What It's Really Like to Study Computer Science: Reality of CS Majors
Written by Massa Medi
Let’s set the record straight: most of us venturing into computer science aren’t overnight prodigies streaming from dorm rooms at Harvard despite what TikTok or Instagram might have you believe. The real university experience? It’s a wild ride, shaped less by “life hacks” and more by which country you’re in, how long your degree lasts (three, four, or sometimes a punishing five years), and whether you can keep your laptop safe from rain, thieves, or yourself.
Year One: Where It All Begins (and Many Fall Off)
The first year is all about getting thrown into the deep end, starting with the infamous Intro to Computer Science class. Consider it a trial by fire or, more accurately, a weeder designed to separate those genuinely interested in code from those who picked their degree after watching a flashy viral video.
Your journey through the basics begins with learning programming fundamentals: variables, loops, functions, and tackling a seemingly endless stream of classic coding problems. Don’t get too attached to your fancy MacBook, though. Surreally, some universities still expect you to handwrite code on pen and paper, as if debugging an array error weren’t torture enough without smudged ink and cramped hands.
Next comes Intro to Programming Paradigms. Here, you’ll wrestle with “ancient” (read: actually foundational) styles like functional and object oriented programming. Despite all the hype, you’ll soon realize that massive, real world codebases are only organized in one paradigm: Spaghetti React. (Kidding sort of.)
And that’s it for coding in your first year. Most of your schedule is stuffed with math classes, as well as mandatory electives sometimes barely related to software or engineering. Getting a CS degree to become a software engineer is a bit like getting a chemistry degree to become a chef: technically possible, questionable in practice.
Year Two: The Sleep Deprived, Caffeine Fueled Grind
Congratulations, you’ve survived the first year without switching to a business major or starting an OnlyFans for tuition money. Now things get real. Second year courses introduce you to more core CS topics:
- Intro to Computer Systems where your mind gets blown by how computers actually work, bridging the gap between hardware and software.
- Introduction to Computational Logic a deep dive into the reasoning that underpins code and circuits.
- Algorithms & Data Structures the notorious class everyone dreads, mostly spent drawing diagrams, chasing Big O complexity like a game of “Where’s Waldo?”, and occasionally squeezing in a little bit of actual coding.
At this point, sacrificing sleep, a social life, and your sanity is the norm. You’ll find yourself listening to online lectures at 2 a.m., clutching a can of Red Bull with one hand and a bowl of instant noodles with the other. The math ramps up too with subjects like discrete math, statistics, calculus, and algebra sneaking into your timetable. And yes, these will (allegedly) be useful at your future job.
The Secret Curriculum: Projects, Leetcode, and Reality Checks
All the while, you’re balancing 40 to 60 hours of coursework and maybe a part time gig, but employers expect more: personal projects in trendy tech, and a serious grind on Leetcode or other coding challenges just to land an interview. The reward? Rejection emails and lots of them.
Survive this long, and you’ll notice your classes get emptier. The student with the battered Arch Linux ThinkPad is now interning at Google, and you’re starting to forget even the basics because you haven’t seen sunlight (or a real human) in weeks.
Advanced Years: The Deep End & “Big Boy” Coding
By the time unpaid internships and mysterious coding assessments become routine, your coursework escalates:
- Compilers Build your own programming language from scratch (and wonder why you ever thought C was hard).
- Cryptography More math. Lots more math. The code is just the disguise.
- Graphics Engines Rendering pretty visual effects and understanding the science that makes gaming possible.
Juggling all this, you’ll also have to choose electives ranging from surprisingly fascinating to painfully useless, depending on your luck (and advisor). And don’t forget: deep dives into theories and principles don’t stop just because you’re building something cool.
The Final Year: Capstone Chaos and Reality Bites
Senior year brings you to the legendary capstone project often your first brush with “the real world.” Here, you’ll tackle a project for a real company under the proud (but distractingly unhelpful) gaze of your university. The reality? You’ll probably deal with missing in action teammates, supervisors who think “guidance” is just a word, and the challenge of delivering a barely functional product by the deadline.
Alternatively, if you’re the academic type, you might go deep into research on machine learning, cryptography, or computer vision. But let’s be honest most of us are here for one thing: a life after university. Which, all too often, means anxiously watching former classmates land jobs at FAANG while you contemplate your overqualification for burger flipping gigs.
If you’re still determined to pursue a CS degree despite the stress, debt, and existential dread and you genuinely love programming good luck. The journey is tough, but it can be deeply rewarding… if you survive.