he gives you time in class to work on the lab where one is able to ask questions.

Lots of work overall. Homework and Lab due each week and a Quiz on canvas. Pretty easy grading so as long as you submit everything you can get a good grade. I had little coding experience prior but picked it up pretty easily. CS Department has lots of resources for the courses as well. There were tutoring session almost nightly and Professor Chodrow had plenty of office hours.

I would not take this class again because of the teaching style. I felt talked to rather than taught at. Most of my learning happened independently and I only learned when I went to office hours. He was an easy grader.