Introduction to Computer Applications and Programming

CS 121 is your first exposure to using a computer as a tool for getting work done rather than just consuming content — it splits its time between mastering the office software you'll lean on for every report and dataset in your degree (Word and Excel) and the early mechanics of Python, where formulas give way to variables, conditionals, and loops. Expect hands-on practical exams rather than written ones: you'll be building formatted documents, wiring up spreadsheets with functions and charts, and writing small Python programs in an IDE. It's a required first-year course meant to level the playing field before CS 101/102 push you into real programming, so the payoff isn't the topics themselves but the habit of thinking through a problem step by step.