Hello Nate,

As a fellow college student I felt obliged to see if I could give a little advice. While I'm not a computer science major, but rather a physics major, I do work a lot with different programming languages. I currently work with a computational research lab, and my prefered language is the C family.

What programming language would be best to start with?

I agree that because of your previous use of web design something a little more advanced but along the same lines is a good choice. But I would recommend jumping into some more advanced languages as well as soon as you feel comfortable enough. C or C++ are always good options, but along with that check out python. It's a good versitile language.

Are there any particular books or authors you would recommend?

This is very much a personal choice as to which authors you like, and what styles of instruction you like better. Remember, google is your friend, and there are plenty of nice people out there who have given you material to learn from for free on the internet. Also, another tip, visit your local library or if you have a university near by make a trip to their library. Read a bunch of books and see which ones you really like!

Are there any subjects I should emphasis?

If your school offers an introductory computer science course then you should of course attempt to get into this course. For your final year of highschool I would say to really dive into mathmatics. You have no idea how important the math concepts are to programming. You can always take a couple physics courses for fun wink wink nudge nudge!

What should I take now?

If your highschool offers a pre-calculus/trigonometry course then by all means take this. If you can get past that and into calculus immediately in college that's always a plus. If your school offers a logic course take it! It's amazing to see how many computer science majors there are that are not sure of, or just do not understand basic logic. Remember that a computer is just a bunch of logic gates working together on a large scale.

What is the most important advice you would give to someone just starting out in college?

Take math, take lots of it, learn to enjoy it and really strive to understand it on a fundamental level. I highly reccommend that you take abstract algebra courses in college even if they are not required. But please, most of all just make sure that you love what you do. College will test your intelligence but it will also test your stamina. It is designed to see if you can cut it in the field that you want to persue, so it will push you and wear you down. Be ready for that, but go in strong!

I hope that helps, if you have any more questions then please feel free to ask them. And keep us updated!

Hey Nate,
All the advice given so far is spot on. One thing that I would make sure start to understand is Parallelism and Parallel Programming. Some colleges and universities are starting to offer some course material on it, but sadly not all. There are those who will say this is an advanced subject, but why not just start with THINKING PARALLEL!! The Intel Academic Community is packed with information on this, as are many other Intel communities.
Why should you care about Parallel Programming? Simple, Intel, AMD, and the other chip manufacturers are not making single core chips all that much anymore and they will all stop making them sooner vs. later. As a CS major you will do yourself a great service to know how to take advantage of the multiple cores that are and will be ubiquitous.
Good luck with your studies.

As I believe Professor Arvind of MIT said backin 2005:
"My unrealized dream: a time when Freshman will be taught sequential programming as a special case of parallel programming."

1. C++/C# in my opinion would serve as the door to any other languages/scripts you might ever need. Also MATLAB.

2. Books on algorithms, and math, and more algorithms, and more math :)

3. Math & physics.

4. PDE and ODE. Modern analysis, Numerical analysis.

5. A lot of patience. Do your homework. Attend to all classes even when it seems boring. Have disciplne.

Good luck!
Guy.

Good luck in Law School Nate!

Lawyer / programmers are dangerous individuals -it is a good combination of skills nowadays.

Paul