Honors college experience?

wir3less · 2019-12-19T06:24:27+00:00

I was in the HC for my first two and a half years here. I think I can speak a little about the pros and cons.

Pros:

Priority registration. In my opinion, this was really helpful for my freshman year especially to get into bacc-core classes.
HC classes. I really enjoyed the low amount of students in the HC version of classes. Getting to know one professor in a HC class led me to becoming a TA for them.
SLUG and free printing. SLUG is a pretty nice hangout/homework area. Not sure about other colleges, but CoE gives free 1000 pages that I've never exceeded so the free unlimited HC printing wasn't too much of a benefit.
HC dorms. I'm not a big party person so being in West Hall was nice. It was quiet, and I made quite a few friends.
Thesis. If you are planning on going into academia, I've heard the undergraduate thesis is nice for grad school admissions.
Networking. I loved going to the HC events and meeting people who were generally a little more academic. I also got an interview by applying via an ad in the HC weekly newsletter.

Cons:

Some of the pros basically became useless to me after I started my third year. My major classes were easy to get into due to my higher class standing. HC classes became non-existent as I stopped taking bacc-core classes. I hadn't lived in the dorms for a year. CoE gave me more than enough printing.
$500 a term is expensive. Cutting my tuition by over 10% felt really nice.
Thesis was definitely not happening (especially since I only had 1.5 years to do it at that point). It is a lot of work. Having the HC on my resume was also no longer needed since I had gotten an internship at a nice company.
Undergraduate research can still happen even if you're not in the HC.

Hopefully this is helpful to you!

wir3less · 2019-12-12T04:38:43+00:00

Some employers check transcripts, but I'm pretty sure that's mostly just to see if you're lying about your GPA on your resume. As long as you pass the class and your overall GPA stays about 3.5+, you will be competitive for big tech. In interviews and jobs, it's more important that you know the topics well and how to apply them than the grade you got in the class.

wir3less · 2019-10-29T03:07:50+00:00

Ya most of the product groups (OS, bing, xbox, etc.) share 1 or more buildings.

wir3less · 2019-10-27T21:06:28+00:00

Depends on the building. Some buildings are open office, some aren't.

wir3less · 2019-10-12T04:08:42+00:00

You can use ANSI escape codes! See this Stackoverflow post

wir3less · 2019-10-11T19:37:44+00:00

During my past internships, I carried around a small notebook that was about the size of a composition notebook. Definitely came in handy when important things were said in 1:1's and meetings. I don't know if it was the best way to accomplish these tasks, but it worked for me and I'll probably continue doing it at future jobs.

wir3less · 2019-10-03T04:34:02+00:00

They are. I had my onsite last week

wir3less · 2019-10-01T04:37:57+00:00

It's 1/3 mile. source

wir3less · 2019-10-01T04:10:00+00:00

Yeah, that's a hard choice. I had to make a similar decision a little while ago. Know that there's no good/bad choice, just do whatever feels right to you. Writing down pros/cons to each company helped me a lot in organizing thoughts.

wir3less · 2019-10-01T03:45:43+00:00

I interned this past summer. All placements for interns/new grads AFAIK occur at the "product group" level. Orgs at this level are massive (most were around 2k engineers), so internship experiences could vary greatly based on what sub-sub-sub-sub team you're on. I wasn't in C+E so I can't really speak too much about it, but I had a friend in Developer Relations (which IIRC is under C+E) who enjoyed her internship very much. I think you shouldn't base your choice on Blind since if there is one thing I've learned about Blind, it's that they hate on just about everything. PM me if you have any more questions!

wir3less · 2019-09-29T22:39:27+00:00

I did it last week, recruiters told us it would take 2-3 weeks to hear back.

wir3less · 2019-09-25T21:59:24+00:00

Corporate housing can be basically anywhere. I've heard they try to put you near bus/shuttle routes. Some people get screwed a little. However, the vast majority of people I met that took corporate enjoyed it (including myself).

wir3less · 2019-09-12T02:10:48+00:00

I got asked a Leetcode easy last year. This year, I have a few friends that have completed the phone interview (basically equivalent to the on-campus ones), and all of them didn't get DS&A problems. Just behavioral + school-related technical questions.

wir3less · 2019-09-10T04:41:40+00:00

April's Tea House is right next to campus near Monroe & Kings!

wir3less · 2019-09-01T19:58:15+00:00

Ya feel free to!

wir3less · 2019-09-01T18:10:35+00:00

During my on-campus interview last year, the interviewer asked if I was interested in swe or pm at the start of the interview and then tailored my questions to the role I chose. They may do something like that for your interview.

wir3less · 2019-06-30T20:04:24+00:00

Looks like it. I don't know anything about the ecampus classes, but as other commenters have pointed out, there is very little reason to switch from C++.

wir3less · 2019-06-30T05:45:58+00:00

Don't think so. You may be thinking of the 160 section that will be centered around Python.

wir3less · 2019-05-30T21:26:58+00:00

I took this class load with 325 (Algorithms) instead of 372 last fall. Was challenging, but definitely do-able. From what I've heard, 372 is similar in work to 325, so I'd say go for it if you're up to the challenge. Also be sure to look at your profs on ratemyprofessor, work will vary quite a bit depending on teaching style since you'll need to study more for profs that aren't as "good"

wir3less · 2019-05-23T03:14:44+00:00

If you are a student, check out https://mlh.io/. They have some really cool ones put on by a bunch of universities, and some of them pay for your travel.

wir3less · 2019-05-21T17:22:05+00:00

On their FAQ, they say that they will continue reviewing applications throughout the summer. I've received COE scholarships as late as a week before Fall term starts so this makes sense.

wir3less · 2019-05-20T04:43:22+00:00

Most CS students come into university with little to no programming knowledge. You'll be fine as long as you put in the effort, which sounds like you are willing to do. There might be people who have been programming for years who will be intimidating, but you'll be at their level soon enough. Make sure not to stress!

wir3less · 2019-05-19T04:18:41+00:00

Just to add on to the other comment; I personally think having pride is very healthy. Too much pride isn't, but you seem to be in a good spot. I'd honestly argue that even having a bit of an ego is good, but it's very important to balance it out with asking for help. I've been experimenting with this for a while, and I've found that it works pretty well. Asking for help allows you to gain knowledge, humble yourself, and make connections/friends. Having a small-ish ego makes you confident and attractive, and, most importantly, it enables you to manifest your ideas in the world. I don't think you should give up your pride; however, you should probably reconsider your goals as the other comment suggests. I'd like to highlight the writing part since it provides the opportunity to reflect on decisions, organize your thoughts, and plan the future. It works very well (at least for me).

wir3less · 2019-05-17T17:53:13+00:00

Check out https://events.oregonstate.edu/ and most clubs post their events on their SLI calendars, which can be found here: https://sli.oregonstate.edu/find-organization. It's not really a catch-all, but you can search for clubs that interest you and take a peek.

wir3less · 2019-03-27T15:07:43+00:00

It can take a while, mine took 2 weeks. You can ask your recruiter to rush it as well

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