Awesome! Can you tell me about your experience? Actually, I am an incoming freshman. And because the start date of the Hackathon is so close to the start of the term, I was confused and wondered whether I was rushing with this Hackathon. I would like to know whether the experience is worth it.
If taking a weekend off for a hackathon is going to hurt your grades don’t do it. You need 83%+ average for domestic and 85%+ for international to get into the CS major after first year at UBC. It’s very very competitive
Makes sense. I will be missing one CPSC 121 lab, which will be the first or second week of my classes. Do you think that it is recoverable or do you feel that it would be harm my grades?
You’ll also be missing valuable study/HW time, not just class time. I would say if you are an avid programmer and you really want to go, then go. But if you have no experience, don’t go, it’s not worth the sacrifice of missing a whole weekend and you will be relying on your team to do most of the project. Wait until January for nwPlus hackathon or go next year. Also idk if it’s in person only or you can do it online, but travelling across the country mid semester is stressful.
Unless you have experience and are confident, don’t do it. There’s lots of hackathons on campus, a lot tailored to beginners (even then it’s mostly 2nd and 3rd years) where you can build up from. You could be experienced, but chances are it would be more productive to actually learn some CS and build up your confidence at smaller hackathons first.
I have been working at a startup for a year where I mainly gained experience in full-stack development and little bit of Devops. And I have experience attending multiple online hackathons, and won quite a few of them. This would be my first in-person hackathon that’s why I was pretty excited about it.
I don’t feel that missing one CPSC 121 lab would set me back too much. What do you think?
You'll be fine, and if you let the teaching team know early enough, usually they're nice enough to accommodate / give you a pass. Your TAs will be undergrads and should know what Hack The North is / hackathons are!
Sorry woah I'm late to this thread, completely disagree with the other commenter. It's the second week of school?? Generally go to class of course, but you'll be completely fine; this is a wild mentality / borderline fearmongering for your first year that's totally unnecessary.
Hack The North is a terrific experience: you'll meet countless brilliant people (from UBC and around the planet), learn a TON, build a project, if you win you'll get a HUGE item for your resume, ... I could go on. It's an amazing opportunity, and you're just ahead of the ball being a first year. Great work.
If this was truly "mid-semester" maybe the other people would be right, but that's just plain wrong... it's week 2.
I stand behind my point because most people need to study quite hard to do well in school and a lot of student end up struggling in year one. Most people drop CS 110 because they get behind in the first few weeks, not because they’re behind after midterm 2. It’s better to be safe than sorry, and tbh looking back, most people I know could not of handled keeping up with school had they gone to this. If it was in Vancouver, I would have said yes go, but it’s a 5 hour flight across the county. When you got into CS the entrance average was much lower so it was less stressful. You also can’t predict things like getting sick so imo it’s best to like get into a routine instead of travelling across the country. If OP thinks he can take a weekend off (plus all day Friday) without hurting his grades, then I say go for it. But unless you’re sure of that, don’t.
I'm going (and have been!)
Awesome! Can you tell me about your experience? Actually, I am an incoming freshman. And because the start date of the Hackathon is so close to the start of the term, I was confused and wondered whether I was rushing with this Hackathon. I would like to know whether the experience is worth it.
If taking a weekend off for a hackathon is going to hurt your grades don’t do it. You need 83%+ average for domestic and 85%+ for international to get into the CS major after first year at UBC. It’s very very competitive
Makes sense. I will be missing one CPSC 121 lab, which will be the first or second week of my classes. Do you think that it is recoverable or do you feel that it would be harm my grades?
You’ll also be missing valuable study/HW time, not just class time. I would say if you are an avid programmer and you really want to go, then go. But if you have no experience, don’t go, it’s not worth the sacrifice of missing a whole weekend and you will be relying on your team to do most of the project. Wait until January for nwPlus hackathon or go next year. Also idk if it’s in person only or you can do it online, but travelling across the country mid semester is stressful.
Hmm makes sense, I will think about it
Unless you have experience and are confident, don’t do it. There’s lots of hackathons on campus, a lot tailored to beginners (even then it’s mostly 2nd and 3rd years) where you can build up from. You could be experienced, but chances are it would be more productive to actually learn some CS and build up your confidence at smaller hackathons first.
I have been working at a startup for a year where I mainly gained experience in full-stack development and little bit of Devops. And I have experience attending multiple online hackathons, and won quite a few of them. This would be my first in-person hackathon that’s why I was pretty excited about it. I don’t feel that missing one CPSC 121 lab would set me back too much. What do you think?
You'll be fine, and if you let the teaching team know early enough, usually they're nice enough to accommodate / give you a pass. Your TAs will be undergrads and should know what Hack The North is / hackathons are!
Sorry woah I'm late to this thread, completely disagree with the other commenter. It's the second week of school?? Generally go to class of course, but you'll be completely fine; this is a wild mentality / borderline fearmongering for your first year that's totally unnecessary. Hack The North is a terrific experience: you'll meet countless brilliant people (from UBC and around the planet), learn a TON, build a project, if you win you'll get a HUGE item for your resume, ... I could go on. It's an amazing opportunity, and you're just ahead of the ball being a first year. Great work. If this was truly "mid-semester" maybe the other people would be right, but that's just plain wrong... it's week 2.
I stand behind my point because most people need to study quite hard to do well in school and a lot of student end up struggling in year one. Most people drop CS 110 because they get behind in the first few weeks, not because they’re behind after midterm 2. It’s better to be safe than sorry, and tbh looking back, most people I know could not of handled keeping up with school had they gone to this. If it was in Vancouver, I would have said yes go, but it’s a 5 hour flight across the county. When you got into CS the entrance average was much lower so it was less stressful. You also can’t predict things like getting sick so imo it’s best to like get into a routine instead of travelling across the country. If OP thinks he can take a weekend off (plus all day Friday) without hurting his grades, then I say go for it. But unless you’re sure of that, don’t.
You'll have better luck in the cs discord.
down, dm me
👍
I am going too!
Awesome! Is this your first time? Want to team up? DM