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Help on deciding what next to do with life...

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Marko

Tue Jul 03 2012, 08:37PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

Hello everyone

It's been ages I've been on this forum, but haven't really posted much for the last three years or so since I'm on the college. I've mostly combined intervals of college devotion and general wasting of time, without much of a life in between of that. This summer, my pre-grad time is coming to an end and I have to decide what next. So, I summon upon the collective consciousness of the internet for some advice!

I know there were many members here around my age who also went silent about the same time, and this forum over time degenerated into omnitolerant chaos.
But for any of them still around, this is what I need advice on: I've became progressively disappointed with my college and static life in Croatia, and decided it's an absolute must to move and study in some other country.

I'd heavily appreciate any advice from people who are already studying abroad, as well as anyone who could offer a sort of an advertisment of their own country and college, and so on.
I've been researching this for a long time now, but realized I'm not going to get anywhere alone as it's a huge research and that I need to poke many other people for the advice, experience, and drection to readings about foreign colleges.

I'd say that I'm open for most parts of world that would offer good courses of electrical engineering , computing, physics and like. An university that promotes cooperative student projects and various events would be a big plus as well.

A country with heavily different culture from mine would be a big bonus. For a long time I contemplated going to Japan for example, but in the end realized that is just not going to happen unless I learn their language which is simply off the current mental capacity projections. On the other hand, there are other more student-friendly locations in asia, such as Singapore.
On the western side, probably the top choices are UK and US - much more familiarity and easier to adapt.

On the other hand, I'd probably be less pleased with a country that's bordering my own and ending up in very similar circumstances and just farther from home.

My interests are flexible, but I can point out some of the biggest ones:

- I seem to already have more experience with power electronics and HV than I could get on most colleges, so it's no longer a primary pursuit. Perhaps I should utilize this knowledge to get onto a good college in the first place.

- I'm now more interested into things like control theory and embedded systems, with some corresponding software education.

- Finally there are more esoteric interests such as modern physics and allsorts of new and extreme technological concepts. I even have a significant interest in neuroscience which I'd like to explore further.

Now the other issue - my stats, which could probably be better. Here is how I fare in some of the most important subjects:

Math: General suck. I had some good and some bad marks there, but in overall I'm not too pleased with the way my brain accepts it, and the stress of the first year math caused much damage to it. Still, I looked at some math tests from US universities and they didn't seem at all harder, so there might be some hope after all.

Physics: Complete win, but I think it's just bacause they make it way too easy in Croatia. I really want to see some of more extreme physics.

Electrical engineering basics - pretty much the same; everyone here fails it so hard they again had to make it super easy.

Control theory and etc. : moderate win, good at understanding but not much at large calculations, especially in z domain...

Programming: moderate suck. I just seem to have hard time learning new programming languages (and generally remembering large amounts of information is no longer soemthing I'm too good at, I'm probably getting old). I tend to do well though once someone forces me into it.

English: After 3000+ posts on this forum, I can hardly get better in writing, but have almost no experience in speaking since the high school.
To people from UK or US, I mostly tend to sound like a cliched Soviet Russian expy. One more reason for the change!

Sanity: General suck. My brain has failed on me horribly about a year ago and is still recovering from it. Despite the frequent outbursts of (self-believed) creativity and brilliance, periods of total uselessness for anything are far longer.

I never really managed to overcome my fear of people too well and just feel I could improve a lot there. It would be extremely cool to find other students willing to work on cooperative projects, as well as playing together or whatever, instead of living in the constant the soceity-of-ignore.

Needles to say a college with more awareness of psychological health of their students would be appreciated - no joke!

Cheers,

Marko

tobias

Tue Jul 03 2012, 10:04PM

Registered Member #1956 Joined: Wed Feb 04 2009, 01:22PM
Location: Jersey City
Posts: 172

I have a friend who studied Neuroscience at UFRGS (Porto Alegre, Brasil) and now is doing a Phd at Cornell (Ithaca, US) studying artificial intelligence. So if you like this subject I would suggest reading about Cornell and it's different graduate courses. The plus: It is the most beautiful campus I ever seen, little town full of strange people like us. And nobody cares too much about where you come from, the way you speak or your political view.

FYI I come from Brasil, my native language is Portuguese, and americans still think I sound like a Soviet Russian Spy.

Steve Conner

Tue Jul 03 2012, 10:13PM

Registered Member #30 Joined: Fri Feb 03 2006, 10:52AM
Location: Glasgow, Scotland
Posts: 6706

The first question would be whether you can afford to study abroad. Colleges tend to charge foreign students higher fees than domestic ones.

I studied at the University of Strathclyde

which has a very good reputation for engineering. For the last 5 years I've worked at Glasgow Caledonian University

as a research fellow in high voltage engineering.

I think nobody does the geek thing better than MIT, they have hackerspaces and tech-oriented clubs coming out of their ears. I don't expect it to be easy to get in there, otherwise I'd have gone there.

I'm sorry to hear of your "sanity: complete suck". Most colleges have student counselling services, but they may expect the student to take the first step and ask for help.

vasil

Tue Jul 03 2012, 10:20PM

Registered Member #229 Joined: Tue Feb 21 2006, 07:33PM
Location: Romania
Posts: 506

Do what you like more Marko. Think that after 20-30 years you would make the same thing (maibe better, or on a larger scale) and try imagine if you feel enthusiatic or not. It doesn't mean that your job had to be connected with your hobbies. Not at all. I would recomend to you the western side (US or UK) because the more flexibility of the educational programs and the possibility to meet a lot of interesting people.

