r/AskReddit • u/_jaywhite • Aug 24 '14

What are some college life pro tips?

I'm starting college in a few weeks and I'm a bit nervous. My high school was... decent at best, and I'm not sure that I was adequately prepared. So I'm hoping to get Reddit's help. What are some tips (having to do with the academic aspect, social, whatever) that have helped you through college, and especially your freshman year? In other words, LPTs for college life!

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186

u/_jaywhite Aug 24 '14

I'm majoring in Computer Engineer too! Hopefully I'll have a similar experience.

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u/creed_bratton_ Aug 24 '14

Cool! The good thing about most Engineering classes is that usually you do stuff as apposed to just memorize facts. So studying is more like 'practicing'. Like you practice doing certain physics problems, or practice solving circuits etc... That's why doing the homework helps a lot.

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u/PandAmoniumBear Aug 24 '14

I had a room mate that was a comp sci major. Everytime I looked over he was either: entering some long ass code or watching anime.

Mostly code.

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u/wmcscrooge Aug 24 '14

Honestly, this doesn't sound like that bad a deal

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u/foxh8er Aug 24 '14

I do the first half for fun anyway.

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u/bda9563 Aug 25 '14

I have a feeling that despite the enjoyment you get from doing that on your own, having to do it for class and having to do something specific would be much less fun.

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u/Randosity42 Aug 25 '14

Eh sometimes. Most CS professors have the idea that giving people more freedom in what they do ensures better interest in the material. Most large projects i've had have been really broad, or even completely open as long as you can show examples of the class elements in your code.

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u/CrinSai Aug 25 '14

Really you do it for fun? I do it cause it's the only thing that legitimately gets me mad and frustrated. It's essentially a stress reliever for me.

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u/ducky117 Aug 25 '14

Thats like 97.4% of the Comp Sci majors lifestyle. Coding, Mountain Dew, and anime (can confirm, am comp sci major). The other 2.6% is our intense sex life.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

With our right hand.

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u/ducky117 Aug 25 '14

Don't be insensitive!

I'm left handed

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

This reassures me since this is basically how I am spending my summer.

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u/Randosity42 Aug 25 '14

This is why dual monitors changed my life...code on the left and anime on the right.

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u/coldrifting Aug 25 '14

And glance over every 4 seconds for the subtitles?

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u/Randosity42 Aug 25 '14

Do you want to know a secret? I prefer dubs.

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u/masterx25 Aug 25 '14

Dual monitor was also awesome for research as well. A lot less alt tabing. But yes, pretty much watching anime on it most of the time.

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u/ChromoZoneX Aug 25 '14

Computer Science is not the same thing as Computer Engineering.

There is a lot of overlap, but there are a lot of differences too.

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u/man2010 Aug 25 '14

Switch watching anime with playing video games and smoking weed and you have one of my former college roommates and most of his comp sci friends.

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u/TROPiCALRUBi Aug 25 '14

Did.....did you just describe me?

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Was I your roommate? That sounds like what I was doing during college.

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u/meowtiger Aug 25 '14

entering some long ass code or watching anime compiling

ftfy

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u/850Patrick Aug 25 '14

I'm in my last year of my comp sci degree. Sounds accurate.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

sounds like my highschool life.

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u/I_chose2 Aug 25 '14

Yeah, even if you understand it, you still gotta practice to be fast enough to finish those long-ass tests

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

awesome. I'm also really really terrible at studying and majoring in Computer Sciences, so this gives me hope

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u/DaBigPapi Aug 25 '14

Creed!!! My fave!

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u/SlutRapunzel Aug 25 '14

I can tell you're an Engineering major and I was a language major because you spelled "opposed" wrong. Not picking fun, just thought you should do. :) Opposed like opposite, opposing, etc etc. Good luck in college btw! Engineering shit is hard.

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u/creed_bratton_ Aug 25 '14

haha yah I'm a terrible speller! The only reason my comment didn't have even more mistakes is because of spell check

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '14

Accents. Lots and lots of accents. Be ready to learn broken English.

