On the first day of Freshman year: I was nervous for my first day of class. I never coded before and I didn’t know what to expect. The closest I’ve been to coding was my Robotics class in senior year of high school and I didn’t find the instructor very helpful. My father didn’t say much about me deciding to be a computer engineer, but my mom, being the typical immigrant parent that she is, wanted me to be a doctor. I had a friend from high school with me and he helped me learn a lot of things like coding, and math. Before classes even started we decided to go to the spine (where all the academic buildings are on campus) and see where everything was so we wouldn’t get lost. I still think I got lost using all of the tunnels and bridges, but someone always points me in the right direction.

On the first week of Freshman year: I finally remembered where my classes were without looking at my schedule and I bought all of my books at the bookstore (which was so pricey). I learned after buying them that it was better to get to know upperclassmen and ask if they were selling used textbooks. I was very shy and reserved at the time, so I never tried to ask. Another thing I learned about getting textbooks is renting them. This way, you don’t worry where you’ll have to put them after the semester is over. One mistake I made was getting a textbook through Amazon and forgetting that I also need an access code. Be careful because some classes may require books with access codes and if you’re not careful, you’ll buy a book and completely ignore “may not come with an access code”. This can be a problem when you have to buy the access code online and you realize buying the access code separate from the book is more than the bookstore charges for that textbook.

Moral of the story: Weigh in your options and decide what’s best.

On the bright side, that only happened with one of my gen eds. Zybooks is what I used in CSE 115 and I don’t remember it being an outrageous price.

Anyways, in class, I didn’t know that learning a language in Java would involve learning concepts while typing effective code. Learning these concepts were difficult. I just looked at the Zybook and wrote notes based on them and I was fine.

On the first month of Freshman year: It was the normal cycle of a college student. You have to study. But even though keeping your grades up is essential, it’s also essential to step away from your computer and improve on hobbies outside of your major. For example, when I am stressed out I like to write poetry and draw perspective drawings. I also like to read books in my spare time.

During the first year of Freshman Year: I had a lot of ups and downs. The project for CSE 115 was difficult. It was to make a game similar to candy crush and I wasn’t able to find out what was causing bugs so it was very frustrating. For me, whenever the two buttons needed to be switched it would either not switch or one of the icons on the button would turn into a different color. However, what I learned from my CSE classes if you do well on the homework and okay on the tests, you’ll be fine. CSE 191 was filled with a lot of conceptual topics but the most important but tricky subject was proofs. Inductive proofs will always be slightly confusing to me. However, like many other classes, practice makes perfect.

Paying attention to your perquisites are also essential as well. Physics 107 has the some of the hardest homework problems I have ever seen, but going to my TA’s office hours really helped. I went to his office hours like every session and he was very helpful. Don’t worry, I am certain that the TAs for physics are physic majors so they know what they’re doing. My math courses were fine because Math is my strong suit, but even when I had a problem I went to the math help center. And my TAs for Calc 1 and 2 were great.

So if you’re struggling in a class, ask for help, whether it be a TA, your professor, or some of the friends you made in some of your classes.