Things I wish someone told me on my first year in UST as a Computer Science student

I'm already on my fourth year in college. Looking back at it, there are a lot of things I wish I knew when I was just starting out. I just recently had a turning point in the way I think and now I feel like I've wasted a lot of my time in college. Now here are some of the things I would drill into my first year self's mind.

1. Be proactive
I cannot stress this enough. This can be the difference between having a miserable learning experience and making the most out of the program. Always take action. I know this can be hard, specially when you are an introvert like me, but you have to always be willing to try.

2. Read Books
And read often. When I say read books, I'm not talking about novels or other works of fiction. You should read course related books and other technical or educational books. Training yourself to read a lot will help make dealing with large amounts to study/review material not look as daunting.

Reading the recommended books are a tremendous help in filling in the gaps in your knowledge or understanding topics that your professor didn't explain very well. Reading technical books related to what you are interested in will help train you brain to think of harder concepts and improve your critical and logical thinking skills which are very important in this course.

3. Advance study
Especially on technical subjects, studying or reading the course materials in advance will help you digest the topics in the discussion later. You don't have to study it intensively, just spend at least 30 minutes reading and trying to understand the topic on your own and I assure you, you will learn much easier. It can also give you a chance to recite and I recommend you take the chance. It will give your professor a good impression on you which is very valuable.

4. Study with the grade conscious students
Spending a lot of time with other students who often study can help you learn, specially when you interact with them and participate in their discussion or review session. They also elevate your standards when studying, just don't be discouraged if you're often the one who understands the topic last. Just ask them to explain it or simplify it for you and I'm sure they'll be glad to help.

5. Start working with technologies you are interested in as early as possible
Computer Science programs don't really teach the latest technology that is used in the industry. They focus on the theoretical concepts such as algorithms and data structures.

Don't get wrong, these concepts are invaluable and you have to have these mastered in order to be a good programmer, but you have to understand that if you want to get experience and expertise in technologies like web development frameworks such as Node.js and Django or mobile development platforms such as android and iOS, you have to work with them on your own time. It's good to start early so you can build your knowledge and start working on side projects to build a portfolio of software that you have developed. This will demonstrate your skills in a practical way and will help you land a job in the future.

6. Specialization choices
In the University of Santo Tomas, there are currently 3 specialization tracks available for Computer Science students, Game Development, Data Science and Core.

From what I gathered, asking other students in other specialization, Core is the hardest but you can't go wrong with choosing this track because its the best one, considering that at the time of writing this the Data science track is still relatively new and the program for it hasn't had the time to mature yet (I'd choose Core back then but got into Data Science because I wanted to be in the same section as some girl I liked. Don't do what I did).

If you don't want to go with Core or you want a little bit of statistics, you can go with Data Science. As I said, this track is new and there aren't many jobs out there looking for fresh Data Science graduates, but with the pace of progress in technology, this can arguably be a really profitable career path. And as for Game Development, I really can't recommend going with this track. The program is terrible and professors in it don't actually have industry experience, even the students in the track told me that they weren't really learning anything in the Game Development focused/related subjects.

7. Take your internship seriously
Another mistake that I made was how I handled my internship. I didn't look around and research other companies, I just took the one that seemed easy enough to get to. When your reach your 3rd year in the program you should already start looking for companies that offer good internships with actual training and will immerse you in the technology you are interested in.

Once accepted into an internship program, make sure that you are making the most out of it and learning everything you can and try to get involved with and contribute to the project you are assigned in.

8. Don't be afraid to fail
Get rid of that incorrect mentality of fearing failure more than being afraid of not learning. Failure is an integral part of learning, the process of trying, failing and correcting is how we progress. A lot of people are afraid of trying because it brings with it, the chance to fail. They'd just let countless of opportunities pass them of this fact.