EECS 215

WN14, Prof. Compton

This course is fairly theoretical, so it's a nice break from the programming projects in a lot of the other Computer Science courses. One of the most important things taught is Big O, which comes up a lot in future courses and interviews. The class consists of a lot of math, particularly proofs. If you are not someone that enjoys theory and proofs, this course can be somewhat slow and tiring. A lot of students find this class somewhat dry and boring, especially because it's so theoretical. At times, the homework can be pretty difficult to figure out on your own, so it's good to have a study group or go to office hours. The workload is less than a typical programming class. However, the tests can be fairly long and difficult, consisting of quite a few proofs.

FA14, Prof. Dick, Prof. Wentzloff

This was my favorite introductory EECS course because I personally enjoyed the material taught in this course. The lab was a nice introduction to using breadboards/building circuits as someone who has never used a breadboard before. The classroom time was used well, and the professors provided slide printouts every class, which I appreciated a lot. Homework and test problems were always a good mix of tedious and conceptually challenging. My discussion was very helpful to me, although that may have been dependent on the GSI who led discussion. This class was A LOT of work. Homework sets took many hours and I often needed to go to office hours with friends to solve several of the problems. Work on problems alone first. Do as much as you can, even if you can't finish the problem. Then go to office hours with friends. Be wary of questions about diodes because they seem simple on the surface, but really can be tricky.

FA14, Prof. Dick, Prof. Wentzloff

A lot of the labs in this class were really cool, especially the last one where you make a sound amplifier and can plug your phone into it. Lots of interesting and real world application with the material that you will learn. I really didn't like how quick the course goes. If you don't need to take 215, but would like to take a circuits class, take 314. This course is very difficult. There are 7 hours of class time and even more homework, labwork, and studying outside of those hours. This class took up the majority of my time. Don't fall behind.