What should I learn first?

[SpeedRicer]

I'm going to be majoring in Computer Engineering next fall and want to get a head start on learning how to code and program. Any help?

[fizzlesticks]

Find out what language your school uses for their beginner classes and start learning that.

[Excitedtaco]

Like mentioned above try finding the language that is used in beginner classes and learn that, most likely it will be Java. Try to find projects that you like/interested in. Also, put all the projects you complete on GitHub, it will serve as a motivation to post/finish a project, it will also get you used to the GitHub which you will be using in your career. Depends on your aptitude with math, but I would say get a head start on that since that is what a lot of people fall behind on. Good luck

[Cruorzy]

Start coding before you start the major, not 1 or 3 weeks before. But right now.

[SpeedRicer]

Thank you! @fizzlesticks @Excitedtaco @Cruorzy

[codesidian]

Learning the language is the easy part. You shouldn't worry about what language to learn. It's the concepts like data structures and algorithms that'll be a challenge. However, like what has already been said becoming familiar with the language you're going to be using will be a help so you're not completely in the dark when it comes to putting your fingers to keyboards. 

[BabyGroot69]

Definitely get a good grasp on Object Oriented Programming. You will most likely learn either Java, C++ or C# in school and having an early understanding of what objects are, how to create them and use them would be great. They will teach you this but the concepts Polymorphism, Abstraction, Inheritance and Encapsulation can at times be confusing when first learning them. 

[Angry Badger]

Java and C++ are the industry standard in terms of languages that are most relevant for a career, and colleges and universities will usually try to introduce you to the programming languages which makes you as useful as possible.

 

Without access to the list of courses we're all just making assumptions here, but it would be incredibly strange if they're not teaching Java. If nothing else, I'd start looking into Java. It's a quite forgiving language (letting you focus on coding instead of battling the syntax) with a lot of libraries and frameworks.

 

I would not recommend learning C++ before you've gotten familiar with programming in general, even though it's definitely possible to learn that first.