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Recent Updates: I was named MVP of our soccer tournament in Tallahassee, Florida (3/1/2009)January 4, 2009 Atlanta, Georgia Tracking My Final Semester at Georgia Tech Given that this is both my last and my most difficult semester at Georgia Tech, I have decided to track my progress throughout the semester. With any luck, the final body of work will provide a useful guide for other Georgia Tech students with aspirations of pushing the envelope, and succeeding in the process. For any who doubt that this will be a difficult semester, consider that I have been approved, for the first time in Georgia Tech's history, to take 23 hours in a single semester. To top it off, I intend to earn an 'A' in all 8 classes while also maintaining my position on the GT men's soccer team. Receiving approval for so many hours required a lengthy Petition to the Faculty, which was finally approved in late November 2008, as well as numerous meetings, essays, and recommendations to demonstrate my ability to meet the challenge. As the semester goes along, I will post updates tracking my progress, the activities in which I am involved, the stresses I face (and the ways in which I deal with them), and anything else that may be useful for other students facing Georgia Tech's gauntlet of classes.
Track my progress here. February 23, 2009 Atlanta, Georgia Undergraduate Majors are not Equal... And the Results are Surprising Perhaps it is because of the law school application process, whereby I am competing with liberal arts and business majors who often claim, "GPA counts for very little; LSAT is the most important," but I have become increasingly assertive with my belief in engineering's worth. Consider the following table that I put together this morning: Sources: US Department of Education and Spencer Stuart
* Difficult to quantify because of the generic term 'Liberal Arts' To be fair, this analysis only focuses on success in business (excluding medical, legal, and political fields), but even then I am not sure the results would be so dissimilar. The point is that engineering forces students to adopt a methodical problem-solving approach that can be applied to any problem in any field. Additionally, the ear-to-the-grindstone approach fosters a hard-working mentality that is a necessary condition for success, in my opinion. Also, earning an engineering degree means that a student is prepared to enter the workforce and start designing bridges, HVAC systems, iPods, Google databases, etc. Conversely, I can only think of education, accounting, and the research sciences that similarly prepare students to pursue a specific career. The point is that engineering universities are held accountable for their graduates: if there is grade inflation and an incompetent student is awarded a degree, the university will develop a reputation for being unreliable. Thus, the reason for grade deflation, which is particularly evident at Georgia Tech (the average GPA is 2.9/4.0 for engineering.) This bodes well for our employment prospects, but it does not give students a similar advantage outside the field of engineering. I do not point all this out to complain - life is not supposed to be fair - but rather to encourage others to continue with engineering, even if grades suffer as a result. Life is about far more than getting into an elite graduate school, and whether one attends graduate school in Somalia or an Ivy-league school, hard work and discipline are more important to achieving success than recognition from others. Furthermore, I do not mean to bash other majors as I find them to be far more interesting and rewarding on a personal level. However, it is difficult to accept that the level of rigor is anywhere near as high. Quite simply, I believe that engineering will push students more than any other major, and it will teach students tangible skill sets that can be used to produce tangible goods. Even if one wants to break free of engineering, the grind-it-out mentality and analytical approach will carry over to any field. Personally, I am thrilled at the prospect of taking my approach to the field of law; raw intellectual capacity is fine, but in my mind, nothing surpasses hard work, determination, and a concrete idea of where one is headed. January 28, 2009 Atlanta, Georgia Class Updates Capstone Design: I am team leader of a group of five students working under Dr. Craig Forest on a project to re-design a catalytic converter. Our team website can be accessed here. Basically, this class occupies any free-time I have, but it is remarkable rewarding. Our professor was a finalist on America's Top Inventor for "the claw" (video) and is a GT undergrad and MIT PhD. He has gone through the entire process of designing an invention, having it patented, and introducing it to the market. Personally, I think he sees potential in our group, and so he pushes us appropriately, which compounds the stress for the semester (but exponentially increases the feeling of reward). Control Systems: This is normally a junior-level course, but it is a class I have never taken for various reasons. My professor is my favorite at GT thus far: Dr. Whiteman. The class is also one of the most useful: I now see every system around me in terms of springs and dampers. Quite literally, every system on the planet can be mathematically reduced to a set of springs and dampers, which is fun stuff for engineering geeks everywhere! Manufacturing Processes: In this class I am learning how every product on the planet is actually made. As a case in point, take a look around the room right now, and imagine you were put in charge of designing a process to make it. This is not just a qualitative course where answers are as simple as "Injection Molding!" or "Sand Casting!", ubt rather the focus is on mathematically computing the constraints and designing actual molds (for example) to complete the task. Additionally, focus is placed on the time constraints, power requirements, and material properties. Lastly, a word for Professor Das, who takes exception to anyone not paying attention in class (calling them out immediately): he actually cares about his students and engages us in every lecture to ensure we fundamentally understand what is going on. Systems Lab: This is a senior-level lab (follow-up to the Control Systems class) that is divided into two parts: one for control/mechanical systems and one for thermal systems. Basically, I attend lectures and then attend a lab session where we experimentally test theory. Our results are presented in the form of a lab report and a weekly presentation to Dr. Ferri. I would also like to note that Dr. Ferri, with his dry humor that catches us all off guard, has one of the best lecturing approaches at Georgia Tech. Even when it is Friday morning and I want to read The Technique (GT newspaper published every Friday), he catches my interest with witty humor - and the topics are so abstractly uninteresting! HVAC (High Volume Air Control): To be honest, I enrolled in this class because it had one of the highest distributions of As for senior level electives. However, this was a misleading statistic as most people in the class have cooped (repeated internship) with HVAC behemoths and know everything inside and out. Fortunately, the extensive qualitative approach is tempered with a substantial amount of quantitative analysis, which is where I differentiate myself. As for Dr. Jeter, our professor, he is a riot! Obviously one of the most passionate professors of HVAC in the world, his excitement for air-conditioning systems has spread to us all. Most memorable is the first day of class when he quantitatively showed how HVAC (incorporating refrigeration systems, obviously) was a greater achievement for the good of humanity than medicine. He proved part of his point via some obscure sodium tangent whereby meats were dried with salt before refrigerators, but he had me going for most of it regardless! Engineering Economics: This class was supposed to be a cake-walk: a one-hour class where engineering students learn the financial principles necessary to hold projects together. The professor has taken a far different approach by turning the class into an advanced financial analysis course whereby we learn about complex derivatives and such. Not a big fan. Environmental and Atmospheric Sciences: I am required to take one last science elective before graduating, and despite my best efforts I could not make the Modern Physics course comply with my packed schedule. Instead, I am an anonymous face in a lecture hall of 180 people. Fortunately, those 178 other people (a smart friend of mine is taking it with me), have no idea who they are up against: it is a hodge-podge of freshman, sophomores, business majors, and so on. Not to be disrespectful, but this class is a significant step down in terms of content. English II: Hip-Hop: I enrolled in this class upon the suggestion of Dr. Karen Head, who is one of my favorite English professors (and poets!) at Georgia Tech. The class is focused on the hip-hop culture as a means of expression, and although it is comprised of 95% freshman, I thoroughly enjoy the discussions. My only complaint is that much of the work seems fruitless, but that follows with my complaint of liberal arts subjects in general. Overall, I cannot complain at the prospect of voicing my opinion and having it actually count for something. GT Soccer: We are now 3-0-0 since I joined, and not a single goal has been scored upon us! |
