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Geometrically Frustrated Registered Member #6
Joined: Thu Feb 02 2006, 04:18AM
Location: Bowdoin, Maine
Posts: 373
Bowdoin College is about 15 minutes away from me. They have a lot of money, and it's apparent when you walk into their library. Rows and rows and rows of journals. Downstairs there are huge archives of bound journals, and finally there is a small room full of microforms. There's a second library with even more journals, and they also have subscriptions to a bunch of online databases. Now, I'm not going to Bowdoin. It's too close to home, and it doesn't offer the courses I'm interested in. However, I can go inside their libraries and read things, make photocopies, and save electronic media to my flash drive — whenever I want.
My point here is that this information is pretty easy to come by. You aren't restricted to your university's library, and as others have said, you can make requests to get journals that are of interest to you. There are plenty of databases that you can search to find journal abstracts, so finding articles in journals that your school doesn't subscribe to shouldn't be an issue.
So... What are your primary university choices so far?
Registered Member #175
Joined: Tue Feb 14 2006, 09:32PM
Location: Sudbury, ON
Posts: 111
Even poor Canadian schools have access to piles of journals, and as said, you're going to be studying too hard to do a heck of a lot of hard reading on the side. Especially in EE, if that's what you're taking-- you're going to want to read about anything but in time where you're not studying your butt off about it. Carbon Rod is right; your much-vaunted plans will be going out many windows quickly. I, for example, started at the University of Waterloo, which is one of the best-rated schools for physics (which I was studying) in Canada, a nation I am loathe to leave. The facilities were grand, and the profs wonderful (on the whole, anyway) but-- I wasn't being taught. I was learning. And I could do that anywhere... Advisors told me the same thing: Undergraduate studies can be anywhere. It's where you do graduate that counts, and even then, if you do good work at a poorly-regarded school, you'll get noticed better than where everyone else is doing work of the same quality. So my much-vaunted plan of going to UW for 8 years and coming out with a PhD to teach, cunningly decided during highschool, has been torpedoed. I'm going to the local school, Laurentian U, so I can live at home though undergrad and save muchos denieros, and with lower tuition and my parents being more willing to pay for things, I'll end up twenty thousand fewer dollars in debt, projected. This also allows me to stay in the same city as my significant other, which is an important consideration for me. Looking at job prospects for a physics grad, I'll be doing a double major with MechEng and physics to make myself more employable. And I have very little faith that that plan will last more than a couple semesters. I'm hoping to keep it to no more than 3 schools for my undergraduate degree, however...
Registered Member #135
Joined: Sat Feb 11 2006, 12:06AM
Location: Anywhere is fine
Posts: 1735
Reading huh, that's funny. If you're applying for EE then you will be spending much of your time doing what I do, simulations. Wether MatLab, PSpice, Mathmatica, writing software routines in C++ for robotics, Assembly for uC's (or BASIC, its pretty handy), that's what your future is, software. You won't have much time to read, its basically come to class, absorb, comprehend, and utilize on the spot, no time to 'think' about it.
I don't bother to read much when the instructor gives you notes of the material that he is going to examine you on. Stick to the notes and you won't fail. Read everything but and you're guaranteed to fail, because you didn't study the pertinant information.
Do use Composition Notebooks for everything. You will thank me later for it. After all of your classes you will have an awsome little library that you can go back to at any time, with examples, solutions, and everything. I can go back and look for Control System solutions, Power, Digital filters, its all there in my notes.
As far as articles go, any .edu has access to IEEE articles and I needed access to the articles a handfull of times, but its nothing to worry about, we only got trivial use from the articles.
Anyway, get yourself some cracked copies of the software for your classes and you'll do fine.
Just remember that what you get from college is 50% of what you need, the other 50% is all you, and that's why we're here at 4HV, to get that other 50% edge over the students who don't take that step beyond the classroom.
(I'm trying to contribute my class notes to the knowedge base but im a bit tied up with graduation, but you get the point im sure.)
I forgot to mention that if you can live at home, do it. Dorms are terribly small, food is expensive, the noise is unbelievable, and living with parents is not so bad. I go to CSULB which has a declining EE program, but its close, low competition, relaxed enviornment, and I don't have to work real hard at EE because most of the students don't know anything. So going to a second rate school isn't so bad, just hunker down and knock-'em-out.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
information on Athens
Waverider:
I know a lot of people like to party when they go to university, but I never really got it, I was too much of a nerd. I didn't really start partying till I graduated.
hazmatt wrote ... that's why we're here at 4HV, to get that other 50% edge over the students who don't take that step beyond the classroom.
WTFBBQ? I don't know about you, but I'm here because I like messing around with electronics and sparks and stuff.
