Secure Your Foundation

Intro to Computer Science and Data Structures are extremely important courses full of foundational knowledge. From an academic standpoint, having a good foundation is highly beneficial for future courses. Concepts like LinkedLists, Hash Maps, and Trees are used in various courses, ranging from CS 334 (Algos) to CS 440 (Intro to AI). From a career standpoint, many fundamental technical interview questions are based on Data Structures concepts. At the end of each semester, make it a habit to ensure that you are confident in the topics you learned in class. (In the context of Data Structures, you should be able to confidently explain how to reverse a linked list or how to implement a hash table.)

Ask For Help

It is not easy to ask for help. Many of us worry about being embarrassed, or believe that if we spend enough time on a problem, we will eventually figure it out ourselves. While perseverance is an important skill, it is also important to recognize that asking for help can often speed up your learning.

Talking through a problem out loud can surprisingly help clarify your thinking. Explaining your reasoning forces your brain to organize ideas, connect concepts, and identify gaps in your understanding. You might even notice, while explaining a problem, that you are unsure about a specific step or assumption.

A benefit of seeking help from someone is that the person you are speaking with, whether a friend, a tutor, or a professor, may ask questions you had not considered. For example, a tutor might ask why a certain algorithm works, what the time complexity is, or what would happen in an edge case. Similarly, a friend may ask you to expand on a concept that you might have thought was obvious. These questions allow you to dive deeper into the topic and may reveal misunderstandings early on, allowing you to correct them before they appear on an exam or in a larger project.

Remember that many resources are available to support you, especially for introductory classes. Rutgers offers numerous tutoring services, office hours, and peer support opportunities designed to help students succeed. Specifically, there is RUCATS (Intro to CS and Data Structures focused) and the CSL (general CS courses) for CS tutoring. More information and resources can be found here. For other general courses, the learning centers are also a great resource for tutoring with walk-in and scheduled tutoring options. They also offer study groups, which are a great way to work through problem sets. You can also supplement your learning with external resources such as MIT OpenCourseWare, online lectures on YouTube, or documentation to gain another perspective on a topic.

In general, good grades will come naturally if you invest time and energy into actually understanding and engaging with the course material. Intro to CS and Data Structures offer many hands-on assignments to help you understand the material, and there is a well-established community designed to support you academically.

How to Handle Deadlines and Get Into Your Zone

Say you go to your CS 214 lecture, and they assign you a project due in a month. This deadline is both dangerous and misleading–you should aim to be proactive and get it done well in advance.

Being proactive is important for your own growth and sanity. By getting a large project done early, you can spend the next month not worrying about the project and instead focusing on other things. This can include building personal projects, preparing for technical interviews, applying to jobs, hanging out with friends, trying out a new hobby etc. You’ll also be much less stressed, and avoid unavoidable all-nighters the night before a project is due.

In order to manage your deadlines, use the time blocking and urgency vs. importance method we outline in “Time Management” in the General Principles section. If you ever need motivation, you can think about all of the other things you can do with your time once you finish the project, and you’ll be glad you started early instead of late.

One drawback of this approach is that your peers who do the project later get the benefit of extra help or insight from the professor through advice in lectures or office hours. But this isn’t that big of a drawback; you solved the problem on your own, and that’s a huge thing for your own growth in general. And of course, if you’re stuck, you can always ask for help yourself.

Map Out Your Journey Early On

It is important to be intentional about your academic growth. Creating a tentative four-year plan early on is a great way to do this. Mapping out your courses, degree requirements, and electives can give you a clear picture of how everything fits together and help you make more informed decisions when selecting classes. Here’s a template you can create a copy to use.

It is completely normal for your plan to change over time. Your interests may evolve, and new opportunities may arise. However, the planning process is still valuable. It can help you anticipate heavier semesters, plan prerequisites in advance, and prepare for opportunities such as research, internships, or early graduation.

Spending time exploring Degree Navigator and departmental websites helps you understand degree requirements, course sequencing, and the degree that fits your goals the best. Once you are familiar with these details, adjusting your plan later becomes much easier.

Your four-year plan is a guide rather than a rigid plan.

Some sample four-year schedules from past e-board members:

Plan Out Your Prerequisites

Map your progression ahead of time, and make sure you get the courses you want with this four-point approach:

Request an SPN the semester before if you need one.
Register for the course as soon as you’re able to; you’ll be able to find registration schedules from the Office Of The Registrar based on your number of completed credits.
The first two weeks of the fall and spring semester is an add drop period where students can add and drop courses at will without incurring a “W”, or withdrawal, on their transcript. Use a course sniper (you can google one) to notify you when a section that works for your schedule opens up, and register immediately.
For graduate courses, hunt down the professor for the course you want, email them, go to their office hours, go to the first lecture of the course, and generally annoy them until they promise to let you in the course. This is much easier if you have a history of good grades.

Pursuing Additional Major(s)/Minor(s)

Specializing in Computer Science and pursuing only one major is certainly more than fine. In fact, focusing solely on CS has its advantages. It may give you more flexibility to take advanced electives, dive deeper into specialized areas of the field, or dedicate more time to building projects, participating in research, or gaining internship experience. Many students choose this route to develop strong depth in the subject while exploring interests through projects or extracurricular work rather than pursuing additional majors.

However, if you have a slight interest in picking up additional major(s) or minor(s), do not feel intimidated. It often sounds more overwhelming than it actually is. Many programs share overlapping requirements, so a number of courses can count toward more than one major or minor.

