Many times, a new CS student is always confused that what can be achieved by learning Data Structures and Algorithms. So I am just pointing to page which can give strong motivation for learning them.
There is a beautiful answer at cstheory.stackexchange.com. http://cstheory.stackexchange.com/questions/19759/core-algorithms-deployed/19773#19773
And this page has been well summarized at http://luisbg.blogalia.com/historias/74062
Practical Stuff 