What can a high school student do to get ahead of the curve?

I highly recommend you do not major in CS. Your degree alone will not get you a job! This is so important to know and I wish someone had told me this before I made the mistake of going to school for CS.

If you do major in CS you'll be pushed to your limit with extremely difficult classes and demanding workloads. At the end of all that, your degree still will not be enough to get you a job. This, combined with the fact that many people have to take student loans to even go to school is why going to school for CS is very risky and I do not recommend it.

If that's something you're okay with, then knock yourself out. I just feel its irresponsible for our society to put forth this idea that "oh just get a degree in STEM and you'll be fine". This is not the case whatsoever.

/r/cscareerquestions Thread