I am glad to see a question asked from college student. I am always interested to hear from others in college. I am twenty-one-years-old, attending a community college in the states and studying a bit of computer science.

I am going to go off on sort of a tangent and offer you some general advice:

1. Do not worry about what other people think. You mentioned in the beginning of your question about being looked as "second class undergrads", and that is completely false. As Rainer Maria Rilke once noted: "Your life is so inexpressibly your own..."

2. Build things you are passionate about, and not because they'll help you land a job but just for the sake of building things. If you are interested in artificial intelligence or machine learning, learn about them and build something. Better yet, keep a blog and write about the process of learning about AI, ML, etc. Don't be afraid to email some people you look up in the industry for guidance.

3. Keep learning, learn about anything that sparks your interest. Nothing is boring in its deepest essence. There's always something to learn. And if you know a lot, teach it or write about i.e. set up a repository for other people to learn more about it in an easier way.

Above all: Just be you. Don't label or attach yourself with certain identities. Build great things just for the enjoyment of building things. Love the process of building things. Collaborate with friends and colleagues. Go boldly.

Learning, building, etc. is all a joy. Don't try to be the best _____, just build stuff that matters to you.