  Large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Google Bard have garnered
significant attention in the academic community. Previous research has
evaluated these LLMs for various applications such as generating programming
exercises and solutions. However, these evaluations have predominantly been
conducted by instructors and researchers, not considering the actual usage of
LLMs by students. This study adopts a student-first approach to comprehensively
understand how undergraduate computer science students utilize ChatGPT, a
popular LLM, released by OpenAI. We employ a combination of student surveys and
interviews to obtain valuable insights into the benefits, challenges, and
suggested improvements related to ChatGPT. Our findings suggest that a majority
of students (over 57%) have a convincingly positive outlook towards adopting
ChatGPT as an aid in coursework-related tasks. However, our research also
highlights various challenges that must be resolved for long-term acceptance of
ChatGPT amongst students. The findings from this investigation have broader
implications and may be applicable to other LLMs and their role in computing
education.