Shrad

Thu Jul 05 2012, 10:16AM

Registered Member #3215 Joined: Sun Sept 19 2010, 08:42PM
Location:
Posts: 780

you may try Brussels as they have nice universities, not so nice infrastructures, but VERY nice professors and the degrees here in Belgium are widely recognized as top notch

another plus is you wont have too much difficulties finding common lends in the peripheral or even inside of the town... I have several friends who did/do this and they manage to pay something like 300â‚¬ per month maximum for lodgment

Marko

Mon Jul 16 2012, 10:24PM

Registered Member #89 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 02:40PM
Location: Zadar, Croatia
Posts: 3145

Hi guys, thanks for the input (hope you're all still around, way too much work these days)

tobias: well, not sure how much I am compentent with artificial intelligence, and especialy neuroscience, but Cornell university is definitely something to look up!

The first question would be whether you can afford to study abroad. Colleges tend to charge foreign students higher fees than domestic ones.

Well, I don't have endless money which is why this thread is here in first place - but I'd like to earn a place in a some more renowed college based on my skills and projects.

I'd like to learn about general criteria various colleges have for letting foreign students in and even covering their finances partly or fully. I know that some people here gotten a full stipend at MIT for far less work that majority of people active on this forum does, and that is what need to get some more input on.

As it seems to me for now, most colleges don't really care about foreign student's marks (which in case of my college for example are complete mess); rather, they care much more about experience on various projects and acquired skills and capabilities... Having 5.0 on Croatian college still doesn't make you special much!

I'm sure there's a quite a number of people even on this forum who got onto MIT or whatever by these ways, and I'd really love to hear some experiences from them!

What interests me most is the experience from people here - so if you got onto a foreign college, please post on more details how you got it done (unless that's super-secret, ofcourse)

I figured if I want to get recognized, I need to construct some sort of an online portfolio, resume or whatever summary of all my projects and skills that is readable and acessible for everyone while still looking proffesional enough so it could be recognized by college proffesors or various demo organizations and so on.
So far, I've been puzzled how to do it. Furthermore I was puzzled how to present it online.

So far I've created a blog on which I'm going to post my projects, and a linkedin account which I'm going to link them to. Only, a blog isn't exactly the most professional form of presentation, while linkedin is primarily targeted for jobs and not education. So I thought there might be a better way someone might suggest!

you may try Brussels as they have nice universities, not so nice infrastructures, but VERY nice professors and the degrees here in Belgium are widely recognized as top notch

another plus is you wont have too much difficulties finding common lends in the peripheral or even inside of the town... I have several friends who did/do this and they manage to pay something like 300â‚¬ per month maximum for lodgment

Hi - may I ask how did you get onto that nice university, and was it for free as well? 300 euro lodging isn't much more than my current 200, but otherwise I'd probably be OK with a student hostel or some similar cheaper option.

Cheers,

Marko

TheAnomaly

Tue Jul 17 2012, 01:25AM

Registered Member #5620 Joined: Sat Jul 07 2012, 01:41AM
Location: Jacksonville Fl
Posts: 8

I allways thought websites were a pretty good way to immortalize ones projects and while blogs may be popular I find them often difficult to navigate.

With most US schools there will be pluses and minuses. For example I graduated from a small private school without a large fund base so there was not much in the way of funded projects. We did get mucho hands on experience though in labs building transistor amplifiers and such. Some schools do not at all give students hands on experience until senoir projecto. Although I doubt that would even phase you given your hobbies!

In my opinoin control systems are the most important math aspect to engineering. I mean being able to modal a system and then determine under what conditions it self destructs is invaluable. I remember our prof. telling us about a russian rocket whose rocket engine had poles migrated to the positive x axis this causing the rocket to explode and kill all those on board!

Having lived in europe for several years I would say the US could be a refreshing change perhaps. You should look at Florida :D!

Tetris

Tue Jul 17 2012, 02:18AM

Registered Member #4016 Joined: Thu Jul 21 2011, 01:52AM
Location: Gainesville, FL
Posts: 660

Germany is the place for technology AND hv. I am not sure of it, but there are more vids of HV labs in germany than any other place.

Uspring

Tue Jul 17 2012, 09:38AM

Registered Member #3988 Joined: Thu Jul 07 2011, 03:25PM
Location:
Posts: 711

I did a year of grad studies in physics in Berkeley a looong time ago. I really wanted to take it easy in California but got sucked into learning much more than I intended to due to furiously good professors. Was $$$, though.

I have 3 kids studying EE and biochemistry at the TU Munich. It is a renowned place and not too expensive ($1200/year). Living costs are around $700/months. Job opportunities with a TU engineering degree are very good.

uzzors2k

Tue Jul 17 2012, 05:43PM

Registered Member #95 Joined: Thu Feb 09 2006, 04:57PM
Location: Norway
Posts: 1308

You might want to consider NTNU up here in Norway. I think it's great in Trondheim, and from the impression I get from the foreign students they enjoy it too. There are no tuition fees in Norway, however living costs are quite steep.

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