Okay I came in to school like you with very little programming experience. Probably even less than you since I only messed around on my TI. I am going to assume you're only taking ECE110 first semester. If not I recommend getting in as soon as you can. They may give you some crap about it depends on last names, but it doesn't really matter. After a certain point its open to everyone.

Either way, programming in ECE doesn't really start until you take ECE190 which is all C programming and a very simplified assembly language for educational purposes. Like I said I went into the class with practically zero programming experience and still did very well in the class, so don't let anyone scare you on that. If you put the time aside to read the book (really helpful in 190) and doing your MPs/ask the TAs questions you will do fine.

I wouldn't fret too much over the summer with learning stuff, but I would definitely recommend C over Python. Python is pretty easy to pick up, but its also very high level. If you need an introductory language to get familiar you can try python for a bit, but I'd go with C after that. It is worth noting that the other two required programming class you have to take (CS 225 and ECE 391) are C++ and C/x86 respectively. So learning C should definitely be your focus.

I recommend the book written by the creators of the language. The book the school requires is pretty good too actually and would give you a better idea of what to expect. They're kind of pricey, so its your call how you want to get them. As a heads up, codecademy does have Python, but not C as far as I recall. I've never used lynda do I can't comment on them C Book ECE 190 Book

I honestly wouldn't fret too much about it all. Enjoy your summer, depending on how busy your schedule is next semester you can probably set aside some time now and then to study some languages. If you have any more questions I'd be happy to answer.

I have an internship lined up, but I'm really excited to be learning outside of that too. You should check out The Elements of Computing Systems by Nisan and Schocken. I'm going to be working through this book throughout spring semester and the summer. I think it will provide a foundation for every low-level part of CS and help fill in some gaps that I'm missing.

If you're excited about web dev, you could make a website with Ruby on Rails, Django, Flask, Node, Meteor, etc. There's always another good web framework that you could learn.

If you're into system programming, programming languages, or compilers, there are tons of great tutorials and guides online. I'm currently working through Learn C: Build Your Own Lisp. I'm really looking forward to doing Implementing a Language with LLVM. If you didn't already know, LLVM was started here!

If you haven't finished core math yet, there's Linear Algebra on Khanacademy. I think Salman Khan is one of the best teachers I've had. The videos are very concise and very clear. There's also a great series on ML on YouTube. It explains the theoretical underpinnings of the algorithms, but doesn't really show how to use them. If you want to use them, your best bet is the Python library scikit-learn.

For reverse engineering, here's a fantastic challenge site, and here's a good book that you can view online.

There's so much to do, and not enough time to do it! If you constantly work on a few things, little by little, it will all start to accumulate. Good luck and have fun this summer!

Must Have Kitchenware:

• Measuring cups. Until you get better at "eyeballing", stick with measuring cups. Additionally, it gives you a good starting point if you see a recipe online or such.
  
  
• A rice cooker. This one (EDIT: I lied, I meant this one. For $7 more than the above one, it has a slow cooker function) doubles as a crock pot as well, if you're smart about it. Leave some veggies and let the rice go, easy meal. Which leads into the next point:
  
  
• A crock pot. If you want something more extravagant than rice and beans, try learning how to use a crock pot. It's easy to make ribs or pulled pork: just leave some bbq and pork in the pot and go to class. I know I had some trust issues leaving a kitchen appliance going for hours at a time, but once you get past that it's a life saver.
  
  

  Places to Shop:
  

  
  

• The Meat Lab (scroll down to the bottom). Great prices, and great quality. It's food right from the farms at school. As the name might suggest, you can get meat and eggs from there.
  
  
• Far East Grocery. Fave place to get my oriental groceries and everything you could ever want. It's cramped, very confusing, and has sketchy lighting-- reminds me of home.
  
  

  General Tips:
  

  
  

• Clean while you cook.
  
  
• Don't buy ramen because it's "the college kid food." One cup of (filling) ramen is ~$1, maybe 60c if you're lucky, or 40-60 bucks assuming you eat 2 meals a day. In comparison, 20lbs of rice is $10, and a month's veggies+potatoes+eggs is $15, and soy sauce is $5.
  
  With all of that, you can make a month's supply of some really damn good fried rice.
  
  
• When shopping for a recipe, write out what you need. Nothing sucks more than coming home and realizing you forgot turmeric.
  
  When I'm super lazy, here's my go-to meal-- Rice, salt and pepper, cumin, with a tomato sitting at the top, and maybe some carrots. I just toss them all in the rice cooker and watch some TV.

Go out and buy K&R's "The C Programming Language". It's about 50 bucks on Amazon, and it's the definitive guide to C.

C++ is a derivation (and in fact, a strict superset) of C. So, anything that works in C works in C++. The book will get you acquainted with pointers, structs, and all the things that make C totally different than Java.

