3 ms·

I'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

I'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 ago
1. 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 ago
  1. 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?

lostcsmajor 8y ago

1. 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 ago
1. 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?