Summer Boot Camps & Placement Exams

Summer Boot Camps

All incoming students are required to attend in-person computing and math camps before beginning the program. Computing Fundamentals and Computational Social Science Math are required for all incoming students; Economics Math Camp is required for MACSS-Economics students the September before their second year.

Computing Fundamentals Boot Camp

August 26 - September 13, 2024
This boot camp focuses on introducing fundamental open-source tools for producing reproducible, computational research. Topics include the basics of Python programming, working on the Linux command line, as well as using Git/GitHub for version control. The course assumes no prior exposure to these topics and serves as preparation for the first course in the MACSS computing sequences in the Fall (MACS 30111 or MACS 30121). This camp can be taken
concurrently with the Computational Social Science Math Camp. Students anticipating completing the Computational Social Science certificate during their time at UChicago are strongly encouraged, but not required, to complete this camp.

Computational Social Science Math Camp

August 26 - September 13, 2024
Topics include mathematical notation and functions, linear algebra, calculus, probability theory, statistical inference, and linear regression. The course assumes that students have encountered most of these topics previously. Students anticipating completing the Computational Social Science certificate during their time at UChicago are strongly encouraged, but not required, to complete this camp.

Economics Math Camp (MACSS-Economics 2nd Years Only)

September 3 - September 13, 2024
Please contact Emma Rubenstein, Student Affairs Administrator for MAPSS-Econ, with questions regarding the camp content: emrubenstein@uchicago.edu.

Placement Exams

Students starting one of our computing sequences in the Autumn (MACS 30111 or MACS 30121) are automatically registered based on their results from the Computing Fundamentals Boot Camp placement exam. They go on to take MACS 30112 / 30122 in the Winter.

Students who hope to take more advanced Computer Science classes without taking MACS 30111 / 30121 and MACS 30112 / 30122 must take an additional programming placement exam in addition to the Computing Fundamentals placement exam. See this link for prior exams, how to prepare, and how the tests are evaluated.

MACSS-Econ: Students who earn placement credit on their computational statistics exam (held at the end of the Computational Social Science Math Camp) will be exempt from the Foundations in Quantitative analysis requirement. To be well-prepared for this exam, we recommend participating in the Computational Social Science Math Camp.