The best way I can describe C++ is if Java and C had a bastard child-a lot of the concepts from Java (object orientation, a class library, etc.) translate pretty directly, but a lot of stuff (pointers, memory allocation/deallocation, structs, unions) come from C. I find that these topics are much easier to learn through C rather than C++.

C doesn't contain much resemblance to Java because it has no object orientation (i.e. you can't have "objects", nor can you have "object methods" which only act upon the data in that object) which makes it a very weird experience for someone with only Java programming experience, but being able to program in straight ANSI C is an invaluable skill and it will put you WAY ahead in 225.

Here's a link. Trust me, don't rent this book, BUY it. You will use it for years to come.

Also, if you want a book that strictly covers C++ (I would only recommend this after you go through all of K&R), go ahead and get this one. It's easily the best C++ reference I know of.

Edit: I would note that I definitely agree with the other posters' comments on hard work/merit of your work. That's a big element! I just thought I would address your question from another angle, since they already covered the other important elements. :)

Original comment:

Academia + research involves a fairly significant element of relationships and/or politics, which may seem insincere. You could look into books on navigating relationships and/or office politics. Many extroverted or popular people fake it until they make it. That is, treat everyone as if they are already your buddy, and soon they will be.

I’ll list a few books below that are solid regarding navigating relationships and politics... but I would also note that different environments have different politics. (academia has different politics than a corporation, for example)

And if you don't like politics or managing office relationships, you could start your own business. I don't know whether you are an introvert, but I think introverts benefit from owning a business, because there is no stress from trying to anticipate office politics.

Good luck!

Helpful books: (I recommend “How to Talk To Anyone” to start)

http://www.amazon.com/How-Talk-Anyone-Success-Relationships/dp/007141858X/

http://www.amazon.com/How-Win-Friends-Influence-People/dp/0671027034/

http://www.amazon.com/The-Laws-Power-Robert-Greene/dp/0140280197

Introvert entrepreneur blog:

http://theintrovertentrepreneur.com/

Thank you! Yes I have heard only good things about that book.
Does it matter that it is C and not C++? Because I have been told Accelerated C++ is also a very good book and things are seen at a faster pace. But again, if you believe the K&R is a better approach I will by all means look into that one. I mentioned Accelerated C++ because of the time constraint I have.

I took it. The book you will use for first semester is this and I didn't spend too much time on it.

I had no prior knowledge and got an A on all but 2 exams throughout my two semesters.

Homework everyday and once you learn a bit they tack on a journal/essay type assignment once a week. The homework can take 5mins-30mins+ (depends on how well you understand the sentence structures and words). The journal can fit that 5-30 range or take longer as you have to write almost 300 characters and you need to make a comprehensive entry or get docked hard on points.

When it comes to studying the new vocab every week, I spent 3 hours every Sunday and I knew all the words (Pinyin, definition, and how to write the character) for several weeks without review. Other students would study them everyday and still have trouble. So if your memory is good, you won't spend too much time. Also keep in mind that you see the words in your book so you're constantly getting them in your face to remember.

Besides the typical learning in class, Monday and Tuesday both have a vocab quiz. Wednesday has a translation quiz (English to Chinese. One sentence) and Friday has a test on everything you learned that week.

If you have anymore questions just ask. I personally loved the class and I'll be going for the full four years because of it.

1. Start looking at basic programming, specifically in C. There are a lot of good tutorials and books. I like this one.
   
   
2. Your first year, the hardest class will be ECE 220 in the Spring. The hardest overall are ECE 385, 391, and 411, and CS 374. Don't worry about those yet.
   
   
3. Look at scheedule for scheduling. Be sure to take ECE 120 in the Fall. The rest of your schedule doesn't really matter. It will probably be calc, chem, and rhet.
   
   
4. Breathe.
   
   
5. Yes. Plenty of engineers party.
   
   
6. Study, especially in a group. Everyone is in the same boat, so learn to work together.
   

313's difficulty level is to a large extent dependent on your comfort with previous math classes, and with your comfort with the concept of mathematical structures. If 313 is your first formal experience to mathematical structures, it will likely be much more difficult. If you are already familiar with concepts such as sigma algebras, measurable spaces, etc., it will likely be a significantly easier class.

Linear algebra, though not being necessary to understand the material the way multivariable calc is, will help you understand the material.

Covariance, which is a topic discussed towards the end of the semester and which measures the linear dependence of two random variables, is very similar to an inner product from linear algebra. Covariance shares the bilinear, symmetric, and positive semi-definite properties with an inner product. Covariance also adheres to the Cauchy-Schwartz inequality.

In addition, the class discusses linear and non-linear one-to-one transformations of systems of random variables. These two sections, which were generally considered to be quite difficult, are actually quite easy if you have a solid understanding of linear algebra.

