<p>I am currently an Undeclared, anxious high school senior. I'm looking hard into the type of major to go into...I'm thinking about CSE at the moment. Will the major be okay for me, or will it be overbearingly difficult?</p>
<p>Some things about myself
I have no prior experience with programming, except dabbling with a little bit of Java a few years back (which I wouldn't even count since I was just mix-and-matching stuff from other people). I'm definitely willing to go over some things during the summer if it'll help me.</p>
<p>I'm OK with math, not great, not bad, don't hate it, used to love it - am still alright with it now. I loved Geometry, but more complex problems seemed to take a while. Algebra II was redundant and easy. My trig/pre-calc class was nonexistent, so i can't say anything. AP Calc AB is pretty difficult for me (probably has a lot to do w/ poor trig/pre-calc preparation), but I still kind of enjoy it. Hard math problems still make me cry to this day, although I feel happy when I solve them.</p>
<p>I am really, really bad at reading math textbooks. I currently rely heavily on 1) teacher explanations, 2) examples, and 3) googled up explanations/resources for my Calc class.</p>
<p>6 years ago, I had an intrest in computers and knew a lot about them, but didn’t know any programming. Now I’m at CalTech. It isn’t to late for you to get a start at any time in your life. In fact, people always have to learn new languages and you won’t be the only one. You have a good math background too, which will help you grasp concepts faster. Try keeping your grades up and learn:</p>
<p>Visual Basic
-A GREAT beginning program
-Easy to follow
-Programming with visual objects</p>
<p>IronPython/Java
-Harder
-Commonly used
-Easy to follow along</p>
<p>Trust me, there are kids here who NEVER used a computer until high school. You aren’t to late. Good Luck!</p>
<p>There are tons of people who have no programming experience before college and then do just fine. As long as you’re willing to learn, you’ll be okay.</p>
<p>I would suggest starting out with Python as it is easy to pick up and a useful language to know. It’s also starting to be used as a teaching language in colleges.</p>
<p>You will probably never need to know Visual Basic, and there’s no need to use IronPython over Python when starting out. Java is a decent option to learn (it’s popular as an intro language in CS programs), but it may be easier to learn with Python first.</p>