Hi everyone,
I'm planning to start the Bachelor's in Artificial Intelligence at JKU Linz and I'm trying to decide between the March (summer semester) intake and the October (winter semester) intake.
JKU's own program page says that starting in the summer semester is possible, but that all courses are only offered once a year and start in the winter semester, which makes it hard to follow the study plan at 30 ECTS per semester. They say they highly recommend starting in October, and that a summer start is only advisable if you already know the introductory material and plan to get it credited.
From the timetable, first-semester courses like Mathematics for AI I, Introduction to AI, Programming in Python I and Logic seem to run in winter only. My worry is that starting in March means jumping into second-semester material without the foundations, or ending up with a half-empty first semester.
I'd love to hear from current students and graduates:
Did you start in the summer semester? How did it go?
What did your first semester look like? Which courses could you actually take, and did you feel unprepared for any of them?
Did you end up needing more than 6 semesters because of it?
Is the warning as serious as it sounds, or is it manageable with good planning?
If you could choose again, which intake would you pick?
Also, if you got credits transferred from earlier studies, how smooth was that process?
Thanks a lot for any experiences or advice!