What To Do in Your First Year as a Computer Science College Student
QUIT….
That’s right it’s done, your hopes and dreams of programming is now demolished and reduced to atoms sadly, hopefully you like law instead.
Now that we broke the ice with me being very funny like always, there’s so many things a student can apply in their first year to be not just ahead of the other students but grow bigger and better.
University is an open door, and after u go through that door, there are so many other doors to chose from, but they’re all locked and here’s how to find the key. In Uni, you are all by yourself, and you’re not special because you’re like every single other student at the start, the first thing you need to do to stand out is to personally get to know the professor through their office hours or a quick chat after the class, make sure those professors are most importantly responsible of the subject related to your best future job interest. So if you aim to be a programmer then u stick with that professor like a new friend. Now that’s typical and can work with any other subject, but what about the details ?
Well, incase you’re reading this during the summer, the best thing you can do is start treating learning about tech a hobby of yours. You don’t need to necessarily read articles like this about new tech and AI and whatever released recently by some random company. I’m talking about learning old tech like art and history. Believe it or not, of you’re not passionate about your major especially something so tiring as computer science then you won’t last long or won’t get the results you wish for. Personally, I always watch about tech and game consoles from the 90s and late 80s, I watch channels like (Linus tech tips) and similar entertaining people that all focus on tech news, updates, reviews…. it’s a huge world and you have to be invested in it to want to successfully learn more once you start your classes.
Now for the people attending already their first year in university, do the same but with topics similar to yours. You don’t need to watch actual lectures on YouTube, that’s boring. Try to find good and entertaining tech channels that talk about similar topics as you’re studying, now there’s no need for it to be about your subject because I’m not telling you to study for your exam from that video, it’s all about building passion towards it so you want to learn more by choice.
Now if you have a month or 2 before you start university, here’s what I will simply tell you before you start your computer science journey. PLEASE START LEARNING CODING BY YOURSELF. Like wow, the sheer difference between the guys in my class that already know how to program in C which is the language we’re taking now and the people who never coded in their life or learned HTML. Learning coding by yourself before,during or after university is very essential and is the key to if you want to get a decent job that pays well and evolve after that. Now if you don’t want to learn the traditional way where you open one of the courses on udemy or similar sites and start learning step by step, you can download apps similar to Duolingo but for basics of coding and make it a daily streak. Imagine how much faster you will be in class and how much more details you can learn and understand in a faster and easier way in class, all that just from practicing 5–10 min of coding on your phone per day. Consistency is key.
Finally, you must keep in mind that university is a whole other world of education that highschool. It’s gonna feel longer and tougher and you’re gonna have several panic attacks and many many long all nighters, but only those who keep pushing forward and not backdown will get paid off especially in this competitive career choice.
Thanks for reading, my name is Ahed and I’m an 18 year old freshman in the University Of Debrecen in central Europe studying Computer Science Engineering. I created this Magazine to document my college years and give my advice and tips on personal current experiences for others to find useful. make sure to clap :)
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