Choose what you love , and love your choices. ” , with this , you could avoid reading the rest of the article , but as I’m a very talkative person -sorry for you-, you’re still doing it. I’m speaking to someone who has no idea about what he will be facing, to someone who might avoid this choice because of his fear of losing his future. Don’t over think , just be decisive and everything is gonna be fine.
إن الإنسان مُخيّر فيما يعلم
مُسيّر فيما لا يعلم
أبوحامد الغزالي
“Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain’t all sunshine and rainbows. It’s a very mean and nasty place and I don’t care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain’t about how hard ya hit. It’s about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That’s how winning is done!”
This is something that I found on this page , and I think it could help :
Higher National School of Computer Science – ESI ex INI
7 Things You Should Consider Before Choosing ESI (HSCS) :
1- It’s not 100% IT
During the first 2/3 years , IT isn’t dominating ,Mathematics and Electronics are by far monopolizing the subjects .
2- There is nearly no time for projects
While the focus is more on maths/electronics , students tend to forget that they are studying Computer Science , this is where IT passionates fail ,become disappointed, and focused more on IT subjects that leads them to failure sometimes .
3- You may regret your choice when you face reality
In the 4th/5th year , there will be no math nor electronics , this is when students think up their decision again , and sometimes regret it .
4- ESI has a big reputation in the national labour market , many companies prefer students from ESI as they have acquired project management and engineering principles .
5- Everyone knows everyone : unless you’re reclusive , you’ll recognize an ESI student when walking in the street , this comes from the fact that ESI is small . To socialize , the best way is to join one of the many clubs present in different focus areas.
6- Subjects are sometimes extremely hard
Complex and hard subjects are present in every school-year, investing your time studying these subjects seriously is necessary , so you need to get used to the word : Khebbache.
7- [MOST IMPORTANT] Don’t let your excellence trick you : computer science is a technical major , it’s for people who like to break things into pieces to make them work ,to understand systems and build them . If you are choosing ESI just because of its reputation , or because of high demand over it , think again as you may regret your choice in the future. If you have a real passion for IT and wish to learn engineering , then you are half way there. As David Frost says :
“Don’t aim for success if you want it ; just do what you love and believe in, and it will come naturally.”
For me , I knew ESI since I was at middle school , and as I was a gamer and following everything new in IT , I didn’t even think about another speciality. First year at High School, I met a friend that wanted to get there, and so I decided to choose it in 3 years. To be honest , I don’t have dreams , but goals , so when I want something , I simply get it (Ping Harvey fans) , and that’s what happened (الحمد لله) . I was very excited to finally doing something that I like, but when reality hits you there is no way out. I had a perfect image of the school , but when I came in I realized that there is no such thing called “perfect” , I couldn’t find people who share my ideas , my hobbies , my vision .. ( but now I do , hopefully ) , you’ll mostly find people who choose it because ” It’s reputation ” or because ” he/she couldn’t decide between medicine and ESI ” , it’s not their fault but the System’s and that’s another story maybe for next articles ?
Anyway , my first year was a disaster , I barely “survived”. I couldn’t force myself to do what I didn’t like , and for me it was every single module, so I was struggling but never regretted my choice not for a single moment , I think that was the little hope that made me finish the year. I knew that is was worthy , and I’m telling you , IT IS ! because that was a good thing , and I think that everyone should at least once , feel the fear of the “Note eliminatoire” , it will wake you up and push you to work harder to avoid it next times.
We don’t always get second chances, that’s what I was telling myself as many of people that I have known were sent back to Universities, and maybe some of them wanted to stay. So, I tried to learn for the mistakes that I’ve made, start early and from the beginning “slowly but surely” and assist & follow at TDs , and force myself to study even the modules that I don’t like. Miss ANSSOUR, I will never forget this name, I will say that she was the key this year, if maybe someday you’ll read this , THANK YOU ! Because when a module is hard and you don’t like the teacher , you’ll whether see it as a challenge and be brilliant just to piss him off or you’ll just hate that and surrender, and that’s what happens most of the time (Brace yourselves , SOUICI is coming).
The last thing that I could imagine myself doing was to be part of a club, I always taught that they were made just to show-off, but when I joined the CSE , I take back what said. I met an amazing team there and I thank all of them for all the stuff I learnt from them. I’m hoping for next year to be LEGEN wait for it ….. DARY !
In the second semester , we had ” The project “, which I think is a very important part of our formation , it is a team of 6 members , one of them will be the team leader. I was the TL of my team, we had our highs and lows , I wasn’t the perfect one either, but at the end we made it and it everyone was happy ( I guess ).
This second year was literally the longest year ever, at least for now , because of this famous story about the “Concours” and ESI-SBA. I will explain , before this year , the concours was kinda irrelevant , all you had to do is get the year , but with our promotion ( 2014 ) things have changed, and now there is another school which is ESI-SBA that will pass it with us , but the problem is that when we chose ESI-Alger , they didn’t tell us that in 2 years there will be a ranking to stay, and as I’m now writing we didn’t get the results yet and don’t really know what will happen, so we are just assuming that we must have a good rank to avoid being sent.
PS: Just to be clear , the purpose from all this was to tell my story maybe it will help those who aren’t sure yet about their choice , and I hope it will , and I’m looking forward to meet you !
Amine Remache , 2nd year student at ESI
سبحانك اللهم وبحمدك أشهد أن لا إله إلا أنت أستغفرك وأتوب إليك