Learning to code: regular students take coding courses

For some it’s a requirement, for others a mere point of interest. Whatever the reason, non-coders worldwide, from humanities majors to pre-meds, are slowly venturing into the world of programming, some more successfully than others. Summarized is the collective experience of one such coding class filled with non-coders. Week 1:

• The first day of class, the professor proudly announces that although absolutely no coding experience is required for this introductory course, by signing up to program you have hereby signed up for the lifestyle as well. This will entail around 20 hours of work per week in addition to class time, as coding is a full time job. Yeah, right, you think. If you can do pre-med you can certainly handle this.

Week 2:

• Coding is AWESOME #girlswhocode. *Calls mom* “Mom, I’m seriously one of the best coders in my class. It really just clicks for me, I swear. Do you think Facebook is still accepting applications?” *Adds programming skills to resume*

Weeks 3-4:

• The day that shopping period ends is the day your life flashes before your eyes. Your first homework assignment is released, and with that, you wave farewell to your social life and your grades for the semester. You’ve chosen to code, and now you must be punished for it. How could the CLPS department do this to you? Feeling betrayed, you experience your first CIT cry session.

Weeks 4-6:

• Things continue to escalate rapidly. Your computer science friends laugh when you ask for help. CIT regulars glare when you talk too loudly. You make the unfortunate and confusing discovery that programming classes have pencil and paper exams.

Weeks 7-8:

• Sitting awake in bed at 2 in the morning after a long day bombarding your favorite TA in office hours, you finally understand the coding life. You call your CS friends to apologize, and again they laugh you off the phone.

Weeks 9-10:

• Two months in, you finally start to write code that seems useful – images! Again, you get your hopes up. This will be cool. Your skills will get you hired. However, after six hours of trying to turn a singular yellow circle red, you realize once more that you’ve played yourself. You even consider taking programming skills off of your resume.

Weeks 11-12:

• Your coding friends are the only people you’ve seen in weeks. Your computer crashes every time you open it. Tears streaming down your face, you finally get the circle to turn red, and you wonder if it was all worth it.

  Images via.