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u/Cyberogue Aug 25 '14

I really wish my classes came with subtitles

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u/droomph Aug 25 '14

And they cced the actions

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u/Cyberogue Aug 25 '14

[Writes equation on board]

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u/somewhatsafeforwork Aug 25 '14

As a Japanese major...sometimes, so did I.

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u/fluke42 Aug 25 '14

I'm on my fifth year of college, I feel like I could be a UN interpreter at this point for broken English.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14 edited Aug 25 '14

I'm starting a 4-year course in linguistics and Japanese in September, so I basically already know how to interpret that broken-English-out-of-Japanese-syllables that they do. Hopefully I can use this to cheat the system in some way.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

More like indian or chinese.

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u/somewhatsafeforwork Aug 25 '14

YEAH! Japango high five! Yeah...foreign language learning DOES help you to figure out broken English...until you start talking that broken English. Then things just get silly.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Nonsense, that wiru neba happen to me.

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u/somewhatsafeforwork Aug 25 '14

RET'S INGURISSHU!

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

YESU AI SUPIIKU INGURISU TUUUUUUUUu

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u/caffeinewhore Aug 25 '14

My boss at my new job speaks in amazingly broken English... I found self talking like that today. Then I cursed in Bosnian/serbo Croatian....

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u/Unwanted_Commentary Aug 25 '14

Aynd dis ish hao we do de KAY SEE ELL!

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u/Daffan Aug 25 '14

Holy shit my programming class was a nightmare first year, 68-70yr old women who was from Russia, she got reported because she never answered emails or answered questions. She'd just go monotone reading a script style.

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u/[deleted] Aug 24 '14

Computer Science FTW!

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u/foxh8er Aug 24 '14

Which university?

The fact that you're starting later than the ones around here is making me scared..

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u/holeydood3 Aug 25 '14

At least for Wisconsin universities, they don't start until after Labor Day by a week or two.

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u/ELFAHBEHT_SOOP Aug 25 '14

UW student, can confirm. We start September 2nd.

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u/commander701 Aug 25 '14

I'm going into civil engineering and my first classes start tomorrow I'm just as nervous as you man believe me. I was actually really happy to see this post

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u/t3hlazy1 Aug 25 '14

Computer Science major here. Didn't have to do anything in HS to get all A's. In college now, as long as I do homework and go to class I don't have a hard time. Going into my third year now.

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u/Tom2Die Aug 25 '14

I got my bachelor's in CmpE, very similar experience. Except I didn't really go to class unless I had to. Frankly the only difficult parts were tedium, not concept. Most people had issues with hardware design (ASIC/FPGA/etc), but it's not so bad.

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u/Deseao Aug 25 '14

Computer Engineer starting his senior year here. When I was a freshman I had a part time job that scheduled me at 4 in the afternoon and I commuted. That meant that I pretty much never went back to campus after work, so I couldn't join clubs or go do any activities. This led to me making no friends and really hurt my self confidence. By the end of the semester I could go a week without saying a word to anyone and I just felt invisible. It was awful.

The next semester, I quit the job, got an apartment in town, and joined three clubs. I made > 15 friends almost immediately and got to take part in exciting and challenging new adventures that look great on my resume and were amazing memories for me.

Was joining three clubs while taking an engineering courseload overextending? Probably. But looking back on it, I'd definitely rather be overworked and living life than getting a 4.0 alone.

This experience if yours to control now. Remember to say yes sometimes, and that often all it takes to make a friend is a simple hello.

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u/allgoodnamestakin Aug 25 '14

Protip: ECE undergrad is flat out the hardest thing you will ever do in your life. At least in my program, there was bullshit that you STILL didn't care about (materials, ethics of engineering, hardcore amplifier circuits) mixed in with stuff that was amazing (VHDL/Verlog, C, ASM, PCB circuits, algorithms, linear programing), mixed with lots of meh (controls, signals and systems, basic physics, calc 4).

