Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a CS major, what should I know?

Know that you should probably take this year off and just take classes on Udemy, because the classic universities really don't know how to teach classes online yet.

Start a startup every year? How is that remotely feasible? Where are they getting this money and time from?

My advice to you would be to study hard and try to get decent grades. Work hard, network, go to all the Comp Sci professional organization meetings you possibly can (I think ACM) and ask every presenter from industry for help getting your first internship. Don't join any clubs or fraternities that will suck away your time and cause your grades to drop, but if ACM sponsors a competition, give it a go if you have the time as it will give you something to talk about with recruiters. Upperclassmen can help to get you internships too if you're serious (sometimes previous employers will reach out to them for new interns). It doesn't hurt to have something unique on your resume that all your classmates don't also have. If you can get some free certifications online or even experience with things other freshman/sophomore don't know about, but are crucial to modern businesses (SQL is everywhere) than that helps.

It's really hard to get an internship without any previous internships, but once you get one and can talk about it (provide references), you become less risky to potential employers, and it is much easier to get the second one. It's kind of the chicken and the egg problem. I once tried to get an internship at a company that I was uniquely suited to for a lot of reasons and it just so happened to have a headquarters 1/2 mile from my parents house. I sent lots of emails, knew all about their company, and was waiting to speak to them at career day and at professional organization meetings, but they kept hiring this one very questionable student in his 6th year still taking sophomore classes (weird situation). I was really interested in a certain industry though and an older girl (junior) gave my name to a company that asked her last minute for anybody interested in this niche field. The rest is history and it's been great since then, so keep your head up.

When dealing with employers, dress nicely, be humble and friendly, but confident. Persistent, but not annoying :).

Smash as much puss as you can while you're young.

When I went into uni, I thought I was the shit. I had also programmed and done client work for a few years before that and had a lot of real-life work experience. What I didn't have though, was patience and the ability to sit through and do the work. The first two years I scored full marks on everything and I had basically already done work projects that I could directly apply for all of my course work. When I ended up in more advanced classes, despite already doing very well academically, I was totally and utterly lost. I struggled for a few years, barely finishing classes and dropped out.

I went into the work life and did very well considering my lack of degree and continued working for some 6 years or so.

What I'm trying to say is that even if you know programming, you might lack specific pieces of knowledge or a certain way of understanding concepts if you haven't had formal education before. You should do the work and clear even your 101 courses diligently. I don't know what the opposite of imposter syndrome is, but it'll be your undoing if you let it.

Now, at the age of almost 29, I'm a freshman at another university and I've finished my first semester with full marks, but instead of coasting along and doing the minimum I can foe the grades, I actually learned to value the process of learning and doing instead of just caring about creating the necessary work I need for the classes.

I have no idea if this resonates with you at all, but you're always welcome to hit me up if you have any questions. I've done a lot of different work in the IT sector and will gladly share my takeaway with you.

You already have skill and hopefully passion in one discipline, use college as an opportunity to explore a different one, and get an edge up on your peers. Don't major in CS, major in something else that you care about for its own sake, even if that doesn't come with an especially marketable degree. You'll probably want to take classes from various disciplines to see what really drives you.

You'll want to do something that demonstrates that you have good coding skills. Try to get a part-time programming job or internship, or get involved with an open source project, in particular one that's likely to be used at companies that might hire you. You should also make sure that you pick up the fundamentals that you would learn in a CS program that you don't already have. Make sure that you know how to teach yourself math independently. Maybe pick up a Math or CS minor.

I took roughly this path with a Philosophy and Math double major from an average school and started working at a FAANG the Summer after I graduated.