College101- An Introductory guide for about-to-be college students

So, exams and results over. Most of you would have already decided whether to take a drop or not. If not, see this. So, this post will guide you about the Do's and Don'ts for college, based on many messages, emails, and comments I have been seeing over the last couple weeks. I'll be doing this as a Q&A session, based on the questions most requested to me.

1. Which college is the best for me? I am yet to decide my choices for counselling.
Well, check this out, this is a complete guide to choose your choices. Also, please consult people from all the choices you are filling. You can discuss your doubts here. This group has people from all colleges. Also, see this post. It will help you. Finally, I must say that it's your choice to go for a particular college/branch. I am not at blame if you end up choosing something you don't like. Consult many people and decide.

2. What should I do in the 1-month break I have before joining college?
Well, you had been studying for a long time, so I suggest you enjoy this time. You can pick up a hobby, learn to code, spend some time with family and friends, etc. In my case, I watched a TV Series called 'The Big Bang Theory', learned to play the Guitar, made up my Facebook page(like it for interesting stuff on JEE, college, and computers), visited a lot of places, etc. This time is precious as it won't come again. I strongly recommend learning to code in this break. It is because it is fun, every college has a course on Programming, and it's a must-have skill today.

3. How to learn to code in this break?
There are plenty of resources out there on the Internet. I strongly suggest you to learn C++ as a first step. You can do it first by seeing this playlist by thenewboston(really nice work). You will not get everything in the first try, but keep on trying. You can use this book along with these tutorials. For problem practice, I recommend you to practice a bit on SPOJ. Go to the basic problems sections, arrange them in the order of decreasing number of users, and solve around a 100. If you do this you will become really good at coding and will ace the first year(irrespective of whether you are in CS or not). You should see these articles-Getting Started with Computer Science- Part 1 and Getting Started with Computer Science- Part 2

4. Should I buy a laptop for college?
Well, if you have a financial problem, then you don't need to for now, because every college has a Computer lab, but still having one is immensely useful. Everything in college depends on your laptop, and you must buy a good one. If you haven't thought of buying a laptop yet, and plan to do it later, DON'T. Get it now, and get used to it, code a bit, play with it. A good laptop must have an i3 or above processor(7th gen or above), 4/8GB RAM or more, a decent Graphics card, and a good hard drive(SSD preferred, or 1TB hard drive at the minimum). Currently, many back to college and cashback offers are available on Amazon, so you might want to buy from these links. I have searched for the best laptops available in every range(arranged in increasing order of price). Some of these(the cheap ones) don't have OS, you can install Windows(paid) or Ubuntu(free)

Asus Vivobook X541UA-DM1358D (Intel i3 7100U (7th Gen)/4 GB DDR4/1TB/Intel HD Graphics/DOS) - Silver

Lenovo Ideapad 320E 80XL0378IN 15.6-inch Laptop (7th Gen Core i5-7200U/4GB/1TB/Windows 10 Home/2GB Graphics), Onyx Black

ACER E5-575G/Ci5-7200U/4/1TB/W10/2GB GRAPHICS/BLK NB (NX.GDWSI.007)

Dell Inspiron 15 3000 3567 15.6-inch Laptop (7th Gen Core i7-7500U/8GB/1TB/Windows 10 with Office 2016 Home and Student/2GB Graphics)

Apple MacBook Air MQD32HN/A 13.3-inch Laptop 2017 (Core i5/8GB/128GB/MacOS Sierra/Integrated Graphics) (If you can afford 60k, do go for it. Apple is a class apart, unless you are into gaming

HP Pavilion 15-CC129TX 2017 15.6-inch Laptop (Core i5/8GB/1TB/Windows/Integrated Graphics), Silver

Microsoft Surface Pro (Core-i5 7th Gen/4GB/128GB/Windows 10 Pro/Integrated Graphics), Silver

2018 Flagship HP Pavilion 14" WLED HD Premium Business Laptop - Intel Dual-Core i5-7200U up to 3.1GHz 16GB DDR4 1TB HDD B&O Play 802.11ac Bluetooth HDMI USB Type-C Webcam Backlit Keyboard Win 10

The list is by no means exhaustive, but I have tried to cover laptops of all range. If you are too lazy to buy one from out, you can order from here, I have taken this list from various tech websites and personal experience. You will find them good. Avoid watching a lot of TV series/movies.

5. How to survive in college?
Every college has a different culture of study, extracurriculars, etc. Talk to seniors and develop a healthy relationship with them. Ask them about the study patterns. And talk to many people. And try to adjust against feelings like homesickness, lack of friends,etc. Develop confidence and avoid bad habits.

This was all. If you have any more doubts, feel free to comment here.