Assuming you're programming c# in Visual Studio, I'd suggest Visual C++ would be the easiest C++ for you to obtain and use, as you're already familiar with the IDE.

There are numerous C++ tutorials and references on the 'net, and one of the sticky threads at the top of this forum has many good recommendations for books.

A data structures course, as I'm familiar with, covers such topics as lists, stacks, queues, hash tables, trees (of many sorts). Some of these may be builtin types in C#; in C++ you often code them from the ground up in the DS course. The STL provides some of these for C++, and you may find them better choices later in your schoolwork and career.

As in most things related to programming, the concepts are nearly universal across languages, varying in the code, syntax, and level of builtin support.

You are correct V, data structures covers all those things. I am currently in a DS class myself and use MS Visual Studio 2005, although now many schools probably use 2008 by now.

I'm not sure how your instructor will want you to do things, but mine does not allow use of the STL and as V says, must be coded from the ground up. Take a good look at classes. Classes are really just an expanded capability over the struct, but you'll probably need to be pretty familiar with them for your course.