Home  .   FAQ  .   Admissions .   Considering CS? .   Get Involved .   Program Planning .   Research  .   Who to See .   Faculty  .   Declare  .   Xenon  .   CSE

Course and Requirement Overview

• This page only covers the 2006-07 CS program sheet (although most of the information is applicable to previous program sheets as well). Keep in mind that these are only opinions - your experience in a class might be totally different.
• These overviews are only based on what the classes have been like in the past. I make no guarantees that the structure of any class will not drastically change at any given time.
  
• Another good way to find out what a class is usually like is to check out the old webpages. These old websites are a great resource for seeing what topics might be covered in a course and what the assignments could be like. To find class webpages, you can often just type csXXX as the web address in your browser if you're on-campus or csXXX.stanford.edu from an off-campus computer. If that doesn't work you can try going to www.stanford.edu/class/csXXX.
• When we rank how difficult a class is, it is based ONLY on it's general reputation amongst CS students. Keep in mind that you may have different weaknesses and strengths than others. You might also find it more or less challenging because of having a different background in CS.
• Although we are providing information on which classes are known as being harder and easier, we are by no means encouraging you to take the esiest way through the major, or trying to imply that the easier classes are not valuable. This information is provided to help you plan a balanced course load each quarter.
• When planning a course load, you should take into account not only how hard classes are, but also what types of assignments each class has. Taking 3 classes that all have programming assignment and a large final project is probably not the best idea. More general tips on planning a course load are available here.

Math Requirement

• Math 41/42 or Math 19/20/21 - Calculus - (weekly problem sets, two midterms and final)
  If you recieved AP credit placing you out of these courses, you can count that AP credit towards the major instead of taking 41/42 as follows:
  

  AP Exam	Score	Do I have to take 41?	Do I have to take 42?
  Math AB	5	No	No
  Math AB	4	No	Yes
  Math BC	4 or 5	No	No
  Math BC	3	No	Yes

• Statistics - (weekly problem sets, midterm and final)
  You must take either Stat 116, MS&E 120, or CME 106. AP Statistics credit does not count towards the major. Stat 116 is a class that meets every day for an hour. MS&E 120 meets three times a week for about an hour and a half. If you have a limited interest in statistics, some people recommend that you take the MS&E class instead as it is somewhat less theoretical.

• CS 103 - Discrete Mathematics and Structures - (weekly problem sets, midterm and final)
  CS 103 is an introduction to the type of math and theory which you will see throughout the CS major. In order to satisfy the 103 requirement, you can take the 103A/103B sequence, or you can take 103X. 103X covers basically the same material as 103 A/B does, but it does so at a much faster pace. In general, you should only take 103X if you have already had some exposure to discrete math, or you are extremely comfortable learning new mathematical concepts quickly. Check out the class webpages to see what material is covered, so you can judge whether it is stuff you are or will be comfortable with. If you take 103X, you will need to take 3 electives to fulfill the major requirements. If you take 103A/B, you will need to take 2 electives.

• Math Electives
  You need to take two of the following courses:
  

  • Math 51* - Linear Algebra and Differential Calculus of Several Variables
    
  • Math 52 and 53 or Math 103* or Math 113* - Various versions of Linear Algebra and Matrix Theory
    103 and 113 cover the same material, but 113 takes a much more proof based, theoretical approach, while 103 focuses on applications. Taking 52 in addition to 53 will also cover all the material in addition to some multivariable calculus.
  • Math 108 - Combinatorics
  • Math 109 - Applied Group Theory
    
  • Math 110 - Applied Number Theory
    
  • CS 156 - Calculus of Computation
    This is a new course, so not much is known about it yet.
  • CS 157* - Logic and Automated Reasoning
    This is a standard logic class with an offering in the fall. The class usually consists of 4 problem sets and a final exam, focusing on automated reasoning. You should note that the CS department will also accept Philosophy 151* as a substitute for CS 157. Phil 151 is the logic course which Symbolic Systems majors are required to take. It is considered significantly more difficult than either offering of 157, but is highly recommended for anyone with an interest in the subject.
    
  • Phil 151 - First-Order Logic
    
  • CS 205 - Mathematical Methods for Robotics, Vision and Graphics
    This class focuses on applying mathematical methods to real world computing systems. It's taken largely by first year graduate students and upperclassmen, but it would not be unreasonable for a younger student who was interested in Robotics/Graphics/Vision to take it if they have had an introduction to matrix theory and linear algebra and are comfortable learning mathematical concepts quickly. There is one open ended final project which should "show you learned something". Students also have the option to turn in multiple smaller open ended assignments instead of one final one. Last year, an optional final was offered which could replace the project.
    