More broadly, as we talk about in the General Principles section, it can be helpful to think about what you want to get out of your time in college. You might aim to learn as much as possible across different fields, prepare directly for the workforce, pursue research opportunities, or simply hope to gain a wide range of experiences. Depending on these goals, you may decide that pursuing an additional major or minor makes sense for you.

Exploring additional areas can also help you stand out, especially in fields like Computer Science, where many students follow a similar academic path. More importantly, it allows you to explore interests beyond your primary field. Rather than choosing combinations purely because they seem practical for the job market, focus on subjects that genuinely interest you. Building depth in areas you care about often leads to stronger motivation and better learning.

Ultimately, college is what you make of it. Instead of feeling constrained by a “standard” path, use the opportunity to explore and try things that interest you. Over time, these interests can shape a unique academic direction and help you develop a broader set of perspectives and skills - whether you pursue one major or several.

Consider Taking Course Equivalents

It is not very widely known that the CS Department considers some courses from other departments as equivalent to CS courses. These equivalents can be beneficial if you are considering a double major or a minor or simply want a different perspective. For example, Math 300 (Intro to Mathematical Reasoning) is equivalent to CS 205 (Discrete Structures I) and Math 477 (Mathematical Theory of Probability) is equivalent to CS 206 (Discrete Structures II), which can be very beneficial to math double majors. Another equivalent that is less popular is taking ECE 331 (Computer Architecture and Assembly Language) in place of CS 211 (Computer Architecture). If you are considering taking Computer Architecture in the summer and it is not available, you might be able to take the ECE version instead. The entire list of course equivalents is available on the CS Advising page. If you choose to take a course equivalent, it does come with one disadvantage: if the CS course is a prerequisite for higher-level courses, you may not be able to directly register for those courses and need to ask for a prerequisite override each time you register for classes.

Take Graduate Courses

The earlier you figure out what you would like to specialize in, the more time you have to explore deeper concepts at Rutgers. Even as a freshman, it is useful to check out the Rutgers graduate course portfolio and pick out a few courses you may be interested in completing by graduation. Compared to undergraduate courses, grad courses give the professors much more freedom to explore what they want, often have less focus on exams, and are more lenient. The content is of course tougher, however, and the projects are generally more difficult than undergraduate courses.

Also, it is important to note that many undergraduate electives have a graduate equivalent, and the graduate equivalent counts for the undergraduate course. For example, many students opt to take CS 513 Graduate Algorithms I rather than CS 344 Algorithms. Undergrad Algos covers a great breadth of topics, while Grad Algos covers topics in more depth. Similarly, students can take CS 520 Graduate Intro to AI instead of CS 440 Intro to AI, which both cover the same topic, but at different levels.

Not All Professors are Created Equal

Choosing professors is a subjective matter, and you should ask your peers or upperclassmen for advice on professors. If you liked a certain professor, consider taking more of their courses, especially if it’s graduate work. If a certain professor could be better, fill out the Student Instructional Rating Survey given at the end of class, and leave solid feedback on how they can improve. You can access results from these surveys here to evaluate if a professor is good or not. Also, use Rate My Professor before you join a class after taking Intro to CS and Data Structures. These two courses are coordinated courses which means all professors use the same lecture slides, assignments, and exams. For these courses, you are also able to attend another professor’s lecture if you are not able to register for your preferred professor (but make sure to attend your assigned recitation if attendance is mandatory!)

Whether you have a good or bad professor, they are there to help you. Go to class (and pay attention!), ask questions, attend office hours, and make use of your professor’s resources. Additionally make use of your TA’s/LA’s. They are usually much more responsive than your professor since they are responsible for a fewer number of people. Take advantage of their help during recitation and ask lots of questions.

It is common for instructors to ask a question and be met with complete silence from the room. Often, the goal is not to have the same few students answer again, but to encourage those who are confused to speak up so the concept can be clarified for everyone. Asking questions in class can feel uncomfortable, but it is one of the most effective ways to learn. Chances are, if something is unclear to one person, it is unclear to many others as well.

Textbooks

College textbooks are expensive.

Oftentimes, it is not actually necessary to purchase textbooks. Some professors may ask that you purchase a textbook but never use it more than once or twice. On the rare occasion you actually need them, you can likely find relevant pages online or look off of a friend’s textbook. When reviewing concepts or practice problems, many students opt to use online resources or generative AI chatbots.

That said, if you want to actually read textbooks or collect them or save them for future reading, go ahead and buy used textbooks.

AI: Good or Bad?

The short answer is: it is a tool. Like a calculator for a math student or a debugger for a developer, AI can either be a powerful accelerator for your learning or a crutch that worsens your foundational skills. The biggest trap in courses like Intro to CS, Data Structures, and Software Methodology is using AI to generate code for your assignments. It is incredibly tempting, but doing so creates two major problems: academic integrity and skill stagnation.

To get the most out of your education, treat AI as a personalized tutor. If you’re sitting in CS 205 and don't understand Proof by Induction, ask the AI to “Explain induction using an analogy involving falling dominoes.” If your code is throwing a NullPointerException and you’ve been staring at it for an hour, paste the error and the specific snippet.

In the industry, you will use AI tools like GitHub Copilot to generate code. However, senior engineers are valuable because they can verify that the AI’s output is correct, secure, and efficient. You cannot verify what you do not understand, so it is still extremely important to learn the fundamentals in your classes.

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