School

[venilla]

Applying for transfer to a UC (aiming for berkeley since it's nearby and cool classes related to major) fall 2015 and I've got one month left to finish my apps. Hard to focus on writing my personal statements with all my current coursework. Calculus blows, I'm failing and I probably gotta retake it next quarter. Anyone got any tips to study/learn calculus? (currently learning derivatives and application of derivatives)

[rjbman]

GO TO OFFICE HOURS! ALL OF THEM!

[exprof]

i know you were considering glasgow school of art, would you recommend it? considering going there for a semester or two...

[smiles]

Applying for graduate school is really nerve-wracking. I have the motivation but it feels like I'm getting nowhere. For one school you have to email a teacher before hand to present what you'd like to do, hopefully I wont make a fool of myself. On the other hand, if he asks me to apply then I reckon i've got a pretty good application.

[rublev]

[yubbermax]

I was planning on graduating this spring but I met with my advisor today and it turns out I still need to take spring semester and 4 additional gen ed courses. Kinda disappointing but it does leave me with some interesting choices. I could take classes this summer and/or next winter and get it over with. I could get another internship for the summer and go back in the fall or possibly study abroad for fall semester. Another option is to try and get a 6 month co op and go back in the spring/study abroad.

I only have 1 summer worth of industry experience so working would be nice but if I could just graduate and get a job. I'm majoring in plastics engineering btw.

[exprof]

Ahhh that new building is amazing! Glasgow seems like such a nice place, the buildings are of course all very beautiful.

I study design, specifically what I guess is most commonly known as "new media" but it seems the equivalent there is "digital culture"! I think I'll end up clearing most of my electives (probably an intro to metalwork and something else)... I'm mostly looking based on school rather than location, (my next choices are places in France/Germany) but this seems really promising. I've heard that it's quite competitive to get in on exchange, especially in the english speaking countries, but I'll be applying anyway (smiling)

[thatbiglake]

nn

[rublev]

[Ques]

really want to declare a math minor, hoping that it would help balance out my Foreign Languages major and show future employers i can be quantitative as well as qualitative

also only have to take three more math classes and they all sound super fun (linear, discrete, + elective (want to take geometry with this super cool prof who's phd is in geometry; super excited))

except doing so means i can't take any more electives, and i wanted to take some fun ones from the gender studies + history departments

decisions decisions

[Ques]

@exprof i came in to college already having taken multivariable and ive already taken a math class for fun, so it's not too hard for me

[JtotheWhat]

Decided to take a black and white photography class this semester...it might be the lowest mark I ever get in class... we had todo photograms the other day and I got a low score because the professor said the writing I did on mine was ''illegible''....it was Korean.

[Blastoise]

Thinking about switching to product design (or design of some sort) because I'm really not feeling English at all right now. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But in other news I'll probably be declaring my music major (or minor, haven't decided) tomorrow. At least we'll be going over potential classes.

Interested in too many things.

[vgtbls]

Today my school plays 's school in football. Let the mild rivalry begin!

Can't wait to see how badly our punter does. To be fair he's a redshirt freshman but damn

[zayg]

at the point where i'm willing to loan my cat out for the rest of the semester in exchange for someone doing the rest of my work as long as you bring her back safely

she's rad, trust me

[conhnore]

academic rigmarole as a Philosophy/Music major at what may be the STEMiest public school on the west coast is, predictably, weird

having a grossly expensive wardrobe doesn't help

[Yoder]

my school laid the wood on 's school, B1G bros!

[absurdmind]

organizing a campaign with some politically involved friends against my schools corruption and disregard for education. theyre planning on cutting faculty and classes despite a tuition revenue increase, but they built a pretty sweet new stadium and gym... we've had an accounting professor look at the budget so we know our info is legit. protests are so exciting. i wish i lived in montreal so i wouldnt have to be involved with all the organizing work. sidenote: joining long coat mafia this week.

[nevergreen]

so after going into school as a film major, switching to photography, then again to apparel merchandising, i just met my advisor to discuss my classes for next semester and i'm soooooo fucking excited!!! for the most part my general ed classes are done so next semester i can finally start diving into my career. unfortunately unless i really bust my ass ill be graduating in spring 2017 (a year behind what i planned) but it's not a big deal to me. i may take some winter/summer classes to help speed up the process but it feels so good knowing that i actually have something planned out that i like. i didn't think i'd ever feel this way or be excited about school it feels like things are starting to fall into place

[absurdmind]

i wish but im in the midwest, not montreal. a good friend of mine who writes for the mcgill daily has been keeping me up to date with the austerity measures protests there. id borrow the strategies but the students here arent as "excitable" as in mcgill

[JewTurk]

Kind of off-topic but may be answered, I wouldn't know.

