College Life (Help Needed)

Most of the textbooks that professors tell you to buy are complete garbage and will not get used, but if you must buy your textbooks, don't buy your textbooks from the school's bookstore, buy the books online.

Also, get some febreze, you can always smell when you're on a guys floor.

Just a heads up, Clemson is gonna lose November 10th... BAZINGA

 

Haha well we'll have to see. The tickets for the Clemson/Carolina game are ridiculously difficult to get, for students anyway. You have to win a raffle to earn the RIGHT to buy the tickets lol

 

Maryland also had the raffle system, but we didn't have to buy tickets, the student fees paid for those, but Clemson also has a much better football program than Maryland.

For some classes the textbooks are useful, but from my experience most of the textbooks were a complete waste of money. Also, youtube is a great source for studying... that is how I learned calculus and organic chemistry

 

And for the classes you must have a book... I typically rent mine. At least for the core classes I rent... but for my major classes I buy my books to build a library for future references.

 

Update time again.

I just bought all my books for the semester coming out to around 400$ bones. I think thats modest compared to others around me. I plan on keeping all the computer science books for reference purposes. Once again, thanks TW for the humor in the threads and good day

 

Yea that isn't bad. I don't know what your major is but my medical major friends that are in the upper division of nursing spend around double that on books because they come out with new editions every year.

 

I have a couple engineering friends and they've spent close to 1000$

My major is Computer Science.

Thats unlucky for them, but there's like a $1,000,000 difference in the the average income of people who go to college vs those who dont so the books are all worth it

 

Alright one thing I havnt seen mentioned was a small planner. I never used to use them but when you get all of your homework assignements of the semester put them in it and check it regularly that way you know whats dew and when. It took me a my first year to start doing that but it will help eliminate the ohhh no feeling when you realize you have a paper due the next day.

If you want to rush or not thats your thing but if you go to a few of the events they should be free and you end up with food or something to do. I went greek and went into college thinking it wasnt for me. Your call but it was an excellent decision on my part. It didnt affect my grades i graduated with a 3.89 out of 4.0.

I went for comp sci and do it for a living now so if you have any questions when you get rollin' let me know I may be able to lend a hand.

Ohhh yea one more thing take your classes seriously but dont forget to have lots of fun. College is a once in a life time opportunity so enjoy it. Once you graduate and reality of having a full time job and eventually a wife and maybe kids sets in you will really appreciate the times you had in college.

 

I totally forgot a planner. >_> i forgot lots of things and i've been to walmart and target many times already.

Yeah im going to do Club soccer instead of greek life. I've decided it's a passion of mine to play the game, it'll keep me from going into the "Freshman 15" sterotype and i'll meet new people/friends through there so that parts covered. Plus, with a potential student job i'll be packed. What kinda job do you do and how much of the classes you took while in school actually contributes to the job?

 

For me the only social life on campus was greek life unless your into 24hr LAN parties with a bunch of dudes. PS. I went to Rochester Institute of Technology. Great education terrible social life it was a 6:1 guy to girl ratio or something crazy. But I was never lonely.

Technically I went for Information Technology but the only real difference between that and comp sci at most universities is that I did not have to take calc. So I couldnt really put a percentage of the classes that actually applied to what I am doing now I'd say probably around 40%. The concepts taught in the courses I took I use every day.

One thing to remember about computer science is although they are teaching you a programming language and syntax on the surface, they are really trying to teach you the core concepts behind computer programming. The concepts are universal. I am working with Databases and programming languages that I didnt touch while I was in school but the concepts I learned are universal so learning new languages etc. is pretty simple and I only need to pick up the little differences in syntax.

For most people learning computer programming the hardest part is learning to think logically and putting the concepts together. Once you get over that hurdle your gtg. Do you know what programming languages they are teaching you? Also if you get the opportunity to take as many database classes as you can. There are lots of people that dont understand how a database works.

 

The freshman 15 actually come from going home during thanksgiving and christmas and eating a shit ton because mamas home cookin his 1095843059234509380934x's better than school food.

 

haha that sounds bad. I think at clemson its 60% girls 40% guys. Its pretty nice in that respect. There's tons of clubs to join so the social aspect of college can be satisfied easily. Uh i think we are starting with C actually, Im starting at the VERY bottom of the computer science courses so I can make sure i get study habits down and also my foundation is strong seeing i'll be making a living off of it. Like others have said the hard part is starting to think differently when it comes to the concepts and solving problems, both of which i enjoy doing. My mentor in college told me he pulled 4 all nighters back to back finishing 4 programs from 4 different classes on finals week. >.> sounds like fun.

haha i had pancakes before i came to school, the last memory of homecooking, So far the food i've had outside the cafeteria is pretty good. i paid like 1600$ for 7 day access to the cafeterias so im gonna get my money's worth.

 

op - sounds like your mentor either had a hard time applying the concepts or has piss poor time management skills. I've done some all nighters programming but to be honest they could have been avoided had I not waited until 8pm the night before the program was due to start it.

Ewww C yuck. I dont care for that language at all. Im suprised they didnt start you with c++ its a little easier than C. My freshman year they started us on java which isnt to bad but I had programming experience from high school I took 3 years of programming class learning pascal, c++ and just enough java to decide it didnt like it much. If they teach any .net classes I think you will really like them. I do alot of c# and asp.net for work and it is so much easier than dealing with c, c++ and jave at least in my experience. Good luck and again if you have any questions let me know. Also its only been about 5.5 years since I graduated.

 

It must have been one or the other. .-. Well i've got no programming experience whatsoever but it cant be too bad the way i look at it, i'll skim over the book over these next couple days to get an idea for it. I'll definatley hit you up if i ever have any questions whatsoever. Im guessing the job you have is paying well right?

 

College is like boot camp for your life,,Stay away from the ass-holes and keep your mouth shut unless you have a ? for the old person standing and doing all the talking... Jim

 

Depends what you define as paying well but I aint doin to bad at all. Honestly Im doing pretty well all things considered. I could be making more working for another company but not enough more that I would quite the gig I have now. The company I work for is based out of ohio but I work from home in pa have pretty decent benefits and alot of vacation time that I can take. The last part is key I have friends that make only a little bit more than me but have vacation they cant take and work like a dog and travel almost more than they are at home. My company does paid internships and also put you up for the summer. But the downside is you have to spend the summer in ohio. They start recruiting for that early I think it starts in the fall and winter looking for summer interships. If you want to know the company shoot me a PM.

 

Fact

 

the breakfast is prob my favorite meal of the day and it's pretty hard to mess up grits,eggs, and bacon
So far i've been doing pretty good in my inventory, i just need some medicinal stuff really for emergencies.

 

You arent lying there, in my classes certain things can only be obtained at the bookstore because the edition keeps updating. >_> but ive luckily found people selling books and stuff wayy cheaper than i'd pay at the bookstore so thats good :-D