This is a fantastic list. I would like to add: 8) Robotics is a big industry. Find what interests you within it. It may be arms, rovers, drones, sensors, logic

This is a fantastic list. I would like to add: 8) Robotics is a big industry. Find what interests you within it. It may be arms, rovers, drones, sensors, logic, etc. In my case, I'm interested in autonomous robots in the spirit of the google self driving projects.