  • CME 100*, 102, or 104 - Vector Calculus, ODEs, and PDEs
  * Warning: These pairs of classes cannot be used together to satisfy the Math elective (i.e. only one from each pair can be counted):
  • Math 51 + 103
  • Math 51 + CME 100
  • Math 103 + Math 113
  • CS 157 + Phil 151

Science Requirements
You must take 11 units of science. Usually, once you have finished the Physics requirement and taken a science elective, you will be well over 11 units, but if you are not, then you must take more science electives until you have at least 11 units in total.

• Physics - (weekly problem sets, two midterms and final)
  You need to take Mechanics (physics 21, 53 or 61) and E&M (phsics 23, 55, or 63) for the physics requirement. You are allowed to mix and match between the series (so taking 53 and 23 is OK). However, note that physics 21 and 23 are only 3 units each, and you need 11 units of science. You can make up the extra units with science electives (see below). You are not required to take the physics labs. In general, almost any college level, first year physics class (that covers mechanics and E&M) will transfer for the physics requirement, so if you want to take physics at Foothill (the local community college), or at home over the summer, that's usually OK - you just have to take care of having the credit transferred (see the FAQ for transfer info). AP units take care of the physics requirement as follows:

  AP Exam	Score	Do I have to take Mechanics?	Do I have to take E&M?	Units Towards 11-Unit Science Requirement
  PhysicsB	5	No	No	8
  PhysicsB	4	No	Yes	4
  PhysicsC (both)	4 or 5	No	No	9
  PhysicsC (both)	3	No	No	8
  PhysicsC (Mech)	4 or 5	No	Yes	4
  PhysicsC (Mech)	3	No	Yes	4
  PhysicsC (E&M)	4 or 5	Yes	No	5
  PhysicsC (E&M)	3	Yes	No	4

• Science Elective
  You need to take at least one science elective. The list of approved science electives is here, plus CS majors can take Psych 30 (Perception) or Psych 55 (Cognition and the Brain). If you got a 4 or 5 on the Chemistry AP, that will count as 4 units of science elective.

Engineering Fundamentals

• CS 106 - Programming Abstractions/Methodology - (weekly programming assignments, midterm and final)
  CS106 is our introductory programming course. You can take it as a two quarter sequence (CS 106A and 106B) or you can take the accelerated version CS 106X. 106X is recommended only for people who have already had some exposure to programming or are extremely comfortable picking up programming skills quickly. Technically, a 4 or 5 on the Computer Science A or Computer Science AB exam fulfills the CS 106 requirement. However, we strongly recommend that you take 106X anyway. The 106's are some of our best courses. They are taught as a lecture, but you will be assigned to a small section, where you will get a lot of support and guidance as well as interactive grading. It is also an introduction to how Computer Science works at Stanford, what resources are available, and what is expected from students as far as programming style. Last but not least, 106X (especially in the fall quarter) will be a great way to meet lots of other people interested in programming who might also be considering a CS major.

• E40 - Introductory Electronics - (weekly problem sets, labs, midterm and final)
  E40 is an introduction to electronics offered by the EE department. Although there is not any programming, the class is considered to be one of the more difficult classes in the beginning of the major.

• Engineering Fundamental Elective
  You must take one additional Engineering Fundamental. A list of Engineering fundamentals is listed here. Note that you cannot count any version of CS 106 as a fundamental elective.

Technology in Society
A list of approved TIS courses is listed here. You can take any one of them to fulfill the requirement. Also, if you go abroad to the SCTI program in Kyoto, the internship opportunities through those programs will fufil the TIS requirement. For more information on this option, contact the School of Engineering. If you are taking another course that you feel should fulfill the TIS requirement, you'll need to petition with the School of Engineering, see here for more info.

CS 107 - Programming Paradigms - (weekly programming assignments, midterm and final)
In CS 107 you will make the transition to programming on the UNIX machines. The class usually spends a couple of weeks on nitty gritty C++ pointers and memory management, and then a week or two each on LISP, and other programming languages such as Python, Objective C, and C#. The class tends to have the hardest assignments in the first few weeks (the C++ pointer stuff and transitioning to UNIX) and then gets a bit easier as you get into the other paradigms.

