{"id":2691,"date":"2012-12-19T10:39:25","date_gmt":"2012-12-19T17:39:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/?p=2691"},"modified":"2018-06-11T04:33:26","modified_gmt":"2018-06-11T11:33:26","slug":"changing-the-mit-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2012\/12\/19\/changing-the-mit-challenge\/","title":{"rendered":"What I Would Change About the MIT Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"

After a year spent learning MIT\u2019s computer science program independently<\/a>, I\u2019ve gotten a number of emails from people who want to do the same thing. People who want a computer science education but don\u2019t want to wait four years and pay thousands of dollars to get it.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m very happy with how I conducted the challenge, but I wouldn\u2019t recommend most people follow my plan identically.<\/p>\n

My goal was to publicly tackle a hard academic program. I wanted to learn practical skills, but because I\u2019m a full-time blogger, not a full-time programmer, I didn\u2019t mind taking classes which were more math or science.<\/p>\n

Many of the people writing me want to repeat the MIT Challenge so that they can become great programmers, possibly landing jobs in the industry. Given that\u2019s a more popular goal than investing a year full-time just for intellectual satisfaction, I would definitely make some modifications to my challenge for those interested in repeating it.<\/p>\n

Downsides to an MIT Education<\/h2>\n

Whenever you design a curriculum, you\u2019re making tradeoffs. You choose what to emphasize and what to downplay. MIT does this. Every school does.<\/p>\n

There are many advantages of an MIT education. The material is excellent and the teachers are world class. The expectations are high, so passing an exam is a good sign you really understand the ideas. The material, especially for graduate classes, is focused on cutting-edge innovations in the field.<\/p>\n

But there are also tradeoffs MIT makes when teaching it\u2019s students which I feel are important to take into account if you\u2019re wanting to self-study the program and not receive a degree for your effort.<\/p>\n

MIT is Math and Theory Heavy<\/h2>\n

Doing the MIT Challenge I learned a lot of math. Now don\u2019t get me wrong, I enjoyed those classes and I wouldn\u2019t have changed it if I had gone back. But the amount of math was probably unnecessary for being a decent programmer.<\/p>\n

MIT\u2019s bias towards theory and math-heavy classes, and the relative dearth of programming, was a contentious point during my challenge. Many people claimed it was impossible to do the programming work of a 4-year challenge in one year. Except that MIT doesn\u2019t do nearly as much programming as other schools.<\/p>\n

In the four classes of computer science I took from my alma mater, the primary emphasis was programming. Even the exams were more than half handwritten computer programs we had to make.<\/p>\n

MIT does have programming assignments, and I did a lot of them (and there were also lab classes which had more programming which I had to substitute out during my challenge). The difference is only relative to my experience with other schools which did tons of programming but probably wouldn’t have gone into the full correctness proof of the SVM algorithm using Lagrangian multipliers.<\/p>\n

My impression of MIT is that it assumes learning to program is the easy part, so it puts more emphasis on the big theoretical ideas of computer science. This is an understandable position, because they want to prepare their graduates to do innovative work, not just prepare them for their first entry-level job.<\/p>\n

MIT Teaches a Rounded Program<\/h2>\n

Another laudable goal of MIT instruction is that they expect all their graduates to be well-versed in the science and arts. This roundedness to the curriculum is noble, but perhaps impractical for someone who mainly wants employable skills.<\/p>\n

During the program I studied biology, chemistry, physics and economics. These were great classes, and I enjoyed them, but they could probably be omitted if you only wanted to learn about computer science.<\/p>\n

MIT is Highly Extracurricular<\/h2>\n

Another reason I feel MIT\u2019s course curriculum downplays the programming aspect is that they expect you\u2019ll learn that on your own. Most MIT students will do summer internships or extracurricular projects which will supplement the theory-heavy courses.<\/p>\n

Since my challenge, and any self-education attempt to replicate MIT\u2019s curriculum would omit these side projects, it\u2019s important to take that into account.<\/p>\n

MIT Merges Electrical Engineering and Computer Science<\/h2>\n

Another quirk of the MIT program is that it also covers electrical engineering. As a result, I learned quite a bit about electrical engineering which is arguably only distantly related to computer science in the day-to-day work of a programmer.<\/p>\n

I think there is some value of learning the basics of electrical engineering, particularly computation structures which shows how computers are made of wires and semiconductors. However if my main goal had been practical, not intellectual, I would have skipped most the EE courses to put extra emphasis on the CS.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m glad I followed MIT\u2019s curriculum, but I\u2019m aware that many people aiming to follow me have different goals and are unaware of these emphases in MIT.<\/p>\n

What I Would Change for a Programmer<\/h2>\n

You can see the curriculum I followed here<\/a>, and MIT\u2019s actual 4-year computer science curriculum<\/a>. It\u2019s not a perfect replica, but my main goal was to get as close as humanly possible, both in volume and in subject matter.<\/p>\n

However, if your goal is to become an excellent programmer or have the foundation of a computer science degree to serve as the foundation of a professional skill, I don\u2019t think perfect imitation is the ideal benchmark.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how I would change the curriculum I used to better suit those aims.<\/p>\n

What I Would Keep<\/h2>\n

Here are the courses I thought were particularly useful to know, as a programmer. The list is not exhaustive, and there are useful classes I didn\u2019t take. Many of these are more theory oriented, but they teach useful theory for someone who wants to build things in code:<\/p>\n

18.01<\/a>: Single Variable Calculus
\n6.01<\/a>: Introduction to EE and CS I*
\n6.02<\/a>: Introduction to EE and CS II
\n6.042J<\/a>: Mathematics for Computer Science
\n6.006<\/a>: Introduction to Algorithms
\n18.06<\/a>: Linear Algebra
\n6.046J<\/a>: Design and Analysis of Algorithms
\n6.034<\/a>: Artificial Intelligence
\n6.004<\/a>: Computation Structures**
\n6.033<\/a>: Computer Systems Engineering
\n6.005<\/a>: Elements of Software Construction<\/p>\n

*Technically, this class requires having done the two intro physics classes, but considering the only reason for this is to understand voltages and simple circuits, you could just learn those from KhanAcademy videos<\/a> and skip the two physics classes (although they are very<\/a> well taught<\/a>).
\n**This class requires Circuits<\/a> as a prerequisite, but I believe you\u2019d have sufficient coverage from 6.01 and 6.02 to cover it and taking 6.002 would be overkill.<\/p>\n

These are the core CS courses I took. I would also consider taking additional courses based on your particular interests in computer science. I did machine vision<\/a>, computer graphics<\/a> and theory of computation<\/a> as well, but the above 11 classes would be the most beneficial, even though it\u2019s only a third of the classes I took.<\/p>\n

What I Would Add<\/h2>\n

In terms of more classes, I would first consider adding an intro programming class if you\u2019re starting from scratch. 6.01 is technically MIT\u2019s first class, but it races through the beginnings of Python which could be daunting for someone who is new. I\u2019d also include Khan Academy to make sure you have the appropriate math background to start taking calculus (not strictly necessary, but useful for understanding AI, graphics and some more advanced topics).<\/p>\n

Some other academic subjects I would like to cover better, but weren\u2019t explored deeply for the MIT Challenge would be:<\/p>\n