That being said, I don't know how relevant MATH 286 would be for this class. Maybe someone who's taken MATH 286 wants to chime in on how much linear algebra you actually learn in that class. Looking at the MATH 286 textbook's table of contents, it looks like you will likely learn how to find the eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a matrix, but not actually learn why or how or what is really going on.

ECE 313 forces you to use office hours due to the "concept matrix". But really, if you take the time to actually learn the concepts - why you're applying a formula, not just how to apply a formula - you should do just fine in the course.

ChBE 321 will almost certainly use Smith Van Ness. It's a McGraw Hill book so it's expensive, but I'd say it's worth picking up. It's a good book (as far as engineering textbooks go) and one I and my classmates actually used sometimes after finishing the class. Also thermo is one of the more conceptually difficult classes you'll take in undergrad, so it's worth having an additional reference.

You can find it used versions, older editions, and international/SI editions for cheaper, especially if you look off amazon like at abebooks or similar.

https://www.amazon.com/Aroma-Housewares-uncooked-Exterior-ARC-150SB/dp/B0055FSN0Y/ref=sr_1_3?s=kitchen&ie=UTF8&qid=1473739002&sr=1-3&keywords=rice+cooker
Best Selling one on Amazon is $37 new with 4.4 stars. Your price may be a little high.

Rental modem is 100% the issue, it's most likely not DOCSIS 3.0.

Get this. It'll save you money over time by not paying rental fees anyway, and it'll actually work for the speeds you have.

Feeling unsafe. Just my opinion, buying a pepper spray should be considered by late commuters for self defense. $7 at Amazon

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0007VM8UC/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_l6f5BbM2YJQNE

Less convenient perhaps but worth considering. AirPod strap

If you want an actual textbook, I'd recommend the most recent edition of this book. Past editions might have chapters moved around or slightly different problems, but the physics is all there.

But I think you should give the Smart Physics stuff a chance. You're probably just reading the reviews of some salty students who were horrible at physics.

https://www.amazon.com/Compilers-Principles-Techniques-Tools-2nd/dp/0321486811

Invitation to World Religions. Second Edition. Oxford University Press (2015)

We provide PDFs for primary sources used.

You can see which devices are approved from this list.
http://mydeviceinfo.comcast.net/

This one is popular: http://amzn.com/B004XC6GJ0
There is a newer version with more downstream channels, but unless you have bought >172 Mbps internet, there will be no difference.

should be this one

http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Computing-Systems-gates-beyond/dp/0072467509

https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Computing-Systems-Gates-Beyond/dp/0072467509

Look for a PDF of this book somewhere. I don't have one.

my advice

I used these lectures and skipped 23-28 and all of the review lectures. Though, you may want to review if there is any material in there that would be on the exam. I just ran out of time / got lazy towards the end. It helped me to buy the book and do homework assignments in the relevant chapters as I watched each video. It's not the same book used in the lectures, but for the most part it follows, and if it doesn't it was just out of order. The textbook is okay but is more or less the video lectures with the chalkboard diagrams and examples in print; there's not that much additional information. Doing practice problems is invaluable. Much of Math 415 is algorithmic.

This is referred to as the "knockout game" at a national level but apparently specifically in Champaign the people who refer to it call it "polar bear hunting". (1) Here's a post about it in Champaign specifically. (2) Here is an article.

And let's be fucking real here. This is categorically black-on-white crime. Even the term "polar bear" is what the blacks use to refer to their white targets. This is a race crime perpetuated by black people against white people.

A few tips on not becoming the victim of one of these events:

1. Stay alert and aware of your surroundings. You should always be aware of your surroundings. Even if it is 2pm and you are walking to class. I recommend not wearing headphones and avoiding talking to the phone. This is even more true when it is well past midnight and you are walking alone.
   
   
2. Avoid walking late at night period. If you do have to walk late at night, avoid doing it alone.
   
   
3. Carry tools to protect yourself:
   
   

• If you regularly do walk alone at night, you should carry a bright flashlight which you can use to light up dark areas as well as discourage or even temporarily blind an assailant.
  
• Carry pepper spray, which can be used to spray a would-be assailant in the face to disable them and give you time to escape.
  
• Finally, you can spend the time to get a firearm owner's card and concealed carry license. In some situations a handgun can be the difference between you getting viciously beaten and getting your shit stolen, and you walking away from a situation unharmed (particularly in situations where you are outnumbered). You cannot carry a gun on university-owned property but if you spend most of your time west of Wright St. in the evenings and on weekends, you can carry freely almost everywhere there.
  
  Remember, the bottom line is that this type of attack is extremely dangerous. Hitting your head on pavement like the guy in the video above can result in brain injury or death. And obviously this does happen right in the middle of campus. Take steps to avoid becoming a victim of what the bottom dwellers of society engage in to amuse themselves.