One thing you'll find is that the world of computer science is enormously broad. On this thread already you've had advice from those with a business focus, with an operating systems focus, with a programming languages focus, and probably others. I'm on the more high-level, mathy side of computer science, getting a PhD in natural language processing. So the first piece of advice - there's a _whole lot_ that you can do with computer science; figure out what part of it you like, and go as deep as you can in it (the nature of the CS degree will force you to get a degree of breadth already; use your electives to go deep into a topic).
And the second piece of advice - if you want to go to a good grad school, there are two things that you should know. Your GPA does, in fact, matter (I'm quite sure that I wouldn't have gotten into the PhD program at CMU if I didn't have the GPA that I did). But research matters more. BYU is an amazing institution for a bachelors degree in CS, because it gives you the opportunity to work closely with professors doing undergraduate research. If you want to go to grad school, as soon as you know what part of CS is interesting to you, go talk to one of the professors working in that area and ask if they need an undergraduate research assistant (your freshman year is not too early, if you have some experience programming and know what you want to do). Often they have more funding available for undergraduate research than they have students, so they can pay you for working in their lab (even if they don't pay you, if you want to go to grad school, there is nothing better that you can do than working in a research lab). On Tue, Aug 6, 2013 at 1:52 AM, David Darrough <[email protected]> wrote: > My best advice to add to what has already been said is to choose not only > your classes but your instructors. > > I remember taking Linear Algebra and I was a little nervous about > understanding some of the concepts after talking with some friends. I went > into the Math department and asked if they had any recommendations beyond > just spending a lot of time in the Math Lab. Someone there suggested taking > the class from an instructor who was a Math Education Major rather than a > Math Major. That made all the difference. The math education instructor was > someone who had been taught how to teach math rather than someone who was > just good at math. The concepts came easy and I aced the class. > > I also felt that study groups and working on assignments with friends > helped enormously. No matter the subject, each of us picks up different > things from lectures and studying the material. Whenever I got stuck on a > problem, having someone else to talk with usually turned a 30 minute mental > block into a 5 minute one and being able to help others by explaining > concepts to them that I understood helped reinforce my own knowledge. That > was true of not just my CS classes but History, Math, English, Physics, > etc. Get to know your classmates and work together. You'll not only make > great friendships but you'll learn more too. > > Good luck > > > > > > > On Mon, Aug 5, 2013 at 7:12 PM, Oliver Reed <[email protected]> wrote: > >> I'm an incoming freshman, and I was wondering if any of the more >> experienced BYU students have tips or suggestions to help me (and any other >> freshman that happen to be subscribed) succeed. Study habits we should >> start, time management techniques we should practice, and activities we >> should attend could be helpful as well as any other information you can >> think of that you wish you had known on entrance. >> >> Particularly, I'm interested in the CS program. What tips and tricks do >> you have for a Linux user going to school? Specifically, for CS 142, do I >> need some way to run Windows or Windows software? >> >> Thank you for any time and effort you put in to answering my questions. >> I'm extremely excited to experience college life, and I want my first >> semesters to be the best possible experience. >> >> -Oliver Reed >> >> -------------------- >> BYU Unix Users Group >> http://uug.byu.edu/ >> >> The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their >> author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. >> ___________________________________________________________________ >> List Info (unsubscribe here): >> http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list >> > > > > -- > Dave Darrough > [email protected] > 801-636-4800 > > -------------------- > BYU Unix Users Group > http://uug.byu.edu/ > > The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their > author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. > ___________________________________________________________________ > List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list >
-------------------- BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ The opinions expressed in this message are the responsibility of their author. They are not endorsed by BYU, the BYU CS Department or BYU-UUG. ___________________________________________________________________ List Info (unsubscribe here): http://uug.byu.edu/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