GreySoul wrote ... if your school has over 10,000 students it will probably be able to get any journal you actually need.
I was not aware of this. Good to know.
GreySoul wrote ... At UNM, requests for stuff the library didn't already have usually had to be accompanied by a professors signature that the request was for class.... but once you get in with a prof, they'll sign any request you bring them :P
Alex wrote ... Bowdoin College is about 15 minutes away from me. They have a lot of money, and it's apparent when you walk into their library. Rows and rows and rows of journals. Downstairs there are huge archives of bound journals, and finally there is a small room full of microforms. There's a second library with even more journals, and they also have subscriptions to a bunch of online databases. Now, I'm not going to Bowdoin. It's too close to home, and it doesn't offer the courses I'm interested in. However, I can go inside their libraries and read things, make photocopies, and save electronic media to my flash drive — whenever I want.
UT Austin is near me- and you can go to their ten undergraduate libraries and read as much as you like. Unfortunately they are not as lax on their computer policy as Bowdoin College is. You cannot access their internet infrastructure and you cannot log onto their computers to get papers and save them down on flash drives. And it is really unfortunate- it's hard to navigate the hundreds of years of content they offer without a computer to search the databases.
Alex wrote ... So... What are your primary university choices so far?
Coyote Wilde- you made your decision based off of debt? I too would like to come out of school without debt and I would have some big problems if I could not find a way to avoid it.
wrote ... Reading huh, that's funny. If you're applying for EE then you will be spending much of your time doing what I do, simulations. Wether MatLab, PSpice, Mathmatica, writing software routines in C++ for robotics, Assembly for uC's (or BASIC, its pretty handy), that's what your future is, software. You won't have much time to read, its basically come to class, absorb, comprehend, and utilize on the spot, no time to 'think' about it.
Nah, I am not applying for electrical engineering. I might be going for chemical and computer engineering. Comp eng is a hybrid between computer science and electrical engineering though, so it's pretty close. Although I have not been able to play around with the mathematics simulation packages you mention, I've had time to play with gnuplot and qalculate and some other algebra libraries. I have also done my fair share of robotics- from the basics with Parallax stamps (haha) to my own MC68HC908QT4 microcontroller to play around with (re: assembly). Also- I've been programming for years and have no plans to stop. However. I also do lots of reading. I think it is possible to read and do programming and simulations etc. I have learned a lot from reading academic papers on computer vision (AI/ANN stuff), for example.
wrote ... (I'm trying to contribute my class notes to the knowedge base but im a bit tied up with graduation, but you get the point im sure.)
I would like to see those class notes some time. :)
wrote ... WTFBBQ? I don't know about you, but I'm here because I like messing around with electronics and sparks and stuff.
Registered Member #30
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706
wrote ... You cannot access their internet infrastructure and you cannot log onto their computers to get papers and save them down on flash drives.
Surely that's just a policy applied to visitors and wouldn't be the case if you were enrolled as a student there. My local uni libraries won't even let you in the door without a membership card.
Registered Member #546
Joined: Fri Feb 23 2007, 11:43PM
Location: Albuquerque, NM
Posts: 239
So I just found out UNM has a community liaison. You can contact them about getting access to the university system if you live in the area and want access to their library. It's like $35 a year - which covers the cost of your ID card, and some minor infrastructure maintainence
I'd bet most other large public uiniversities have such a system - look for a community resource office...and ask :)
Registered Member #29
Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 09:00AM
Location: Hasselt, Belgium
Posts: 500
Waverider:
I know a lot of people like to party when they go to university, but I never really got it, I was too much of a nerd. I didn't really start partying till I graduated.
Steve...After my receiving my first semester marks, I partied a lot less and studied a lot more (and spent lots of time in the library studying....and sleeping too...it was quieter than my apartment that I shared with 3 boozer housemates! )
Kanzure... If you cannot find papers that you need...sometimes it is possible to contact the authors for preprints/copies... I've done this a few times...many authors are flattered when you contact them, explaining why you are interested in their work and what you need their paper for! Also, you will find that many papers are on the authors' personal websites (persistent google searches will often turn these up..)
Steve Connor wrote ... Surely that's just a policy applied to visitors and wouldn't be the case if you were enrolled as a student there. My local uni libraries won't even let you in the door without a membership card.
You're right. But it is still an unfortunate situation for outsiders (like me).
wrote ... I'd bet most other large public uiniversities have such a system - look for a community resource office...and ask :)
Awesome idea.
wrote ... (persistent google searches will often turn these up..)
Yeah, I've seen some good papers by searching for "filetype:pdf <some subject here>". Google tells me that I have done over 23,000 queries through their system. And counting. :)
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Universities that bust paywalls?
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