Life of a CS Student: Application Season

It’s been a while since I have written and released a blog, so to my two and a half readers, I would like to sincerely apologise for depriving you of the treasure trove that is my content. So much has happened I don’t even know where to start. I'll leave the highlights to summarise how I've been doing. As for the moment, my head is in the clouds. I'm having fun, but it's constantly overshadowed and interrupted by trying to figure out how next year will pan out. I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

Where am I? 🗺️

There is a lot of uncertainty around my future, which has made me anxious recently. It’s application season, and I hate it here. I want to enjoy my final year of undergrad without worrying about making life-changing decisions.

At this point, I am just prolonging the inevitable. So I have decided that I want to study further. This decision has made next year more tangible, giving me some peace of mind. Now I have to determine if I want to go to another university or stay here. I’ve made spreadsheets looking at the pros and cons of staying and going. The last big decision I have to make is what I want to research. Picking an area of research is not easy because I’ve never done research before, and secondly, computer science is so vast and complex that I don’t know what I am capable of researching. I know I’ll have supervisors to help, but the uncertainty of everything makes me restless.

What have I learned? 🧠

Last semester consisted of a Web Development and Compilers course. Contrary to popular opinion, I thoroughly enjoyed that course. It was intriguing enough to retain my attention and reasonably difficult. Knowing that I’ll probably become a software developer where a working knowledge of compilers is hardly relevant doesn’t make me think any less of this course. I got to work with one of the most brilliant students in our class, which made my life a lot easier, but that’s not the main reason I enjoyed the course. The main reason was how we applied what we learned from data structures, architecture and the theory of computing in our practicals. Having completed this course, I genuinely believe that I have a deeper understanding of computers at a lower level to the point where I can comfortably call myself a “computer scientist”.

On the other hand, the web technologies module was not as much fun as I’d hoped. I shouldn’t be surprised because being graded on a subject tends to make that subject less enjoyable. However, I did enjoy the practical component of that module, which I will elaborate on in the next section.

What have I worked on? 👨🏾‍💻

With my background in web development, I felt that the examinations in the web development course were unfair. Having to struggle for a passing grade on assignments was discouraging and a little insulting. On the bright side, we got to build this little website.

This was the first time I designed a dark mode for a site and the first time I worked with a group to develop a website. Although our team almost dissolved more than halfway through one of our checkpoint submissions, we managed to hack together this majestic website. The purpose of the website is to give tourists and students advice on things to do and places to see in the area, and although it is not entirely functional, it is quite aesthetic—my personal favourite web design, to be honest.

We used the very basics to develop the site. HTML, CSS, vanilla Javascript, PHP and MySQL for the database. I would have opted for a completely different tech stack, but we were restricted to these technologies for testing purposes. A benefit of returning to the basics is that it makes you realise how effective the advanced tools are.

“You never really appreciate a solution until you experience the problem it’s solved” ~ Yusuf Motara.

• Decided on studying an extra year (provided I get accepted)
• Competed in my first Ultimate Frisbee tournaments
• Almost held a planche
• Learned about Web3 in the first Hackathon first Hackathon
• Braai'd at social events and sat around bonfires

The next few months are going to be exciting. I’m planning on migrating to the apple ecosystem, starting with the iPad. Yeah, I wanna be that kind of student. I’m pumped up for some Ultimate Frisbee tournaments that are coming up (My forehand has improved). I have less than 130 days until my last exam, and I have only been to the beach once! In any case, if you’ve gotten this far, thanks for the read and happy coding!💻