Advice for Computer Science College Students

Joel Spolsky at Joel on Software - Advice for Computer Science College Students - writes:

-Learn how to write before graduating.
-Learn C before graduating.
-earn microeconomics before graduating.
-on't blow off non-CS classes just because they're boring.
-Take programming-intensive courses.
-Stop worrying about all the jobs going to India.
-No matter what you do, get a good summer internship.

Now for the explanations, unless you're gullible enough to do all that stuff just because I tell you to, in which case add: 8. Seek professional help for that self-esteem thing.

Most college students, fortunately, are brash enough never to bother asking their elders for advice, which, in the field of computer science, is a good thing, because their elders are apt to say goofy, antediluvian things like 'the demand for keypunch operators will exceed 100,000,000 by the year 2010' and 'lisp careers are really very hot right now.'

I, too, have no idea what I'm talking about when I give advice to college students. I'm so hopelessly out of date that I can't really figure out AIM and still use (horrors!) this quaint old thing called 'email' which was popular in the days when music came on flat round plates called 'CDs.' "