
Ask HN: What do do if I’m a CS student at a top school and I feel lost? - lostcsmajor
I transferred from a large state school to a top 5 Computer Science school this past fall. I transferred because the CS degree program I was in wasn’t challenging, and the department was severely underfunded and understaffed. I felt miserable, despite having a small but close friend group there. I couldn’t get into classes, the ones I were in were terribly taught, and I just felt like my life wasn’t going anywhere.<p>However, now that I am in this top program, I feel even more miserable. The CS major is GPA capped, and at this point there is a good chance I won’t make it into the major. The classes I have been taking to get into the major alternate between boring review of concepts I previously learned, and unbelievably challenging material that I can barely comprehend. As a result, my grades in those classes have been steadily declining. I feel very demotivated and stressed, especially since finals are coming up.<p>Additionally, this school is all the way across the country from where I grew up. I knew nobody in this city before I came here, and even now I only really know my roommate and 1 other friend.<p>Finally, to top it all off, I didn’t get a tech internship this summer despite applying to around 90 companies. I even got to the final round of interviews at 2 companies, but still got rejected. I signed up for a summer class during the second half of the summer, but I’m worried that it will just stress me out even more. Plus I have no idea what to do for the first half of summer! I really don’t want to bum around my parents house, as they are already disappointed that I didn’t get an internship. Last summer I helped create a startup, but I left due to issues with the other founders.<p>Really I’m just writing this post to ask for advice. What to do if I don’t get into the CS major? How to meet people and connect with my school? What to do about my failure to get an internship?
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phren0logy
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
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
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?

------
ZainRiz
Have you heard of impostor syndrome?
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16983195](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16983195)

~~~
lostcsmajor
Yes. I'm not sure if it applies to me, but even if it does then I have to clue
how to deal with it. The thread you linked is just people discussing it, with
few concrete methods for fixing it.

