I think college can be a vital part of a person’s life. It’s about half a decade (sometimes more) that you will never get back. I hear some people meet their lifelong friends in college. Many people also seem to discover their true passions in college. Some people begin their future lucrative businesses in college. Others may pick up hobbies in college–an art, a sport, or maybe something a little less conventional. Some people figure out which things in their life need work, and which things in their life don’t work. Like many things in life, what people get out of college depends on what they put into it. Admittedly, this can be a hard thing to see while you are in the middle of experiencing it. In retrospect, everything always seems much more clear–where the missed opportunites were, who you should have spent more time with, who you wasted way too much time with, so on and so forth. The least a college can do for their eager but lost students is to encourage them to get as much out of their college experience as possible. This includes both positive and negative experiences–I think any experience is better than no experience.
After evaluating the last six years of my life, here is what I think undergraduates need in order to maximize the dynamics of their college experience:
This is a short story about how I ended up in computer science. During my first year of college, I was kind of enrolled in a major that I only kind of wanted to be in, and a part of me always knew that I was unsure. I guess you could say my unsureness was the only thing I was sure about. I was considering enviornmental engineering, but at the same time looking into prelaw, and it soon became clear that I wasn’t passionate about either of them. I was caught up in the early college pressure of finding a major and doing anything to avoid being classified as “undecided,” even if it meant being unhappy. By chance I ended up working in an IT office on campus as a minimum wage student receptionist. Some of my co-workers had graduated as computer science majors at UH. I saw some of the work they were doing, and out of the blue, maybe out of desperation to find something, anything that could be my new passion, I decided to sign up for ICS111 over the summer. I didn’t know of any other way to figure out if computer science was right for me—this seemed to be the only way. So I took a leap, and took the class, and I knew right away that I had found my passion. It loved it, it was interesting, and it made me excited to learn more. I declared ICS as my major that upcoming fall semester and I haven’t regretted it once.
In ICS111, my professor, Ravi Narayan, told us on the first day of class that, regarding programming, we were either going to “really really love it, or really really hate it.” This was a good way to help prospective ICS students decide whether or not computer science is the right major for them. I was lucky enough to be able to afford taking an extra, otherwise unnecessary class over the summer. However, some students on a tight budget or time constraints may not have the luxury of taking a class in every potential major to see if it is right for them or not. If the ICS department had another way of quickly and easily giving prospective students an idea of what to expect, and whether or not it may be the right major for them, this may be beneficial and save both time and money for many future students.
A site like RadGrad could address this issue by having some sort of functionality for prospective students. Perhaps a quick, honest, and highly informative overview of the major and what to expect. Maybe even some samples of the types of problems they will be solving or the types of thinking they will need to use, to give prospective students a quick taste of computer science, which could easily help encourage them one way or another.
Once students are in the program, they should have realistic expectations about their classes and corresponding ability levels. Similarly to the first point, some students waste time and money taking several ICS classes before changing their mind and changing majors. Instead of repeatedly failing some introductory ICS classes, if students had a better idea of the intensity and dedication required ahead of time, some students may be able to make better informed decisions before disaster strikes. ICS classes, even the introductory level courses, require a lot of time. When I took ICS211, all of my weekends for that semester were dedicated to programming. For students who may already have a heavy load or are working a lot, dedicating this much time to a class may not be realistic. Students should be able to see this ahead of time, rather than suffer through it first.
RadGrad can address this problem with student written course experience feedback and honest descriptions of the different demands of individual courses. Every student is different and every student will have different problems in different areas, so a comprehensive collection of varying student experiences should help account for individual student needs.
One of the common gripes of college students is “when will I ever actually USE this information?” As a student, it is a lot more encouraging and there is a lot more incentive to learn when it is clearly understood how the content is relevant in the future. I didn’t believe many things were important when I first learned them—for example, discrete math. When I got to higher level classes, I had many moments of sudden clarity where I said, “OHH…I remember learning this! So I finally understand why its important!” By making connections between classes more clear, students will have a greater overall understanding of computer science. Additionally, I have some friends who graduated from ICS and are now working in the field, and they have told me which specific courses and which material became useful in job interviews, in their everyday work, etc. It would be encouraging for current students to know these things, so that they know the work they are grinding through every weekend is not done completely in vain.
RadGrad can address this problem with feedback from alumni and a dialogue between upper-level students and lower-level students. Also perhaps some kind of visual information on connections between classes could help as well.
Students should be encouraged to look forward to graduation. Too many students don’t want to leave college because they dread the “real world” and finding a job and working. This type of mindset can change if instead they become excited about the opportunities out there. When I was an undergrad, life after college was a huge question mark that I avoided thinking about. But it doesn’t have to be scary.
RadGrad can address this by providing a smoother and clearer transition to graduation. This includes encouraging outside work, internships, networking, learning about jobs, etc. RadGrad could also help to facilitate some networking between students and local companies, where students can learn what actual computer scientists do. This will help students to understand programming beyond the scope of homework assignments and be less scared once they have to put themselves out there.