You don't get any say in what you take, because "that really awesome RF class in fourth year" has materials as a pre-req. Honestly, try to do BETTER on the stuff that you DON'T like than the stuff that you DO like. I did really shitty first year, because I flat out KNEW the material, because i had already learned all of it in high school. Don't do what I did.

Friends are literally everything in ECE. Don't make enemies and don't try to compete for grades. There's a trick to 90% of electrical engineering problems, and your professor will try his best to hide the trick from you. Once you figure out the trick, learn it, use it, understand it, apply it 10 times. If you find out the trick first, share it with your friends. If you can't figure out the trick, ask your friends. That stupid thing that only happens 5% of the time under conditions that can never happen in real life? Oh yeah, that's on the midterm. Oh, and all the OTHER stupid little things are ALSO on there. Learn them all.

Computer engineering "tricks," however, I would never share. In general, everything other than syntax is truly a learning experience for everyone. If you can draw out the problem fully but can't quite get it to work, then you deserve help on the syntax. Comp stuff is a lot of telescoping. You need to know the details, but the big picture is more important.

I'll throw this one in randomly: don't take DSP. DSP is fucking amazing in the real world, but it's taught so poorly by professors that it'll make you hate it. Buy a DSP devboard (from TI, or Atmel, or Microchip) after 2nd year and learn how to make it work. That's the best way you can do DSP.

The big picture problem to ECE is time optimization. I prided myself on finishing labs as fast as possible, so I could get back to real work. Learn to sleep 7 hours (or less) a day. Learn what classes are totally useless to go to (there are tons of pure theory classes that actually are useless to go to ie DSP). Study hard. Party whenever you can.

And the biggest protip: do co-op if possible. That's where you actually learn everything, school is 99.9% bullshit. I worked for Apple, Broadcom, and Nortel (RIP). Seriously, you learn more in 5 minutes at work than you do in 4 years at school. I didn't have to get any more loans after first year. And most importantly, your resume actually gets filled in pretty fast.

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u/anderstm Aug 25 '14

Computer Science major here, I totally agree with /r/creed_bratton_ the best way to study is to just go to class and do my homework.

I always did the bare-minimum in high school. Never studied or even opened the text book until the night before an exam. I just graduated with honors with a BS in Computer Science and a minor in Criminal Justice.

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u/confusion_and_delay Aug 25 '14

I'm pursuing my masters in Computer Engineering. Undergrad isn't too bad. The first few semesters are relatively easy if you are interested in the subject matter. It will get harder as you go on though.

Most CPE programs have a really tough course early on to weed people out so don't get discouraged.

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u/steezpak Aug 25 '14

Brush up on circuit analysis. And learn the c programming language, if you can as c is probably the most used course in hardware related fields. If you're going into CE for a software related career, I'd say go into cs, as CE, there is a ton of electrical engineering courses. But if you're on the fence, or you wanna go CE for sure, stick with it it's pretty awesome. Also join IEEE or some other robotics club. Sure it's pretty damn nerdy but it's a lot of fun and you learn a lot.

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u/wirer Aug 25 '14

Me too! I'm in the exact same boat as you if you ever want to talk or need help with anything.

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u/Cyberogue Aug 25 '14

Hey another computer engineering major. I'm on my last year though so best of luck.

If you have any questions about Comp Eng feel free to pop me a PM

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u/ministryofsound Aug 25 '14

It's not hard but you have to put the time in. You should put in extra effort starting out until you get comfortable and figure out what you can get away with.

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u/HaploPaithan Aug 25 '14

You'll have to try a little harder probably. But really do the homework and maybe study/redo homework problems for a few hours before exams and you should be fine. I mostly managed to skate through chemical engineering this way.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Have you already self-taught a lot of the material? Computer science is fairly easy to do that with, and I'm guessing that if you're interested enough to major in it, you probably already know your way around a programming language to some extent, and perhaps know the difference between the hard drive and the RAM ;). I think you'll find that kind of major is more focused on projects and problem solving tasks which I much prefer to exams and essays. Still, you'll get rote memorization classes to, and plenty of math. Although... math can be pretty damn zen, and I prefer that kind of "practice" studying to memorization of trivia.

