this incoming fall I’m going to be starting my sophomore year at Stanford
I actually studied computer science all four years of my high school
first year I basically took APCSA
so I learned my first programming language
but it was Python not Java
like an AP class because they didn’t have AP class at my school
and then I Learned web development and apps development
as well as a little bit of like algorithms
mostly just like
searching algorithms and things like that
and then in my senior year
we did a little bit of like
machine learning going into Stanford as a freshman
I didn’t feel under prepared
because my computer science teacher was really chill
and we just did projects in high school
I think I was definitely not prepared for the work load
I had a lot of familiarity with all the topics
I was also very ambitious as an incoming freshman
so I took way too many units in my fall quarter than I should have
these two classes you can start out in CS
106a or 106b
and because I had four years of computer science
you really only need one year to skip 106a
but I just knew that 106b was a better fit for me
I really enjoy that class
I think was the perfect place for me to start out at
but as you can guess
all the sweaty CS freshmen took that class during the Fall too
so the curve was absolutely horrible
in my high school I was the only girl in my computer science class
sometimes after my fall quarter
I went and took a very niche computer science class
it was like a systems class
but it was in the electrical engineering department
it was a special cohort of like
40 kids or people and there was only four girls
as a year went on
I just began to feel very alienated and felt like I didn’t belong in the space
but there’s a stereotype about CS majors that is actually really true
and for some reason I thought because I go to Stanford
it’s so diverse it wouldn’t be true
but I will definitely say that
Stanford probably has one of the best cohorts in terms of diversity
but it’s still not really good
like not only was I one of the only girls
but only one of the Mexican Americans in my class
and all of that didn’t bother me in high school
it was really hard for me in college
with that said I’m gonna have an open mind going into my sophomore year
like sometimes
it felt that I had to sacrifice my extracurriculars
if I wanted to do really well in CS
if y’all have any advice especially women in stem
please let me know in the comments or something bye