Planning Your Program

• Requirement Overview - A deeper look at the requirements for the CS Major. Includes information about each requirement as well as descriptions of the courses that fufil them.
• Offerings - A quick reference table showing what classes (in the major) are offered this year. Also includes which quarter they are offered,who is teaching them, what the prerequisites are, and their difficulty ranking.
• Sample Schedules - This page shows some sample 4 year plans for students
• Planning Worksheet - Link to the UGHB four year planning sheet
• Program Sheets - Links to program sheets for the CS and CSE major
• Study Partner Finder - Links to a place where you can find people to study for a CS class with.
• Senior Project - More information about the Senior Project requirement (CS 191 or 194)
• Honors - More information about the Honors Program

Hints for balancing your class load

As you probably already know, computer science classes are often much more rigorous and time-consuming than the average class at Stanford. With this in mind it is important to properly balance your quarterly class load so that you do not overextend yourself with computer science classes. As a general guideline, having two computer science classes in a given quarter will keep you pretty busy but won't crush you with an inordinate amount of work. Taking three computer science classes in one quarter is generally considered very difficult and does not leave much room for extra-curricular activities. To even consider taking four computer science classes in one quarter is strongly discouraged. Let's face it, you need some time for eating and showering (sleeping is always optional). To sum things up, see which of these attitudes best fits your lifestyle:

	1 or 2 CS classes per quarter:	"I really like computer science, but I think it is important to leave time for other things I like to do as well."
	3 CS classes per quarter:	"I really can't think of anything I'd rather do than sleep, eat and program."
	4 CS classes per quarter:	"I don't know why I pay for housing, when I end up staying up every night in Sweet Hall."
	5+ CS classes per quarter:	Incapable of having an attitude.

In all seriousness, overextending yourself can have more far-reaching consequences as the quarter progresses. Generally students who take more classes than they can handle end up doing poorly in all of the classes they are taking and are likely to drop a class along the way. This is not meant to discourage you from being ambitious in planning your class schedule (there have been students who have successfully taken four or more computer science classes in a given quarter), but just to prepare you for how much work you may be required to do.

Another point you may want to consider as you plan your course load is that it is a good idea to take a balanced load of programming-oriented and problem-set-oriented classes so that you don't get "burned-out" doing just one or the other. The Major Requirements page discusses what sort of assignments are typical in each class.