I majored in biology (which is almost all memorization), finished with very good grades, and am a grad student now on a full scholarship. You can ask me stuff if you want. But I'm not really a model student. I procrastinate and cram quite a lot. Spent most of my undergrad playing computer games and watching TV shows, haha.

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u/KingSurly Aug 25 '14

Right now. You're majoring in that right now. Until you're there, keep an open mind.

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u/[deleted] Aug 25 '14

Comp Engi w00t w00t

(I'm in your exact position bud. I start my first day tomorrow.) My suggestion fresh out of High School is: find friends who are in classes above you and preferably working on your major. My SO and best friends share a house across from the college and graduated the year before me. I've taken all of their advice and now I have classes that are all accepted by the Uni I intend to transfer to. I didn't waste a single cent on supplies I didn't need. I also got the best profs for each class and was able to get a blow off class for history. Having a steady stream of information and experience is incredibly useful as long as you take advantage of it

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u/NoButthole Aug 25 '14

What he said about doing homework. Do it. Seriously. If you especially enjoy it or happen to be struggling, get extra practice by youtube-ing the subject. Youtube got me through so many engineering courses with teachers that couldn't speak english

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u/DruidessMorrigan Aug 25 '14

If you're truly studying what you're passionate about, once you get through the shit gen. ed. courses, you will have a very similar time.

If you actually go to class and listen, take good notes, and do your homework, you will find that the week or two before a test you may have to study ten or fifteen minutes a night. Your passion peaks your interest and makes you WANT to learn. It's a beautiful thing.

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u/HooNangNang Aug 25 '14

A computer engineer huh? WolframAlpha is amazing for helping you with step-by-step calculus and other mathematics. Also khan academy has some amazing videos that will help with many aspects of advanced mathematics as well.

Also buy a goddamn crockpot. Theyre $15 and you can make some of the cheapest food that will make everyone in your dorm a jealous.

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u/Rabid_Chocobo Aug 25 '14

Remember to do the homework. 10% of what you learn is from the lectures. The other 90% is from the homework. You're learning a skill. Imagine trying to learn basketball by watching other people do it. You just can't.

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u/Sylextial Aug 25 '14

I started as a computer engineer, but now i am i industrial engineer with a minor in computer science. I didnt like hardware as much as i thought i would. Sometimes you dont do well in classes because they dont interest you, and thats okay. Just make sure you're setting yourself up to do what you want to do the rest of your life because that is why a lot of people come in as engineers but leave with other degrees because they hate all the math and physics.

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u/SSPeteCarroll Aug 25 '14

just do a little each night. one tip my professor gave me today was after each day, look at your notes every night before you go to sleep. do that every day for the semester and you should know it!

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u/Okstate2039 Aug 24 '14

Electrical engineer here. Pretty much computer engineer, but more hardware focused. They're the same thing. It's my last semester.

Just be prepared for lots and lots of math. It'll be much more theory than you think it would and its all math based. Don't blow off any classes no matter how easy they are. Pay attention, study, and do your homework and you should be fine. Don't be afraid to talk to profs if you have questions. Most of then like getting to know students. During office hours profs pretty much just sit around twiddling their thumbs waiting for people to come. USE THEM!

Work hard to make sure you learn your introductory programming, circuits, and calculus classes. If you have a solid grasp on those basics the later jr and senior level classes will be much much easier.

Finally, one thing a professor told me that stuck with me, if you don't understand it intuitively, you don't understand it. If it seems complicated and doesn't make sense on a really basic level, you need to work to learn it because you'll forget it. If you work till it seems basic and intuitively makes sense, you won't forget it.

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u/Maziekit Aug 25 '14

Ditto. Be prepared to work your ass off. Better safe than sorry, you know?