/ General Chatting / Forums

Forums

4hv.org :: Forums :: General Chatting

« Previous topic | Next topic »

previous 1 2 3 4

Move Thread

LAN_403

Forty

Fri Mar 23 2012, 02:51AM

Registered Member #3888 Joined: Sun May 15 2011, 09:50PM
Location: Erie, PA
Posts: 649

Well if you can't fit the desired number of trees for a certain profit into one acre, then just increase the number of acres.

2Spoons

Mon Mar 26 2012, 02:41AM

Registered Member #2939 Joined: Fri Jun 25 2010, 04:25AM
Location:
Posts: 615

Hope you factored in maintenance on your forest. I know locally (NZ) the pine plantations do a lot of branch trimming to get straight, knot free timber. Me - I'd overplant by about 10% then thin out later.

From a future work perspective I'd say you will learn tens times as much in your first five years working, as you learn at school. Most new grads I've seen are actually pretty useless. with the odd exception. My point is : don't get too hung up on which school you go to 'cos later on its not actually going to matter all that much, IMO. (based on my own 23 years as a professional engineer) (also I get to wear a t-shirt and scruffy jeans to work ;)

...

Mon Mar 26 2012, 05:57PM

Registered Member #56 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 05:02AM
Location: Southern Califorina, USA
Posts: 2445

I just got in at mit (grad), so I thought I should chime in with more ramblings...

Ultimately your undergraduate program doesn't matter, where you get your masters/PhD does. In fact, many counselors who know their stuff would specifically tell you to skip applying to the top schools (caltech in particular) and go to a good state school for your undergraduate, partially because it is virtually impossible to get into a top 10 undergrad school (when you consider the sheer number of undergrads, and that the number of undergrads and grads at the top universities are about the same), partially because it will save you a ton of money, and because if you plan to go to grad school your undergrad institution does not really matter that much (not to say that it doesn't matter, I would put it on par with your GRE scores as far as level of importance that is given to it--focus on getting good letters of rec and extracurricular).

That said, if you are going to grad school, undergrad is a proving ground. You need to put yourself at the top of what RIT offers, and show why you are better than everyone else there. You may have managed to get away goofing off in high school, but that won't fly anymore. First, make sure to keep your grades up. If you want into a top 10 school you better have a 3.8 at least, preferably a 3.9 or 4.0 (and you can't make up points with AP classes anymore, and most schools count A-'s against you). That said, this is where being at a lower tier undergrad shines--as long as you keep your sh*t together getting a 3.9 at RIT shouldn't be that hard for you--so you will have plenty of time to focus on what actually matters-your extracurriculars.

This is where you will set yourself apart from everyone else. Any monkey with a calculator can get good grades/gre scores, so as long as these are 'good enough' you will be fine. What matters is what you put on your personal statement, and what your letters of rec say (If you are not familiar with the grad school admissions process-you need to submit 3+ letters from your advisers, preferably faculty but summer jobs etc are ok too, which are supposed to say that you are hard working, sharp, good at research, able to solve problems on your own, good at presenting/collaborating, etc). If you have a personal statement that says you have a homebuilt yag laser and DRSSTC you built in your free time over the summer, and while at school you worked on your own project in XXX's research lab, and letters of rec to back it all up, you will get into at least 1 top 10 school, if not all of them.

If you want an example, here is my story:
I was mediocre in high school, had about a 3.8 (when you counted AP classes at 5), AP tests were sub 2000, so I didn't even get into the good state schools. I ended up at UCSB, and absolutely loved it here. The classes were easy, so I spent most of my time working on research with professors on campus, or building stuff with my friends. In my first quarter I managed to find work in a group doing THz (through a connection from one of my summer interns--I cannot stress how important internships and making connections are), and another quarter later I had adopted my own experiment in the group. It was not a really impressive one, but I finally got it working, and that was all that really mattered, because I had professors begging me to join their group with the experience I had working with THz. It also got me a letter of rec from the person funding me (a pretty famous guy), who numerous professors specifically said was a large part of the reason they were talking to me.
While I was not in the lab, I became chair of the local IEEE student chapter (it is essentially a hackerspace on campus) which I put on my applications, and while no one mentioned it, I think the admissions committee liked it. More importantly, it put me in contact with like minded peers, which was a huge boom to my motivation to get stuff done, helped me learn more than I ever could have in my classes, and put me in contact with a lot of important people. Sure I went out drinking about once a month (usually right before finals, perhaps not my best decision), sure I spent a good number of days hanging out with my girlfriend (again, can't stress how awesome IEEE was was...), but in the time that most people spent playing LoL or Starcraft and being hungover I was able to get involved, get stuff done, and make a spot for myself.

So when it came time for admissions (that said, make sure that you are on top of things for grad admissions--take your GRE junior year, actually study for it, get your letters of rec sorted out well in advance, apply for the fellowships which are due in september, etc) I was able to track down some pretty powerful people for my letters of rec, and I had a ton of material for my personal statement. It worked out well enough, I am fully funded at Mit, Stanford, Berkeley, UCSB, and probably will be at caltech when I hear back from them next week (so far I have not gotten any rejection letters back, and have been awarded a research position or fellowship at each school).

Also, one piece of advice I would give to a budding undergrad--make sure to live a little. If you are miserable, you are not going to be successful. You mentioned that RIT is a depressing school, well don't hang out with the depressed people. Classes are important, and some of them will suck royally, but get some people to study with and power through your homework and then go do something fun. If you sit around complaining about how hard your multivariable calculus class is then you are going to be miserable, so don't.

That said, my experience is more oriented toward grad school, if you really are set on the transferring thing, you can give it a shot, I would recommend it, and don't get stressed if you don't get in, but it means that you need to prove yourself in the first year, so you really need to hit the ground running. I would almost recommend e-mailing professors before school even starts to try and line up doing research with them, you will have to try and figure out what they do from their webpage (which is always really out of date), but it can be done. And make darn sure that you get strait A's for the few quarters that they have to judge you.

previous 1 2 3 4

Moderator(s): Chris Russell, Noelle, Alex, Tesladownunder, Dave Marshall, Dave Billington, Bjørn, Steve Conner, Wolfram, Kizmo, Mads Barnkob