CS 108 - Object Oriented Systems - (weekly programming assignments, midterm and final)
Considered by many to be the first "rite of passage" in the major, CS108 is where you will write the infamous Bunny World. Bunny World is the first open-ended, group project in the CS major, and the idea is to give students a taste of this kind of assignment before they start taking upper level classes (which almost all have group projecs). Although 108 is not technically a prerequisite for many classes, we recommend that you try to take it before launching into the upper level CS classes unless you are quite comfortable with groupwork and open ended projects.

CS 154 - Intro to Automata and Complexity Theory - (weekly problem sets, midterm and final)
This is a pretty theoretical class and although not exactly time intensive, some people have trouble with the very abstract material. A good way to judge how hard this class (as well as CS 161) will be for you is to think about how comfortable you were with the material presented in CS 103 - especially the stuff towards the end.

CS 161 - Design and Analysis of Algorithms - (problem sets, midterm and final)
The material in this theory course is somewhat difficult, but not as abstract as 154. You'll learn many different algorithms that can be super useful in solving problems you may encounter down the round (especially in interviews).

EE 108B - Digital Systems II - (4-5problem sets, 2 programming assignments, midterm and final)
EE 108B officially lists EE 108A as a prerequisite, but as a CS major, you are not required to take 108A. From what we have been told, 108A is mostly a prerequisite for the lab portion of the class, and CS majors are not required to take the lab.

2 Systems Electives
You need to take 2 Systems Electives and one of them must be 140 or 143. In general, the systems electives get easier as you take more of them. For example people who've taken 143 find that they have an easier time in 242 and vice versa.

• CS 140 - Operating Systems - (4 programs, midterm and final)
  140 is considered by many to be the second "rite of passsage" in the major. It's time intensive and you have to do a lot of debugging and integration with other people's code (sort of like real life actually). Basically, there's a big operating system simulation program which is used by OS classes around the country. They break up this program into 4 modules and for each of the programming assignments you rewrite one of the modules. In theory, at the end of the class, you could take all your assignments and put them together and you'd have written a pretty basic operating system.
• CS 143 - Compilers - (4 programs, some problem sets, midterm and final)
  The programming assignments traditionally consist of fleshing out various parts of a compiler, so when you finish the class you've essentially written your own compiler. The setup and difficulty of this class varies a lot depending on who is teaching it.
• CS 155 - Computer and Network Security - (mix of problem sets and programming, final) This class is a great introduction to security issues, and generally appeals to people who like systems programming. It's said to have an average workload. You'll need CS 140 as a prereq; if you're looking to use what you've learned in that course but aren't sure you want to take the CS 244A plunge (see below) this is a great choice.
• CS 242 - Programming Languages - (weekly problem sets, midterm and final)
  This class is a broad survey of Programming Languages. You will get exposure to a variety of langages such as LISP and ML which you might not otherwise learn much about. The class is considered to be less time intensive/difficult than most of the other systems electives, but still a reasonable amount of work. Some people have said that they found what they learned in this class especially useful when they were doing technical interviews for jobs.
• CS 244A - Introduction to Computer Networks - (mix of problem sets and programs, midterm and final)
  This class is offered by the EE department in the fall and the CS department in the winter. Although it's considered challenging in either case, the winter offering is rumored to be harder. Both offerings consist of a mixture of programming assignments and problem sets, but the winter class has a heavier focus on programming. In order to take the class in the winter, you must have already taken 140. This is one of the very few "hard" prerequisites in the CS major and you need to get special permission from the instructor if you want to bypass it.

CS 121/221 Intro to Artificial Intelligence - (mix of problem sets and programs, midterm and final)
You must take either 121 or 221, both of which are an introduction to the field of AI. 121 is considered one of the easiest courses in the major, and 221 is considered one of the hardest (but also one of the best and most rewarding). If you have any interest in taking upper level courses in AI, you should probably take 221 since it is a much more rigorous introduction to the field and some upper level courses will require 221 as a prerequisite. 221 also teaches abstract problem solving and algorithm design skills that transcend AI, so even if you are not sure you are interested in AI, it is a worthwhile course. The problem sets in 221 are conceptually difficult and will take a significant amout of time, so be prepared. The final project in 221 is the infamous Othello competition (students write an AI powered Othello player and play them against each other).

