What should I do to prepared to go to college for computer engineering
I am looking to go to college for computer engineering and I am wondering on what I should do to get started going down that path. #engineering #computer
5 answers
Steve’s Answer
I would expect a future programmer to be learning to code already by the age of 15 or 16. Surely there are computer clubs in your school or community. There are also many tools and apps to help you. See http://blog.ted.com/10-places-where-anyone-can-learn-to-code/
By the way, if you have an Apple product, I'm hearing loads of great things about Swift--it seems easy to learn and there are already lots of resources for app developers.
If you start young, you'll already have a good foundation in programming when you enter college.
As a counter example, I did not learn anything about programming until my like sophomore year of undergrad, and it worked out just fine. In fact many of my peers who learned programming too early picked up a lot of bad habits by not doing things rigorously enough at the start. (But now days it's probably easier to get a proper start in coding on your own, lot of online courses that are good).
In the meantime if you're still in high school, as much math as possible, and a good course in writing composition would be helpful.
Daniel Moy
Myratgeldi Bekdurdyyev
Myratgeldi’s Answer
Simplest answer would be answering the question which is " do I really like this job if yes, why ?
Matthew’s Answer
If you haven't already, check what you'll need (grades, exams, ...) to get into the computer engineering department at the school you are interested in (sometimes different departments have different admission requirements within a school). You can get a good education from most schools if you take the courses seriously and ensure you understand the concepts well, but of course having a degree from a school with a better reputation can help you with jobs and salary afterward.
Agree with Steve it's better to start early, but if you are closer to 18+ and have not started it's not too late either. Any imperative programming language is good to start with -- once you learn one language well you'll find it much easier to learn others (same way of thinking). If you've already started programming just continue to push yourself a bit further, writing programs to solve more complex problems.
Iliya’s Answer
Make sure you are actually interested in what a computer engineering career entails. You don't have to necessarily be working on huge side projects now or learning how to code from the age of 13, but definitely take the time to understand what programming is play around with some code, maybe set up a linux box, basically just try to get your hands dirty with some small computer projects so you at least know that it is something you can do for 8+ hours a day for a large portion of your life.
Hina’s Answer
Yes, sure starting early is good.
At the same time, I didn't start coding until my 1st year in university. I came into UC Berkeley as an Econ major, and decided I want to make video games, so I started taking Computer Science classes and eventually double majored.
Everything is experience and starting early is important, but don't be intimidated just because you haven't coded yet. You're still in high school! And some tools/languages can be so complex it can turn you off right away. Start off with what you are comfortable with, whether it be graphical programming languages, watching videos (there are online lectures for college level CS classes, I think Stanford's CS 101 class is well known for that), or starting off hacking (try looking at how websites are built! I took a html web design class in high school and it was simple and fun.)
Have fun, and be truly interested in what you're doing, and you'll get far!