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Ask HN: What do do if I’m a CS student at a top school and I feel lost?
I transferred from a large state school to a top 5 Computer Science school this past fall. I transferred because the CS degree program I was in wasn’t challenging, and the department was severely underfunded and understaffed. I felt miserable, despite having a small but close friend group there. I couldn’t get into classes, the ones I were in were terribly taught, and I just felt like my life wasn’t going anywhere.
However, now that I am in this top program, I feel even more miserable. The CS major is GPA capped, and at this point there is a good chance I won’t make it into the major. The classes I have been taking to get into the major alternate between boring review of concepts I previously learned, and unbelievably challenging material that I can barely comprehend. As a result, my grades in those classes have been steadily declining. I feel very demotivated and stressed, especially since finals are coming up.
Additionally, this school is all the way across the country from where I grew up. I knew nobody in this city before I came here, and even now I only really know my roommate and 1 other friend.
Finally, to top it all off, I didn’t get a tech internship this summer despite applying to around 90 companies. I even got to the final round of interviews at 2 companies, but still got rejected. I signed up for a summer class during the second half of the summer, but I’m worried that it will just stress me out even more. Plus I have no idea what to do for the first half of summer! I really don’t want to bum around my parents house, as they are already disappointed that I didn’t get an internship. Last summer I helped create a startup, but I left due to issues with the other founders.
Really I’m just writing this post to ask for advice. What to do if I don’t get into the CS major? How to meet people and connect with my school? What to do about my failure to get an internship?
- deleted 8y ago[deleted]
- ZainRiz 8y agoHave you heard of impostor syndrome? https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16983195 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16983195
- lostcsmajor 8y agoYes. I'm not sure if it applies to me, but even if it does then I have to clue how to deal with it. The thread you linked is just people discussing it, with few concrete methods for fixing it.
- phren0logy 8y agoI'm not a programmer, but I had plenty of academic hoops to jump through. Here's my 2¢, for what it's worth: 1. Don't freak out. Not getting an internship is a bummer, but I'm guessing it's something you can recover from. Having done an internship gives you some worthwhile experience, but if you aren't even in the CS major yet then you probably still have time to do one eventually. 2. When I hear about classes jumping between super easy and super hard, the first thing I think of is study skills. Don't take this the wrong way, but most college students have terrible study skills. If there's a study skills class, think about taking it, even if it sounds dumb. Plus, it might give your GPA a bit of a boost. 3. Take some time to remember why you're doing this. Do you really want to do CS? If so, then it's probably worth the effort. If not, this is a good time to figure that out. 4. Talk to a professor you trust. If you don't know one in the CS department, maybe someone who's further along can point you to someone? You can check in with them about how you are doing, and they may have some pointers. Plus, if you are going to be on campus for the summer, I'm betting there's a PhD student somewhere who would love to have your help. It's not an internship, but getting your name on a publication won't hurt anything.
- lostcsmajor 8y ago1. Agreed, I'm just more concerned about what to do for the half of the summer that I wont be in class. 2. I don't think there's a study skills class here, are there any online courses you would reccommend? 3. At this point I have no clue why I'm doing this. Probably because it seems like the only career path that I can even attempt to follow? 4. I had actually connected with a PHD student here who I knew through friends, but his lab didn't need any extra help at the moment. This school is so big that I feel like it's impossible to randomly connect with people in my department. Even most of the big CS clubs on campus even have strict admissions processes with less than 10% admit rates. I really don't feel connected with the department/program/faculty at all.
- phren0logy 8y ago1. If you don't know anybody around town, maybe get a job to meet some people? Not anything fancy, just a summer job. If they are all full, it might be worth thinking more about going home, and you might have better luck working there. 2. Maybe start with this one? http://calnewport.com/books/how-to-win-at-college/ http://calnewport.com/books/how-to-win-at-college/ 3. There's only one person who can figure this out. This is part of the reason I suggest an unrelated job. Sometimes finding out what we don't want to do can be just as useful. 4. Is there some sort of more general advisor for the university that might help you?