[edwinnathaniel]

North of Washington, across the border, we have 2 big name schools: UBC and SFU. Both schools require prospective students to spend 1 to 2 years (SFU 1-year, UBC 2-years) taking "required courses" (Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, CS courses, and a few GEs) before they can apply to the CS program.

Both UBC and SFU have solid track records (beating UW consistently) when it comes to ACM CS competition:

https://sites.google.com/site/ubcprogrammingteam/history

Yes, gotta start some sort of pride-war between schools no? :)

[specialist]

  taking "required courses" (Math, Physics, Chemistry, Biology...

So smart. Many of my best developers came from outside of CS: bus driver, ballet dancer, EE, history, poly sci, mfg, aerospace, etc.

[edwinnathaniel]

It's the same story with EE at UBC to my knowledge; they also have to spend 1-2 years taking required courses so they're not that far different really.

What is exactly you're trying to point out? :)