The Turing Scholars Program So Far
The Turing Scholars Program is the honors program for computer science students at UT Austin. It is a relatively new program, having been established in 2002. I hear it was an off shoot of the Dean’s Scholars Program, which is open to all natural science students. (There are many students that are in both programs at once.)
The main advantage of being in the program is the classes. The program allows students to take honors versions of most of the core computer science courses. Honors classes are generally harder and have smaller class sizes. One complaint that many people have about UT is that the class sizes are large; being in an honors program definitely helps bring the apparent size of the university down. I hear that the usual algorithms and data structures class has over a hundred students; the honors version has about fifty. Also, since we are required to have significant CS experience in the past, we get to skip past many of the intro classes.
The classes themselves are different. They rely more on a dialogue between the students and the professors than lectures. For example, Professor Lin, our professor for the data structures and algorithms class (CS 315H), would explain what a hash table was at a basic level, then pose a question asking us to think of its advantages and disadvantages. We would raise our hands and explain our ideas, which would be critiqued and expanded upon by him. Eventually, he’d give us the points that we missed. He knew the names of every single one of his students. This fact alone shows you how the learning happens at a more engaging and personal level. It also helped that he’s just hilarious all the time.
Professor Cline, our professor for the logic, sets, and functions class (CS 313H), used the Moore Method. This meant that all of our homework consisted of proofs, essentially guaranteeing that if we spent the time and effort to complete them, we would have a very good idea of the subject. At the beginning of class, we’d write our solutions on the board, and we’d spend most of the rest of the class discussing them step-by-step. The writers of the proofs were responsible for explaining any unclear steps and were urged to fix any problems that were found. If they couldn’t fix their proofs, other students got the opportunity to chime in. Being able to prove it shows that you really understand the concept; that’s what we were asked to do in Dr. Cline’s class. His dry humor and mannerisms made the class all the more enjoyable.
The whole program is centered on research. In addition to the requirement that Turing Scholars take a number of honors computer science classes, they have to write an honors thesis by graduation time in order to receive the degree. Next semester, we’ll be in a research methods class where we’ll learn more about research in computer science. A number of fellow Turings are already thinking of projects that they could do. I hear that only about ten out of the forty that enter the program graduate with the Turing degree because of the difficulty of the classes and the requirement to do the thesis.
The program offers other benefits. Turings get admission into the computer science major automatically. Normally, computer science students have to be “pre-CS” students and then apply to be CS students at the end of their freshman years. Plus, Turings get priority registration for computer science classes. And they can live in honors housing if they choose to.
I’d say about half of the freshman Turing Scholars live in the honors quad. It makes it very convenient to set up study groups and design jams. Living elsewhere makes it inconvenient to be in the study group. Before every test, we studied together, drawing on each other’s knowledge. I can guarantee that my grades went up because of them. Since we all went to the same dining hall, having long conversations over lunch with fellow Turings about computer science topics were common place.
The Turing Scholars Student Association regularly puts on events for the group. Pizza nights with grad students as guest speakers satisfied my hunger for free pizza and for more information regarding research and graduate school. For the first time, I’m considering doing a PhD. One complaint I have is that we don’t have as much money for these kinds of events as other programs, namely Dean’s Scholars. We couldn’t do a banquet this semester due to budget cuts, but Dean’s Scholars get lunch every Friday and a trip to Fort Davis. Grrr.
Being in Turing does have one more benefit. They say that if a Turing wants to get an internship his freshman year, he will. I’ve heard stories of employers shouting to get the attention of passing Turing Scholars at career fairs. (It happened to at least one friend of mine.) I’d say being in CS gives you higher chances of getting an internship your freshman year than almost any major. And being in Turing definitely helps.
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed being a part of the program. Putting aside the professors that make it fun to go to class and the social events and the tons of other benefits that come with the program, the Turing Scholars themselves are what make the program great. Never have I met such a group of people so enthusiastic about what they do. I’ve found that I can have conversations for hours and hours with many of them. Everyone knows something you don’t, so learning new things comes automatically. We freely discuss our designs and solutions, with a good mix of cooperativeness and competitiveness. Being in two classes together and seeing each other every day creates a pretty close group of friends. Finally, it’s nice to be with people who get your obscure Internety jokes.