Good ways to go about getting a degree that makes you more internationally employable bar language? I'm pretty convinced I don't want to be in the US with my "long term career" choice because of the direction the education system is going but everything I'm seeing online makes it seem very unlikely to be able to just get and move to a country and find work easily/get a work permit. Looking for input.

PS!!!

I got accepted (there was an application process w/a few essays and some other small tidbits they looked at, transcripts etc, nothing crazy) into this "First Generation College Student" program where the only requirement is that, of course, you are a first generation college student. I'm currently signed up for English 100, Communication Studies 111 and Sociology 101. It's a two month program and it's completely payed for by the university. I meet with my adviser in February and I'll have a mentor for my fresh and soph year that I meet with occasionally. So I'm ecstatic that I get to spend time in such a beautiful area for the Summer while being able to get more credits under my belt.

Things are shaping up nicely!

[madisseur]

all i've been thinking about school lately is "why the fuck am i here"

[zayg]

kinda drunk and writing a semester long paper in one night

this is actually going pretty well, whodathunk

[AmericanPie]

I'm about to do this same thing, but with two papers instead of one. Wish me luck.

[brlmski]

1 day left for senior project. already revving up the booze

[Ques]

got accepted to study abroad in china for my entire junior year, so that's exciting!

as well, i'll have opportunities to teach high school students english, and tutor chinese college students in french.

hopefully i'll be in jinan for the fall, and beijing for the winter and spring, but i might be in beijing for the whole 10 months.

now to finish up my Boren scholarship so the government pays for all of it

[Ques]

one of our psychology professors was born in jinan and attended school there before coming to teach at my college in the US, so she's got connections out the wazoo and will be leading and organizing a semester program there and teaching courses on international psychology, hopefully. with her there, i'll be able to teach english at a local high school, as well as have a better chance at scoring internships. we'll be able to stay with a chinese family for a week in qufu, and have weekend trips to shanghai and other places, that wouldn't normally be options if i was to do a more mainstream program, that wouldn't have one of our college faculty leading and attending. also i've heard that jinan is less of a global business place, unlike beijing, so there's the possibility that i'll be interacting with more chinese people, rather than in beijing where i might not be pressured to use chinese as much, and will be exposed to a more internationalized version of china, maybe? also i'm definitely going to be in Beijing for all of winter and spring, doing a language pledge, so i was thinking that i might as well take the opportunity to see as much of china as i could, considering i'll be in beijing no matter what

[station]

Moved this to a more fitting thread.
Most of this stuff is pretty common sense but its good to hear it. Of course, the key is good GPA + MCAT + well-rounded. But some things make it easier. Spoilering it to not take up too much space. Also, I take the DAT (dental version of MCAT) Jan 26th + I'm writing a publication, so this winter break will be real! I'm appyling next summer for the 15-16 cycle as are most of my friends.

[blocksphere]

Trying to decide whether I should try go to grad school to do math/theoretical CS (possibly doing more of the quantum complexity theory stuff I've been working on... an impractical, esoteric field if there ever was one), or if I should try to work on my (currently mediocre) coding skills so I can get a real job after college. I have serious, crippling doubts about being able to succeed in grad school, but I also feel way behind in practical coding stuff compared to my peers who are actually majoring in CS and know what they're doing, and I'm not sure I'd actually enjoy working as a software engineer. Honestly, I've never been that interested in writing code for its own sake, and right now it just feels like a bid for financial stability.

I'd like to continue trying to make progress in both tracks: There's a small chance of a publication coming out of the research project I'm working on (if I can stop being so lazy all the time), and I'm going to focus my efforts on trying to get a software engineering internship this summer. Either of those things would be a nice self-esteem boost, but I dunno if I can do it.

Part of the problem is that I'm pretty depressed right now, so it's hard to think about the future or make an effort to do anything. This has been a sad sack post.

[rjbman]

I think that depression is a large issue and one that is tough to deal with; that being said, I'll go ahead and give advice like it isn't a factor (in the hope that you can just go off of this and ignore the depression, which I know can be tough).

While math/theory CS can be pretty fantastically fun, you need a decent chance at a research/full-time teaching position to really succeed in academia. If coding isn't that foreign/painful to do, it might be a path worth pursuing while you try to land a job in permanent academia-land. From what I gather (I'm not going to grad school), there are a fair amount of grad school programs out there that will cover tuition + room & board in exchange for TAing or teaching an undergrad class. So really it's rather dependent on what sort of jobs you're able to land with your current standing. If you can get a full academic position, from your post it sounds like that's your preference, so I would go with that. Otherwise, it probably won't kill you to work a few years and build up some money to go back into the academic swing.