Recent questions deal with the problem of too many applicants to CS programs, both in High School and University. Yes, this is a problem when only a smaller number can be accommodated for reasons of resource availability. One of the easier issues to deal with is whether the student's past performance indicates potential success, though even this is hard. If the student hasn't studied Computer Science in the past, what courses are predictors? But *this* question is focused elsewhere. 

Some students, in periods of high demand, choose a field simply because of its popularity at the time. While they may have the aptitude and background for it, their interest may be shallow or even misinformed. It would be good to help such students make better choices about their futures by informing them early of the nature of the field and how their future would likely play out if they stay in the field. The goal is to reduce the number of drop-outs: students who start a program, but leave it before completion. This potentially wastes both the student's time and resources as well as wasting institutional resources. It also risks denying other students an entrance slot that they might have had. 

In particular, such students may not know all of the things that CS professionals do on a daily basis. What are the interesting things? What are the boring things? What are the risks? What are the rewards? What frustrations? What will they ultimately need to do to become successful, in either the commercial or academic worlds. 

**What resources can be brought to bear to assure that, possibly naive, students get a good look at the profession so as to better decide whether they want to enter?**

Google provides a lot of information for "What is Computer Science?" This includes the summaries given by a lot of colleges. However, most of it stresses only the positive things and so gives a somewhat incomplete picture.

In the early 1960's as a teenager, I visited a local computer center. They had what was likely an IBM 650 with [drum memory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drum_memory). I got to see what folks did back then and recall that I wasn't very impressed. I studied math. But CS wasn't an option then. But something more was needed in my case to generate interest. 

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For the record, I'm interested in drawing an accurate picture of work in the field, not horror stories or overly optimistic projections.