Moral and social support may be the most important aspect of surviving ICS. I am not exaggerating when I say I probably wouldn’t have survived without my ICS friends. I probably would be more mentally unwell and may have had a breakdown or two (or more). Having people to study with all day on Sundays, people to chat with at 4 in the morning when you pull a programming all-nighter, people to vent to about bugs, and just people who understand your struggle, is a very healthy thing. Feeling alone leads to feeling helpless, which becomes very unhealthy. As a TA, I have spoken to several students in this position, and none of them were doing well in class. I am confident that it is not 100% due to their lack of intelligence, but with some socialization and moral support, I believe that they could have achieved a lot more. Attitude really plays a large part in success.
RadGrad can address this by providing a safe and easy place for ICS majors to communicate and connect with each other. Although there now is a place to socialize (the ICSpace), some students may feel intimidated in going there because they may not know anyone else or feel like they aren’t smart enough. I think it is safe to assume that many ICS majors (as well as many people in the current day and age) are more comfortable communicating when online. With online chat rooms and easy ways to broadcast messages and create groups, students can feel less stressed out both socially academically. Giving students a platform to direct message and make study groups, or having students automatically join groups based off class, level, interests, paths, etc. will give students a sense of community. Which brings me to the next point.
Students need to feel more than that they just have friends in the department—they need to feel comfortable and like they belong. I believe this fosters a healthier and more efficient learning environment.
RadGrad can address this by providing groups of common interest for students to join, perhaps include more “all-inclusive” types of things that will make students feel like they are part of something.
In other departments, such as engineering or business, there seems to be a strong sense of “pride” within the department. Students are proud to be members of that major. They make it a point to tell others about it, and they are constantly looking to bond with others in the same department. They bond over triumphs, struggles, and everything else in between. In my opinion, in the ICS department, there doesn’t seem to be the same type of vibe. Why is this? This can change. I believe this type of vibe will empower and encourage students and create an all around more positive experience for everyone in the department.
RadGrad can encourage this behavior in subtle ways—by changing the way the major is presented, by emphasizing the success stories of graduates, by encouraging a feeling of exclusivity among it’s students, and by focusing on the things that bring students together. What are things that all students have in common? They can understand inside jokes about computer science. They all understand which courses are the most painful. This goes along with the creation of the community. By creating more things that people have in common, the more strong I believe the community will be.
A new trend in current social sites is constant connected presence. Current generations like to stay connected with others and to be aware of what is going on in their social circle, without doing much work. This helps people feel like they aren’t missing out and are ultra connected.
RadGrad can address this by providing certain functionalities like online personas, online statuses, easy ways to receive messages and updates, etc.
It’s depressing when it is 3 in the morning, a program is due by 8 AM, and you are up by yourself frantically trying to debug your code. All your non-ICS roommates went to sleep long ago, and nobody is left to hear your cries of frustration. You feel so alone and want to give up. But what if you weren’t alone? What if someone WAS there to listen to your cries of frustration? What if that person was, too, crying in frustration? Simply just knowing that other people on the planet are currently doing the same thing as you can be a relief and a small push of energy to keep going.
By having some kind of feature that shows when members are online, or having some other feature that makes people feel less alone, students will be able to receive the mental support they need whenever they need it. Even if it is at 3 AM on a Tuesday.
Many people are lazy. ICS students are no exceptions to the rule. As an undergraduate, I didn’t take advantage of nearly as many opportunities as I should have. I always had a reason not to—I was too busy, too tired, didn’t feel like it, I told myself I’d just do the next one, or I conveniently forgot. In retrospect, I believe I missed out on a lot of opportunities. For no good reason.
RadGrad can address this by having clear incentives, like the point system, which encourage students to be competitive and truly take advantage of all the opportunities presented. Also, currently many opportunities are simply made known through Gerald Lau’s emails. Which, to be honest, many people seem to ignore. If there were other ways of publicizing these events, and pushing them more, I believe more students would participate. They just need a little extra push.
Finally, computer science is a highly creative field. It’s all about creating things and being innovative. However, as an undergraduate, many students only have time to focus on uncreative things, such as homework assignments and studying for tests. It may be more conductive for them to split the time applying their technical skills to something more practical in the real world.
Thanks to ACM and the ICSpace, there have already been some changes in the ICS department to encourage innovation and teamwork. RadGrad can further help to encourage and facilitate this. It can encourage sharing ideas, have discussion forums, make it easy to form teams, and share useful resources. It can help to have discussion open for all students, graduate and undergraduate, alumni, and professors. As an undergraduate, many don’t dream of working with anyone other than other undergraduates because they may feel inferior. But this way, everyone can learn from each other and innovative skills can be maximized.
RadGrad has the capability of making very huge impacts on the ICS department at UH Manoa. Even the smallest functionalities can make a large difference to an individual student. While the current ICS department is superb, it has the potential to become even greater. College is a difficult time for students as it is–why make it harder? RadGrad can improve the ICS college student experience to make it easier, more enjoyable, less scary, more supportive, and overall simply more rad.
You can learn more about RadGrad here.