Category: CS 461

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CS 461

The End for Now

The last day of classes for Fall term is this Friday, and man, am I excited. Just a few more assignments, and I can finally kick back and soak in the Mariah Carey Christmas season. I’m ready for the peppermint hot chocolates, gingerbread cookies, and too many replays of All I Want for Christmas Is You.

On the school front, my group has made a lot of progress on our project. We’ve completed the first two iterations, and our site is shaping up nicely! It can now display all the pets available for adoption and allow users to favorite and unfavorite pets, log in and out, and even search for specific pets. While there are still some small bugs and the styling could use some love, it’s functional and delivering on our initial goals.

Next term will bring more progress on our project and, of course, more writing assignments (yay). But now that we’ve ironed out our team roles and workflow, I’m optimistic about hitting each milestone. We’ve learned a lot about collaboration and problem-solving, and that momentum should carry us through.

On a side note, I managed to knock out a few J.D. Next assignments! Once winter break starts, I’ll switch gears and focus on finishing my law school applications. My goal is to have everything ready so I can hit “send” as soon as my (hopefully much-improved) LSAT score comes in.

So, here’s to wrapping up this term strong and diving into winter break with a sense of accomplishment. I’ll be sipping peppermint hot cocoa and blinding myself with all the Christmas lights.

Until then, see you next time!

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CS 461

The Project

Hello! It’s been a minute since I’ve written anything. These past few weeks have been quite hectic, but I’m excited to share that I’ve finally found out what project I’ll be working on: a “dating” website where adopters can browse through animals waiting to find their forever homes. My team has decided to call it Furever Matchup.

So far, my team and I have completed a few assignments, including our initial design document, which outlines our goals and plans. I’ll be handling user accounts, which is a new challenge for me since I’ve never created an application with login or account management features. Our first prototype is due by the end of the week, so from this moment on, our lives will be consumed by project iterations and progress reports.

In my last post, I didn’t mention that I’m also taking a course called J.D. Next, an 8-week program designed as an alternative to the LSAT, to help prepare for law school. Fortunately, the assignments don’t have strict due dates, which is good because with everything going on, I haven’t managed to start on any of them yet! Thankfully, I have until February 5th to submit them all. I seem to live by the motto, “if it’s not the due date, it’s not the do date.”

I’m a firm believer that everything works out in the end, so before I know it, this term will be over, and I’ll have tackled all those J.D. Next assignments.

Until then, see you next time!

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CS 461

Introduction

Hello! I’m Dania, and this year marks the end of my journey at OSU—one that’s taken me a full decade. My path here wasn’t exactly straightforward. I originally aimed to become a pharmacist, so I started as a pre-pharmacy major. From there, I switched to microbiology, then bioresource research, and then several other majors before I realized I needed to take a break and rethink my direction. After six years of trying different fields, I landed on computer science. It wasn’t exactly my first choice, but it was one of the few options left that I hadn’t yet explored and could complete online. Oddly enough, even though it wasn’t new to me, computer science was the one that finally felt right.

As I work on this capstone, I’ll be sharing my experiences with the year-long project and a bit about my life along the way.

Currently, I live in Albany, OR, and work at the Target warehouse, where I’ve been for three years. Before Target, I worked in several pharmacies across Albany, Lebanon, and Corvallis. My time at the Walgreens pharmacy was a turning point—it was there I realized that pharmacy wasn’t for me. Working at Target is labor-intensive, but they fully cover my tuition, which is a huge help, and I don’t have to deal with customers, which is even better.

Once I graduate, my plan is to go to law school. I’m not too picky about where I go; I’ll be thrilled to get accepted anywhere. Right now, I’m focused on preparing for the LSAT because I need a solid score to offset my GPA after tanking it with all the major changes. This will be my second attempt at the LSAT, as my first try (when I thought I could manage without much studying) was humbling.

With the first official week of the term just kicking off, I’ve listed my top six choices for the capstone project and will soon find out which one I’ll be working on. It’s going to be tough balancing three classes, work, and LSAT prep, but I’m looking forward to it.

Until then, see you next time!