The school year is starting, and freshmen everywhere are taking CS101 (or some equivalent) in their respective universities!
It's an exciting time, but it's also the beginning of a 4-year struggle for some. Like 17 y/o Wellesley freshman me, who dropped out after DS&A, later referred to as a "weed-out" course. :(
What advice would you give to a freshman CS student on their first day of classes?
Oldest comments (29)
You don't have to be top in your class to stick around and set yourself up for a great career in software. And if things seem painfully abstract at times, it's because they are. Computer science is a theoretical discipline and you'll appreciate the lessons years later.
If it isn't coming to you quickly it's not a big deal. I wound up dropping out of CS and got back into code later. I'd probably have stuck it out if I knew then what I know now. 😄
I didn't know you were a fellow CS dropout! There's SO MANY of us! 😂
I am also. I was physics first.
I ultimately got my bachelor's but it wasn't in CS. It was a mix of math and CS because I had a lot of credits in both.
It's a good thing I learned my sysadmin stuff on the side.
Read a lot of code. One of the things I really struggled with starting out is believing that everyone was better than me at development/coding. This turned out to be hilariously untrue once I started reading code on github and source code from various established major enterprise projects.
Make sure they want to do it, and that they don't feel 100% locked into their major. CS and any type of engineering has a very rigorous workload, so if they don't truly want to do it then it can be very stressful. At my school at least engineering majors required around 180-190 minimum required units. Which means basically that you cannot graduate in 4 years without luck, hard work, maximum load each term, and very likely summer classes. Most non STEM majors required around 80-100 if memory serves. This advice can really apply to any very demanding major to be honest.
Also use the internet to help learn! There are so many amazing resources now for coding. Honestly one of the more important skills being a developer is knowing how to find information.
Edit: My experiences are past tense, as I am no longer in school. Just some wisdom from my personal experiences :)
Yes!! Sadly at my university there are minimal CS classes in the summer except the beginner courses. It’s a large course load and most of the credits can’t transfer to other majors. After my freshman year I contemplated switching majors because I didn’t feel smart enough but almost none of my course would transfer so I would have to basically start over. (Except for my basic english class and general courses I took).
I used Codecademy to try to get ahead in some courses where we were learning the basics of a language.
Don't just rely on the curriculum, be curious and experiment on your own and build things.
The main thing that I would say is focus more on concepts and just don't rush to learn a lot of languages at once.
Learn concepts like closures, higher order functions, inheritance, composition and the basic data structures. Then apply those concepts in the languages that you learn. Because languages may change but the concepts will stay.
Work your way through K&R from beginning to end and do every single exercise.
Everyone learns at different paces.
I started learning to code my first CS class and it was a huge learning curve. I also got my first C of my life in that class but I felt accomplished because I passed it. Don’t get down over a B, C, or even D. Not everyone is 4.0 material.
Try to get involved in student orgs but don’t feel bad if you don’t. I’ve worked 30-40 hours a week since my second semester of college to be able to afford my cost of living. I don’t have a ton of extra time to spare but I make do with what I have :)
Talk to your TAs about anything you have questions about. I had a TA meet with me once a week when I was first learning C because I wanted to make sure I was keeping up with the material. It definitely helped me get an A in that course.
Also college comes at a point in our lives where so many things are happening. Not everyone will be able to graduate in 4 years and that okay. As long as you push through and get there one day it’ll be worth it :)
I can only speak from my experience in the UK, and it's pretty general advice, but we are!
Do your assignments early! You don't need to rush them or anything, no need to hand them in early, but don't leave it all to the last minute if you can help it.
If you have a problem, ask for help again, as early as possible. That's not to say the moment you get stuck, have a look around first, but you'll probably know when you're having on a problem you need a hand with.
Answer the questions! If you think you have an answer spill it! If you're wrong hopefully your lecturer will explain how and it might help your understanding. If you're right; major street cred XD
Don't copy, write your own notes and your own code (assuming you write any on the first day!).
Invest time in learning outside of the lectures. Focus on areas that you might not touch in class, e.g. specific paradigms, languages, tools, etc. Perhaps consider a side project when you have some down time. Its one of those 15 minutes a day things that turns into 100's of hours of practice.
Free for students and other discounts! Stock up on a the freebies from being a student. GitHub has offers, Microsoft in general have offers, Apple does, HP does, AWS does, the list goes on.
Personally I wished I documented the whole process a bit more.
I hope some of that helps :)
Take courses that have seemingly nothing to do with CS especially in the liberal arts. By working that part of your brain, you see how technology is implemented (or misimplemented) in the present and past.
No matter how deep down the tech rabbit hole we go, we should never forget that real people are always impacted. The liberal arts can remind us of this...especially history and ethics (two I greatly enjoyed).
Hey. So a fresher should plan and try to break down their period into 4 parts-
1st year
First year can be devoted to finding your call, your passion, and in the case of computer science, your domain of choice. Whether it be
web development,data structures,machine learningetc.2nd year
Second year should be devoted to working on real life projects related to the chosen domain. Whether it be helping a nearby business set up or freelancing. Nothing fancy.
Third year
Third year should be devoted to finding decent internships and also brushing up on your coding for placements. If you score an internship in the third year, there is a high probability that it'll be convert to a pre-placement offer.
4th year
A great man once said-
So in your fourth year, focus on applying to loads and loads of jobs in all your dream companies. As well as brushing up on what you learnt in your 4 year curriculum.
I hope this helps :)
I wish I was told this freshman year lol
My advice applies to way more than just CS, but participate in class. I didn't start doing this until part way through my second year and it made a huge difference. I was able to get on campus jobs as a TA for the courses that I took because of it. One professor wrote essentially a letter of recommendation to the professor in charge and an another professor essentially just straight up offered me the position because I participated in the class that I was taking from him (I was taking the course he needed TAs for as well and he had substitutes for it on occasion so he also knew I was in it), then when I was looking for full time positions my senior year, I was also able to ask my professors for letters of recommendation and just overall had really good relationships with them. (One of them even used the title Dr. with me because of how much he respected me)
Another thing is teach others the concepts that you are learning. My job as a TA really helped me with that, but also I was able to do it working together with my friends. You understand things so much more fully when you are able to teach them.
Last piece of advice is make friends in your classes. You might not see them again after you graduate, but I made good buddies with some people and we would do group projects together or ask each other about classes they've already taken or things like that.
Other than the somewhat obvious point of making sure to get an internship if at all possible, three things in particular come to mind:
Starting out is great! But i would ask you to spend a little time on the ending, I have yet to find a retired coder. Being in CS means always learning always expanding. Take some time and look at the long game, i know many older web devs who couldn't adapt and left the industry while others adapted to other careers. The end game must be considered if you want to eat.
You get as much out of the CS classes as you put in. If you do the bare minimum, you won't learn nearly as much. Learn to love documentation. It is intimidating to read at first but it is an invaluable resource. It also helps you write better documentation in the future.
******* extremely useful information ******
Book reading list
Practice your craft.
I just got done reading Deep Work recently, fantastic book!
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