Here are some tips that are more relevant for the semi-recent job market (I graduated in 2007):
1. If you aren't doing an internship or working a job that's related to your field (like doing systems administration / development for the college or a local company), you are behind, even if you are on the Dean's List. These days, employers seem to be able to find enough people who have done something parallel to their education, so if you don't you will look just as inexperienced as if you had no degree at all. The bar got raised and it's possible no one has told you.
2. I am probably biased towards the job market in my area, but hardly anyone wants entry level, and as I said above, no one wants "ground level" (just a degree) unless you are gunning for a helpdesk / PC tech position. I figure this is because the hiring pool of experienced IT workers is large enough and their quality versus fresh recruits better enough that they feel they don't need to look for junior staff that they plan on training.
3. As others have said, you will only really use a small set of the skills you learned in school. Work will remind you more of your job / internship / side projects you had during college. This is probably why employers scoff at degree-only graduates.
4. All of this advice is of course just my personal experience, and many employers probably have different beliefs.
I've been recruiting developers for intern and entry-level positions lately. If anyone cares, here are the factors I look at when doing preliminary resume screening (in order of importance).
1. Time until graduation (we prefer candidates who will be graduating soon so that the good ones can return as full-time employees)
2. Software development experience that goes beyond class projects (including other real jobs, previous internships, and work on open-source projects)
3. Familiarity with a variety of programming languages (some schools teach most classes using Java plus a little bit of JavaScript, but we like to see a greater breadth of experience)
4. Relevance of major (Software Engineering is probably the closest fit, followed by Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Information Systems, Applied Mathematics, etc.)
I totally agree... this is especially true for web development where almost anyone with a passion for solving problems will do some sort of personal projects or freelancing due to how easy it is to get set up and competing. In my first interviews straight out of University, after four years of intensive Java, all we talked about was some PHP CMS I did for a friend. I got the job too.
The other rule I'd add to your list is:
5. The first job you get is vital for the future direction of your career. You REALLY need to be working with talented people who are better than you and know what they're doing or your progress will suffer.
1. If you aren't doing an internship or working a job that's related to your field (like doing systems administration / development for the college or a local company), you are behind, even if you are on the Dean's List. These days, employers seem to be able to find enough people who have done something parallel to their education, so if you don't you will look just as inexperienced as if you had no degree at all. The bar got raised and it's possible no one has told you.
2. I am probably biased towards the job market in my area, but hardly anyone wants entry level, and as I said above, no one wants "ground level" (just a degree) unless you are gunning for a helpdesk / PC tech position. I figure this is because the hiring pool of experienced IT workers is large enough and their quality versus fresh recruits better enough that they feel they don't need to look for junior staff that they plan on training.
3. As others have said, you will only really use a small set of the skills you learned in school. Work will remind you more of your job / internship / side projects you had during college. This is probably why employers scoff at degree-only graduates.
4. All of this advice is of course just my personal experience, and many employers probably have different beliefs.