Should I take a hard college course that is not needed but may be useful later?

What about other options that might be more broadly useful in your intended career or in some other career down the line? A statistics course, for instance?

I say no. programming is not really helpfull unless you are going to do it for a career. Also programming is something you can do yourself outside of school. I say your money is better spent somewhere else.

I am a professional software developer. Most employers either are looking for someone with a full BS in CS or EE or a significant amount of professional experience. One additional CS class will not really improve your chances of employment as a software developer. If you want to learn programming as a hobby, there are many good books available in addition to web sites. Also, the "hard" CS classes generally don't come until later in the curriculum (e.g. compilers, operating systems).

Is it worth it to take the second class of computer science? It is not necessary for my degree, I have a partial interest in it The answer depends a lot on what the specific content of the CS course is; "Intro to CS" sounds like kind of a puff class if it's not followed up by algorithms, data structures, etc., and so I doubt it would be worth much as a credential. But if the stuff you learn in the course is really useful, then it could be good in a substantive way. Realistically in a vocational sense it probably doesn't matter much if the miscellaneous "part time work" you're going for ends up being, realistically, administrative or data-entry related. They would care about more prosaic things like expertise with MS Office, which I doubt is on the list in your CS program.

Since it doesn't increase the amount you pay, you might try switching to an audit. Typically, the prof has to approve the paperwork so that you're not taking a seat from a student who wants credit. Just explain what you've told us and also say that you want to hear lectures on basic concepts that autodidact programmers frequently miss out on: design patterns, recursion, computational complexity, etc.

I say no. programming is not really helpfull unless you are going to do it for a career. I disagree - I think if you are going to be using a computer for any significant amount of time it is extremely useful. I think anyone in any field of science, or in a profession that uses computers should take a programming class in their undergrad.

I'd audit it. Even if you aren't getting the full credential (the minor) you can list it as something you're knowledgeable about in the computer skills section of your resume.

So look I say this as an SW engineer. Taking a second level programming course won't do you much good, even for learning programming, if you're not taking the classes that follow it. Those courses are designed to be part of a large curriculum not really taken in a vacuum. If you want to take a single course, I'd look for something a bit more self contained. Is there an HTML/Javascript class? Intro to Linux? Intro to Matlab?

If you ever seeing yourself doing anything researchy, it might be useful. If there is anything bioinfomaticsish available to you, I'd steer that route myself.