CS50 is designed not only for concentrators in computer science but also for non-concentrators. More than just teach you how to program, this course teaches you how to think more methodically and how to solve problems more effectively. As such, its lessons are applicable well beyond the boundaries of computer science itself. That the course does teach you how to program, though, is perhaps its most empowering return. With this skill comes the ability to solve real-world problems in ways and at speeds beyond the abilities of most humans.

(Yes.)

For the curious, here are Fall 2009's Q Evaluations.

Yes, you may take CS50 pass/fail in Fall 2010. Even David initially enrolled in CS50 pass/fail for his own comfort's sake and only changed to a letter grade at the last minute when he realized he wanted to switch his concentration to CS. Simply ask David to sign a pass/fail form. You can change your mind (from pass/fail to a letter grade or vice versa) up until the fifth Monday of the term; there's no fee for changing grading status.

Yes, you may take CS50 for a letter grade in Fall 2010. In fact, you should if your (potential) concentration requires that you take CS50 for a letter grade, if you want Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning credit for Gen Ed, if you want Quantitative Reasoning credit for the Core, and/or you simply want to receive a letter grade. You can change your mind (from a letter grade to pass/fail or vice versa) up until the fifth Monday of the term; there's no fee for changing grading status.

CS50's lectures are MW 1 – 2:30 in Sanders Theater. No lectures on Fridays (except on 9/3/10 and 9/10/10, on which there will be special lectures because of Shopping Period and Labor Day).

No. CS50 draws quite the spectrum of students. In fact, most of the students in CS50 (87%) describe themselves as among "those less comfortable" or somewhere in between "less comfortable" and "more comfortable." For "those more comfortable," the course offers "Hacker Editions" of some problem sets so as to keep everyone equally engaged. Here's how Fall 2009's students described themselves:

As for prior experience, although some of Fall 2009's students entered CS50 having already taken one or more CS courses (e.g., AP), most (72%) had taken zero:

Although CS50's male/female ratio is still not 50/50, women composed 34% of CS50's student body in Fall 2009, its second-highest level in 20 years. See http://wiki.cs50.net/Enrollment.

None. CS50 does not assume any prior programming experience.

Probably not. You will likely find yourself at a disadvantage if you skip ahead to, e.g., CS51 or CS61, if only because many courses in computer science at Harvard assume familiarity not only with C but also with other concepts introduced in CS50. The differences between CS50 (which focuses on C) and AP Computer Science (which focuses on Java) do extend beyond the courses' choice of languages. If you cannot complete past quizzes quickly and correctly, you should not skip CS50.

Maybe. However, if you cannot complete past quizzes quickly and correctly, you should not skip CS50.

Yes, if you have some experience programming in C, which CS61 assumes. CS50 itself does not assume prior programming experience.

For most students, CS50 involves 10 or more hours of work outside of class per week. (Although that may sound like a lot to freshmen, know now that it's not!) Programming is simply one of those arts that you learn only by doing. The more you put into this course, the more you get out of it.

Truth be told, CS50 is probably more time-consuming than it is actually difficult. In Fall 2009, CS50's difficulty was rated 3.8 in the Q Guide.

Yes. CS50 satisifies the General Education requirement for Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning.

Yes. CS50 satisfies the Core area requirement for Quantitative Reasoning.

It's up to you. They're meant as at-home supplements to lectures. If you're the type of person who learns well from books, by all means procure one or more of them. Plenty of free resources exist on the Web, though, so you shouldn't find yourself at a disadvantage if you don't buy any of the recommended books.

Yes. Per the syllabus, "Each lecture will be filmed and made available within 72 hours of its delivery via the course's website in Flash, MP3, and QuickTime formats. Once posted, these recordings will remain available until semester's end. You are welcome to watch or listen to a recording if you are unable to attend some lecture in person. You are encouraged to watch or listen to these recordings for the sake of review."

Possibly. Best to review the policy on simultaneous enrollment and then drop David a note to discuss.

Yes. Simply follow these steps to cross-register.

Yes. CS50 is offered for credit through Harvard Extension School as CSCI E-52: Intensive Introduction to Computer Science Using C, PHP, and JavaScript. CS50 is also available to the public for free as OpenCourseWare at cs50.tv.

See http://wiki.cs50.net/Courses.

CS50 is a supported by AWS in Education, which means that you can use any of these services for free: Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2), Amazon SimpleDB, Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon CloudFront, Amazon Simple Queue Service (Amazon SQS), Amazon Elastic MapReduce, and Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS). For access to AWS, drop sysadmins@cs50.net a nice note from your harvard.edu address requesting access.

CS50 is a member of the iPhone Developer Program, which means that you can download the iPhone SDK without having to pay the typical $99 or $299 fee. For access to the API, drop sysadmins@cs50.net a nice note from your harvard.edu address requesting access.

SEAS is a member of the MSDN Academic Alliance (MSDNAA), which means that you can download Windows 7 and all sorts of Microsoft software (except for Office) for free. For access to MSDNAA, drop sysadmins@cs50.net a nice note from your harvard.edu address requesting access.