Computer Science at McMaster University

Ginoth (Year 2)

ginoth21@gmail.com

What did you wish you knew before going to your university? What made you choose this institution over all others? What are advantages and disadvantages of your institution or campus? List any advice for incoming first-year students about your university.

I wish I knew that what you get out of university is what you put into it. The more effort you put into your work, you will see that you would have gotten more out of it and as a result, feel more rewarded.

What did you wish you knew before choosing your specific program? What are the advantages and disadvantages of your program? List any advice for incoming first-year students about your program of study.

I wish I knew that there are many resources out there that could be very helpful academically, such as help centres or professor office hours. If there was anything I would have changed, I would have used these resources more, because they would have made studying for certain courses a lot easier. An advantage to this program is that there is a positive learning atmosphere as opposed to a competitive one, which is the case for other engineering programs. A disadvantage is that the engineering stream you study depends on your first year GPA.

What was your favourite university experience?

My best experience was going out with friends. There's a lot of things to do near my university and it's fun when you have others to do them with. It's especially fun when you have just finished midterms and want to relieve some stress.

What was your least favourite university experience?

Studying for midterms. This is the worst experience because you had to study for tests that were worth a significant amount of your grade while still keeping up with ongoing classwork. Also, my course load was a lot heavier than most other people in different programs which made studying for all of them a lot more difficult.

What is the hardest part about your program and what were the steps that you took to overcome any difficulties?

The hardest part about my program was studying for so many courses. The amount of courses I had as well as the amount of work for each one was a lot more than what I had in high school. For me, having a calendar or some sort of agenda proved to be pretty helpful. I also found that help centres, professor office hours as well as other students in my program were really helpful when I had trouble understanding something.

If you were able to take electives, what was your favourite elective? If you were not able to take electives, what was your favourite course and why?

My favourite course was Engineering Computation. I enjoy coding and working with computers and that's what this course was about.

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