STARS: How I Survived One Of WU's Toughest Majors

I graduated from Winthrop University nearly 22 years ago with a B.S. in Computer Science, minor in Business Administration. Let me tell you: Computer Science was one of the toughest majors at the entire university. 

Many majored thinking of the earning potential and honestly because of gaming at that time. Little did they realize that there is a lot of math and theory involved within.  Therefore, there was lots of turnover in that major within the first 2 years. 

I nearly crashed and burned myself but I was determined to see this through and did. I was making Cs in some classes and had to drop two classes due to nearly failing them. Not many knew about the last part. 

I sought out folks that were better than me at this subject and grasped it well. This is still what I practice to this day: find someone better and see if they will help you. I did this and we had study groups. I formed a lot of connections that I still have to this day. 

I also changed advisors to one that really got me on the proper track to success and graduation and career advice. I plugged into my professors, staying in their office even outside of their office hours. I wasn't going down easily. I went from making Cs and even Ds and below to having a B or better in all of my remaining courses except for one. I really learned my craft, how to program and the inner workings of it all. 

This knowledge and education wasn't initially wasted either. I landed 4 different jobs in my field shortly following graduation. I ended up leaving the field and focusing on the business side and eventually earned my MBA and am now in management with Amazon. I still take pride in how I fought in that tough major and exceled in and out of the classroom.