<p>Hello! I am a freshman at a college. I am majoring in Computer Science & minoring in Math. I believe it is possible to work in Top Tech companies like Microsoft/apple or, get into top MBA(I plan on pursuing MBA after working a few years) programs like MIT/Carnegie Mellon if I start doing the right things little by little from now. I am dogged to get the maximum GPA at college but, I need your advice on what other things to consider to make myself extremely competent. Thanks.</p>
<p>Get as much good work experience as you can, especially in your desire field. Get internships, jobs, etc. Try to work full time over the summer, and part time during the year (if you can do it without sacrificing your school work). If you can get on board projects that you can put on your resume, do that as well, especially for computer science. I know a lot of computer science majors who would do professional websites for friends in their spare time, just to build up their portfolio.</p>
<p>Take advantage of any chance you get to network as well (in your job, internships, fairs, whatever).</p>
<p>Good grades are important, but quality work experience (in whatever you’d like to do as a career) is what is really going to set you apart from the crowd.</p>
<ul>
<li><p>Meet other CS majors, preferably at good universities, because they will be able to advise you in your career. They can help you decide where to intern at, for instance. From what I hear Apple is not a top software company but Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Amazon are.</p></li>
<li><p>Get an internship every summer. Do not accept a technical internship if they don’t give you a technical interview. Pay attention in your data structures and algorithms classes since they will help a lot with interviews.</p></li>
<li><p>Do random coding projects that you can put on your resume. Put them on GitHub so you can show them off.</p></li>
<li><p>Join Quora, it’s like the mecca for computer science and is a good place to get advice.</p></li>
<li><p>Do programming contests like the ACM ICPC and TopCoder. This is mostly for fun though.</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Take programming-heavy project classes to get good at making software projects with OOP and working in teams, using versioning software, planning development, etc. Study C and C++ and get good at memory management, recursion, and the use of pointers. Take at least one internship or have some kind of software industry experience. Participate in undergraduate research. Take at least one class where you learn assembly, bit manipulation, how integers and floating point numbers are represented in binary, how the stack works, etc.</p>
<p>Internships. They really help.</p>
<p>Thanks everyone, really great Ideas. </p>
<p>I have got an Idea ! I actually decided to major in Maths because I heard doing so shows that I have some quantitative skills(which looks good on resume) and, Math complements understanding in CS. But, what if I do not even minor but use the credits for even more CS courses(4+ courses) in C++,Database Management,networks,senior project etc. instead ? The mentioned are not required by my major. </p>
<p>And a little off topic question. I have a tight budget and am going to buy this laptop. Is this laptop okay for my major? </p>
<p>[HP</a> Pavilion g6-2342dx Notebook PC Product Specifications HP Pavilion g6-2342dx Notebook PC | HP® Support](<a href=“http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03736754&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=5388438]HP”>http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c03736754&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=5388438)</p>
<p>^correction: …I actually decided to *minor in Maths…</p>
<p>Are you preparing for your career or preparing for your life?- in that case you are going to need more than a degree.</p>
<p>I am asking here about preparing for my career.</p>
<p>A minor in math may or may not be worth it. Definitely take a statistics course. I suggest taking what math classes you find useful. Your college’s CS department probably already teaches stuff like algorithms, graph theory, numerical analysis, (and if they don’t, find another college), but you may want to take “extra” CS-related math classes. As long as you meet the prereqs for a course you can take it, doesn’t matter whether it counts towards your degree or not.</p>
<p>For career purposes, statistics and probability are always good.</p>
<p>I have just checked my college’s CS department. Yes, a statistics class, probability, Algorithms, numerical analysis etc. are required by major at my college. I think I will not do a minor.</p>
<p>Maybe take some college classes and if you find yourself gravitating towards the theoretical ones (like algorithms), minor in math. If you don’t, take those extra CS classes.</p>
<p>Bump !! Today I heard doing some college Clubs and organizations impress Business schools greatly. Is that true?</p>