On: Ask HN: I'm an incoming freshman to college for a ...

[dbcurtis]

Do you know how to study?

No, I mean really? Was high school easy? CS won't be. Your math classes will force you to think in a new way, unless you had a very proof-oriented math education, which is exceedingly rare in the US.

A significant number of the smart kids that land in freshman engineering are smart enough that they never had to study in high school, and therefore never learned how to study hard things, on a deadline. A good number of those smart kids wash out, not because they aren't capable, but because they just don't have the study skills. Don't be that guy.

[tester756 → dbcurtis]

I'm not sure whether my math at HS was good or during my higher edu it was shitty, but what do you actually mean by "think in a new way"?

I don't see big difference between e.g math analysis in college and advanced math in HS. Except ofc complexity of concepts and tricks used there.

Only graph theory looks relatively different to that.

[fish45 → dbcurtis]

Luckily I went to a really hard high school. I breezed through middle school and then completely flunked freshman year so I learned my lesson early.

I'm 100% sure that if I had not gone to such a hard high school I would've completely ignored your advice and failed at least a semester of college.