Application Elective
You need to take one of the following Application Electives

• CS145 - Introduction to Databases - (mix of problem sets and programs, midterm and final)
  This class focuses on the use of databases as opposed to the implementation of them (which is covered in more depth in 245). The class is not considered especially difficult, but the assignments can still take some time. The class focuses on how to use SQL, which is a useful skill to know especially these days with all of the massively popular database-driven web sites out there, but if you already have some experience in this area, you may want to take 245 instead.
• CS147 - Intro to HCI - (written assignments, design project with minimal programming, midterm and final)
  This is probably the "fuzziest" class in the CS major. Most people either love this class or hate it - how much you like it will probably depend on how much you like fuzzy classes. Be aware though that although there's limited programming and the class is not very time intensive, lots of people have found that it's not an "easy A" (especially when they skipped class and didn't do the reading!).
• CS148/248 - Introduction to Graphics - (programs, midterm and final)
  Much like the 121/221 split, Intro to Graphics is split into two options. 148 is known for being reasonably easy while 248 is much harder but much more rewarding. If you want to continue in Graphics at all, you must take 248 since 148 does not fulfill the prerequisites for later graphics courses. 148 has 4-5 programming projects while 248 has 2 programming projects and the infamous video game competition. 248 has a reputation of being incredibly time intensive because of this final project (an open ended video game assignment). There is a competition for the best game and the winners tend to be absolutely incredible. Keep in mind however, that you do not need to write a video game of this caliber to do well in the class. The video game competition is an awesome opportunity for some people (maybe even you), but lots of people take a much more relaxed approach. If you take a good look at the actuall assignment requirements the final project is pretty reasonable and will not require knowledge other than what you've been learning in the class. This is not to say that 248 is easy, it certainly covers a lot of difficult material at a pretty fast pace. However, if you have an interest in graphics, you shouldn't avoid taking the class just because you don't have the time to try and win the game competition.
• CS223A - Introduction to Robotics - (weekly problem sets, midterm and final)
  This class is a mathematical introduction to Robotics, and students should have a solid grasp on matrix manipulations before enrolling. Some people think that this is the Robot Soccer class, but that's actually CS225B.
• CS223B - Introduction to Computer Vision - (three problem sets, midterm, final project)
  This class offers a mathematical and hands-on background in techniques for computer vision; students should be comfortable with statistics and programming.
• CS262- Computational Genomics - (four problem sets, take-home final)
  This is an introduction to the relatively new field of genomics (playing with representations of DNA). It requires cs161 and expects a fair amount of comfort with math (especially probability) and CS theory, but not bio; "basic knowledge of genetics" is recommended. People say this is one of the more challenging and time-consuming courses but also that it's very rewarding.

Senior Project
Please see the Senior Project page for more information.

Writing in the Major
Almost everyone fulfills the WIM requirement when they do Senior Project. If you took CS 201 for your TIS requirement, then you do not need to fulfill WIM with Senior Project. This means that you will be able to skip some of the writing assignments in your Senior Project class. WIM is the only requirement that can be fulfilled by a class that also fulfills another requirement (so taking 194 or 191W fulfills the Senior Project Requirement as well as the WIM requirement).

Restricted Electives
If you took CS 103A/B, you need to take 2 CS Electives. If you took CS 103X, you need to take 3 CS Electives. Whether you took 106A/B or 106X has no effect on how many electives you need to take. You must take the electives in addition to the courses you take to fulfill other requirements. For example, if you take CS140, it can count as a Systems Elective or a Restricted Elective, but not both. A list of approved electives is listed on the program sheets. Many people use the electives to either explore more introductory classes in other areas of CS, or pursue a particular interest in more depth by taking some of the higher level grad classes. Many of the elective options are already described in different parts of this page, so please see those descriptions. The rest, you'll have to find out about yourself. The best way to do this is to check out previous versions of the class website.

If you have a class that you feel should count as a restricted elective but is not on the list, you should first check the program sheets from other years. If a class was approved as a restricted elective during the year that you took it, you can use it as an elective on any other year's sheet. If not, you can send an email to Jerry Cain (jerry@cs) with a cc to Claire Stager (stager@cs). Keep in mind that classes that are numbered below 100 (including freshman seminars) or above 400 are not usually approved as restricted electives. The 193's also are not approved.

Stanford University Computer Science Site content maintained by the CS Course Advisor. Design by Linda Nguyen, '05. 01010011 01110111 01100101 01100101 01110100 01001000 01100001 01101100 01101100 01001100 01101111 01110110 01100101 00100001