CS Alumnai Panel Write-up

During the CS Alumani panel, I was exposed to possible majors and opportunities for internships. I realized that Computer Science could possibly be a career path for me. Most importantly, the panel taught me to not take shortcuts and try my best in this class, because it may be the best tool in preparing me for my future. During the panel, I took some notes on what I thought was most benefical to me. I’m adding my notes below and my thoughts on how this learning can help me.

Possible Majors

There are a lot of majors that I can explore in college that involve computer science. So learning the basics of programming will be beneficial to me. Here are some examples of majors and combination of majors.

  • Computer Science
  • Psychology + Computer science
  • Cognitive science
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Can switch majors (example - aerospace to cognitive science)

My main takeway from these examples of majors is that I don’t have to major in traditional computer science. If I have an intrest in another subject, I can try finding a major combining computer science and my interest.

  • Before choosing a major related to computer science, take intro classes. Some examples - (CSP: includes web development, a basic background and introduction, technical skills building; CSA: take this class after CSP; Intro to CS: not offered currently).
  • See what you are good at compared to your other classmates. Consider choosing this strong point as a possible career.
  • And also see what aspects of CS you enjoy.
  • A possible interest in topics like: web development, web design, Making games.
  • Piece of advice: It’s okay not to immediately like CS
  • Maybe become an intern and do and internships. This gives you more experiance.You will get to complete programming related tasks and projects.

While I consider majors for college, I should think about my strengths and my interests. These would make for good majors. It might benefit me to start applying for internships to get some real experiance.

Biggest Challenges Faced by the Alumnai

  • Starting computer science is a struggle for everyone. Everyone faces frustrating experiances. For example, github might send error messages. But this can be fixed by googling the problem and having a positive mindset.
    • Advice: stop the urge to cut corners, go above and beyond - this solves much more problems in the long run, be willing to learn coding.
  • Clashing egos of others. Some boast about their experiance. It would be best to work on my own projects and don’t worry about what other people think.
  • The transition from high school to college is pretty rough because there is a lot of change in the structure of classes.
  • Finding the motivation to do computer science. A lot of team members can be smarter than me. And syntax can be frustrating. I can use programming logic and google can answer a lot of my questions.

These alumnai have faced many challenges and their main advice is to try harder and to have a postive mindset. Now, I should attempt to give this class my full effort and learn as much as I can in order to supplement my future learning.

Classes and Project Based Learning Classes

  • There will very few hands on experiances, so I should take advantage of them. These classes include building and fabricating.
  • You can’t get one-on-one time from your teacher because there are more than two hundred students per lecture hall. So I should join or start study groups. I need to try to make my learning more efficient for myself.

Classes in college are going to involve a lot more self accountability of my own learning. So I should attempt connecting with my peers to study the content.

CS Application to Other Majors

  • An example of CS application: if I need to convert a word doc to a spreadsheet, I can write code or code parts of the project to make it easier on myself.
  • Another example would be 3D-printing. I can code the project and test it without actually having to print it.
  • High level math course or Mathlab: debugging and advanced calculations are used.

CS is applied to many other majors. So learning CS or basic programming will be helpful even if I don’t go into the CS field.

Jobs, Especially with a Professor

  • Try to find ways to stand out to your teacher and start referencing. You can do this by asking a lot of questions and going to office hours.
  • Create a resume.
  • Robotics coaches are often lecturers at UCSD, and also lead clubs and run reaserch labs. Ask if there is space in a professor’s reaserch lab. If they ask for a resume, send it to them.
  • You can be a TA and interact with students or be a bus driver on campus.
  • Internships:
    • LG
    • A tech company internship, lasting three years. This is an example of what you can do for each of the three years:
      • First year: wiring diagrams, technical drawing revisions;
      • Second year: visualizing flight data, creating a website for flight data
      • Third year: scripting for a staffing website, defense company work
    • A church group internship: front-end ram development and arts branding.
    • High School Intern Program: industry figures and webdevelopment.
    • An internship with a UCSD Professor: learn about the academia sicde of CS.

There are many opportunities for internships and jobs. I should connect with my teachers and attempt to join internships.

Personal Projects

  • Find time to work on personal projects, they are impressive on resumes, especially if you don’t have work experiance. Have 2 or 3 projects.
  • Work on visual projects, could be something fun: games or path finding algorithms.

When I learn a bit more about programming, I should try to code a personal project related to my interests. I love writing, so maybe I can code a blog posting writing pieces.

Applying for Internships

  • Apply at the beggining of the school year. September-Novemeber the year before.
  • Smaller companies do take high school interns
  • Add people/companies on linkdin. This can help build networks for me later.
  • Get referals from people who work in the companies. This can add weight to your application.

Summary of Key-Takeaways

Ultimatly, this panel has helped me think of computer science as a possible career path. Even if I don’t like computer science itself, learning programming can help me in another major. I understand that starting to learn CS is going to be hard because I’ve never done it before, but I realized that I just need to keep pushing. And these alumani are proof that I can also be sucessfull in learning computer science. To further develop my CS experiance, I should start networking and apply for internships.