PHYS 1559

(Intro Python for Scientists and Engineers) This is by far one of the most useful classes you can take if you are in a STEM field, and I can't recommend it enough! In addition to providing an excellent intro to python, we also had an intro to linux, which I also found to be very useful. I started research the summer after taking this course, and was well-prepared because I was familiar with linux and python. I really liked the structure of the course; classes were short lectures followed by hands-on practice with new concepts. There was a homework assignment each week, which, as long as you start early, was not difficult to finish. Take advantage of office hours if you're stuck, you will save a lot of time. This is not a hard class to do well in, as long as you put in some effort, start homework early, and ask for help when you need it. You will learn a lot!

To be perfectly honest, this class sucks. Prof. Group was very clear at the beginning of the semester that he is not a coder and he's learning alongside us, which was extremely evident. I found the homework to be impossible without begging in TA office hours, the TAs were only thing getting me through this class. People told Prof. Group that the assignments were too difficult for an intro course and he literally didn't care. This is not an intro-level class, we were doing machine learning for the last two weeks. I can't say I understand python very well, even after writing programs for an entire semester, because Craig never went over rules, he just showed examples and told us to modify them. If you have python experience, I guess this class would be an easy A for you? But it's not fun or interesting and I definitely don't recommend it to anyone who has no experience with coding, like me!