71–80 of 278 posts
Do the work, don't short-change yourself in your education.
When I was a TA, the kids who struggled were most hurt by calculus.
The other thing is read up on how to do the college game. Participate in office hours, understand what drives your grades, etc. I had a hard time with this, as I was able to coast through high school with minimal effort.
1. Don't assume your CS classes will always be easy. Having programmed a lot is a big advantage, but you're going to be learning a wide variety of things as a CS major that you may not have had to think about previously, and there is going to be a lot of it which isn't intuitive. Be prepared to study more than you have in the past and don't get cocky; sometimes it isn't until your junior or senior year that you get b…
double majoring is a hilarious waste of time and money. don't do it.
My advice might be controversial, but here are some thoughts I have... My big piece of advice: Major in something useful (CS, check!), minor in something fun. A lot of the computer science classes you take will be boring AF, or you'll start to bang your head against the desk wondering why you have to know how operating systems work when you just want to make iOS apps (or vice versa!). Some of the classes will be deep…
I agree. I double majored in CS and Acting specifically because I enjoy both topics and wanted to get better. It does take some dancing around with your schedule, but if you take the time to create some different alternative schedules it can be done. There were some semesters where I was more CS heavy, and others more Theatre heavy. I was able to walk out with both degrees in 4.5 years.
I breezed through university and I could have made so much more of it if I'd just self-taught from the textbooks and started grappling with papers in my undergrad. Once your foundation of mathematics and CS is stronger than your peers you'll find so many doors open to you.
From someone who went through a school with effectively no program, I definitely wished I'd considered this before devoting 4 years and 100k to one particular school.
So here's some actionable questions you can ask your career center right now to see if you're getting your money's worth.
Does the university protect you against exploding offers? An exploding offer is when a company offers you a job offer, but you have to decide immediately or within a short time period (like a day or two). In the "real world" this can make sense because the company may actually need someone immediately. For students though, this practice is a bit scummy, since no company immediately needs an intern. Typically it's just manipulating someone who might not know any better. To prevent this, any college worth it's tuition will require all companies recruiting students to follow some form of [offer guidelines](https://ecs.engineering.illinois.edu/career-resources/offer-...).
If they _don't_ have this sort of guideline, it likely means they don't have any leverage or industry connections. For example, most schools will just blacklist companies from their career fairs that don't follow their guidelines. If the companies don't care, then the career program is pretty bad.
And on that note, does the school have regular career fairs attended by tech companies you've heard of?
In some schools the vast majority of students get their internships or new-grad jobs from career fairs. In others, there won't be a technical career fair. Or if there is, there won't be any CS/programming jobs that show up.
One hack to figure this out is to check if the school is _charging companies_ money for STEM career fairs. For example, San Jose state charges $850 a table the last time I checked. If a school isn't charging, it often means they can't actually get anyone to come. (though obviously YMMV)
Does the school have course offerings for technical interviews? Many, many schools these days are creating classes specifically to help students pass their technical interviews. For example, here's [Boise State's class](https://github.com/BoiseState/CS-HU390).
If the school _doesn't_ have a course like this at some point, it may mean they are disconnected to the real world and have little to no support for you in general. It is not a hard thing for CS professors to setup a class for extra practice with algorithms & data structures.
Do students have access to investment capital or startup support? Many schools have some form of a "student startup" program specifically around CS students. If they don't, there may also be a "college student" specific VC fund nearby, such as [Contrary Capital](https://contrarycap.com/), [Dorm Room Fund](https://www.dormroomfund.com/), or [Rough Draft VC](https://www.roughdraft.vc/).
_You_ may not start a business, but one of your peers might, and that creates a network that can help you get a job in the future. Plus, this opens up opportunities you may not have considered before.
It's important for you that these are heavily associated with the computer science program and not uniquely available to the business students. Some schools only allow biz kids to do these; the money comes from a grant that's only allocated for biz students.
Does the school have access to hackathons? Hackathons may be for you, or they may not be. (I personally dislike them) But you should seek out a place where they exist or you have access to them. They encourage students to actually build things, which is the type of environment you want to be in. You should surround yourself with other people who are actually using their CS skills rather than just passing their classes.
Does the university host a hackathon? If not, is it in the local area? If not, does it sponsor students to go? If not, have _any_ students gone?
You'd be surprised how many schools with a CS program where all of those answers are "no".
In general, you should a baseline goal in your university. There's obvious benefit to learning as much as you can in many different subjects while you have the time. But get a job at the end.
WRT study groups, YMMV. I found them incredibly stressful and counter-productive, but other people really seemed to like them. Eventually I actively avoided them.
Start your projects as soon as possible, and then put them aside. You'll come back with new eyes, but your brain needs time to chew on it. Sadly, I think a lot of college courses go too fast, and sometimes you'll have an "aha!" moment months, or even years later. Not sure if there is a solution to this.
Love is almost inevitable, and is almost always a huge disaster for everyone. It's possibly an even worse impact on study than video-game addiction. I would say try to avoid love, but honestly its wonderful. But if you feel lonely, feel lucky that you're not either distracted or heartbroken.
I would second a number of comments on here like "study another subject" (most CS courses require a minor outside of CS, other than MATH, which you should get a minor in just due to the numbers)
I would also second the idea that CS in college is not coding, is not SW engineering, etc. It is learning fundamentals and how to prove your code is correct, mathematically and algorithmically.