Takeaways
I have learned many takeaways from the extra credit event: Education and College, Extracurricular Activities, Leadership and Impact, and Building a Strong Portfolio. First, education and college are an important part of a computer science student’s academic journey. While it is important to get an undergraduate degree, Anthony expressed his belief that achieving a Master’s degree is much more important as it rewards those with much higher pay. In addition, Mabel suggests that college applicants should apply to a wide variety of schools to ensure admittance to a college. Regardless, if an applicant is not accepted to a college, one can still get their general education in community college and transfer into a university. Despite this, transferring into a UC can be challenging due to the lottery system. Next, extracurricular activities are very useful for getting into college. Anthony advocates for high school freshmen to participate in CyberPatriot as it has many connections to computer science and is very beneficial in learning and practicing computer science. He also quotes, “breadth over depth” and that one should dip their toes into all aspects of computer science to find what part of computer science they have an interest in. Mabel also suggests that while applying for internships, one should make an edit to something regarding the company one wants to apply to. This demonstrates to the company one’s great desire to be accepted as an intern. Additionally, Anthony recommends doing LeetCode as companies may test one’s abilities with it. Also, leadership and impact on others was something I took away from the event. Colin talks about leadership skills being highly desired from colleges. They look for one’s ability to organize meetings and make a significant impact on others. Last, I took away that one should build their portfolio. Tristan was a strong advocate for this as he made many passion projects with his own personal projects to show for his knowledge and mastery of tools. He recommends using Vercel and Sveltekit to run servers and he praises its quick ability to make a website. Additionally, he recommends students to learn the new tools that are being developed as it gives one a large advantage in the computer science field.
Reflection
Upon reviewing the insights and advice these college students have shared to us regarding computer science and college admission, there are several considerations I will keep in mind. First, as I start to apply for colleges, I will make sure to apply to many colleges to ensure my admittance into a college. Once I can get into a college, many doors will open for my academic journey because it can lead to internships and to getting my Master’s degree, which will lead to a larger pay and more opportunities in the future. Regarding internships, I will attempt to find internships with local companies or with my college professors. Whilst applying for internships, I will put the new knowledge I learned to help me get internships. I will put time into researching and modifying the company’s features to demonstrate my great desire to be accepted. Also I will continue to build my portfolio by pursuing more personal passion projects and utilizing a wide variety of tools to demonstrate my wide variety of skills in computer science. For me, what Tristan said is a very important piece of knowledge I will use. He recommends learning tools like Vercel and Sveltekit as well as learning the new tools that are being developed. By learning these new tools I will be a much more desired computer scientist as I would be more knowledgeable. Overall from this event I have realized much that I need to improve. First of all, I need to apply to many colleges, continue to do extracurricular activities throughout college, gain internships, and build my portfolio to increase the amount of tangible artifacts I have to show for my knowledge.