Blue Smartr GPA Hardr Spring 2015: Someone else do this next year

[kuronosan]

Anyone have tips for doctorate-level studies besides "don't fuck up"?

[Valkrish]

Advancing human condition > $

Don't piss off the Ivory Tower.

Fellowships.

Symposiums.

Outreach.

Patents.

MBA

:3

[kuronosan]

Everyone says MBA.

[AidenCarby]

Anyone have tips for doctorate-level studies besides "don't fuck up"?

Be prepared to kiss your social time goodbye and hope your wife is down for the long haul.

[Valkrish]

All I can tell you is to not let your biggest inventions or findings go un-patented.

[kuronosan]

Unless I invent a Neuro-stimulatory printed vertebra I don't think that will be an issue.

[enzan]

I can't believe Vandole finished before me. At least I got an A in stats! Discrete math isn't looking as good sadly. Class started two weeks ago and I still have no idea wtf is going on. Anyone had to use Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications 7th edition by Rosen before? Or know of any amazing resource for discrete math? I haven't been able to find anything on Khan academy or elsewhere. At least not anything regarding whatever this book is teaching.

[Cadsuane]

I can't believe Vandole finished before me. At least I got an A in stats! Discrete math isn't looking as good sadly. Class started two weeks ago and I still have no idea wtf is going on. Anyone had to use Discrete Mathematics and Its Applications 7th edition by Rosen before? Or know of any amazing resource for discrete math? I haven't been able to find anything on Khan academy or elsewhere. At least not anything regarding whatever this book is teaching.

You're probably having trouble finding tutorials because discrete mathematics is kind of a fake subject which should just be called "combinatorics for CS majors with a view towards babby's first complexity theory/computational models course yet to come". Fake subjects and service courses are easily identified by their 200+ dollar 20'th edition or whatever textbooks, e.g. yours. But I digress.

The point of a course like this is to teach you:

- enough formal logic to be able to do the book-keeping of basic mathematical reasoning
- basic combinatorial techniques, e.g. counting methods (probably just counting methods actually), especially the kind that comes up in
- complexity theory, which in this case just means knowing what big-O/big-Omega/big-whatever notation means (sort of)
- graph theory. Probably not much more than what a graph is, because at some point you might need to know how things like regular expressions/automata work (because later on if you get sifted into or out of CS for CS' sake as opposed to "programming" questions like decidability/computability become relevant)

which probably isn't that helpful, but at least you can look up those things and get an idea of where the course is going. If you're motivated and have some extra cash, a tutor is very helpful at this stage of the course. You should also know that khan academy does have some lectures on complexity and graph theory in computer science -> algorithms.

[Deadgye]

"Ssshhhh math" was best math, as it's math that a computer has trouble with or can't do. I think my class was called "Finite Mathematical Structures" and I loved it. My professor was boss though, wrote his own textbooks and made them pretty cheap. My Linear Algebra textbook by him was only 20$. You should go into it with the mindset that it's completely different from all the other types of math, I think.

[Quicklet]

Anyone have tips for doctorate-level studies besides "don't fuck up"?

Be prepared to kiss your social time goodbye and hope your wife is down for the long haul.

Make sure whatever you're doing is enjoyable or interesting enough to be worth the social and financial sacrifice involved -- and if you realize it isn't, better to find out sooner than later so you can move on with your life.

There are two approaches to doctorate-level study that seem to work, although I don't know if the former is workable for medical fields. The first is to realize that you will get a lot more done if you only shoot for getting things 80-90% right, because the last 10-20% ends up taking way more effort to nail down than it is usually worth. The second approach is to just accept spending every waking hour poring through papers and texts building up background knowledge when you're not actively working on your thesis/research.

[Byrthnoth]

Assuming you are talking about med school, just grind through it. It is a mix of more classes and quasi-technical training.

If you mean PhD in science, the key is to get an advisor that will let you graduate even if your project fails abysmally and has some reasonable idea of how long a PhD should take.

If you mean a PhD in some other field, I really have no idea. I have seen nurses doing arts and crafts, book report, and science fair-esque things as part of their PhD. Idgi. Welcome to elementary school, I guess.

For law school, don't do too much coke and make sure you suck up to the professors. You are aiming at the internship afterwards, which they might be able to help with.

[kuronosan]

Medicine, yes.

[Yuri-G]

Class Title Units Campus Grading Midterm Grade Grade
CSCI 2021 Mach Arch and Org 4 Twin Cities A-F Grade Basis A-

FUCK. YES. I probably got ~60 to 70% in that class... if that gives you an idea of how hard it was curved. I thought I was going to fail for sure.

[Viq]

As per usual, the semester here runs later than everywhere else. Two classes still haven't posted the grades yet, but I'm satisfied.

[Heavencloud]

Medicine, yes.

1) Pass all your classes. This is priority #1.
2) If you can, get some research or volunteering in, not the top priority (especially if you already have research from prior experience, etc).
3) I hope you're going to a pass/fail school.
4) Find what works for you as far as board studying goes. The more you do earlier, the less you life will suck come end of 2nd year. I'm taking USMLE step 1 in 5 days and it's quite a grind.

Honestly, med school isn't that bad. This is coming from an average/above average student who is not interested in neurosurg or other top tier specialties, so YMMV.

[kuronosan]

1) Pass all your classes. This is priority #1.
2) If you can, get some research or volunteering in, not the top priority (especially if you already have research from prior experience, etc).
3) I hope you're going to a pass/fail school.
4) Find what works for you as far as board studying goes. The more you do earlier, the less you life will suck come end of 2nd year. I'm taking USMLE step 1 in 5 days and it's quite a grind.

Honestly, med school isn't that bad. This is coming from an average/above average student who is not interested in neurosurg or other top tier specialties, so YMMV.

Definitely pass/fail.

Volunteering won't be an issue, I have something in mind. How should I approach research? At the moment I'm more concerned with classes.

Good luck on the step 1. I took one look at the study guide and put it back down for a while.

[AidenCarby]

Biggest obstacle from year one was trying to relearn biochem, if you can spend time this summer on khan academy or with a text book I strongly recommend it.

[kuronosan]

I have the option of taking Biochemistry in the spring even though I've taken it already. I'll probably do it if that's the case.

[AidenCarby]

It's an extra class man but you won't regret it, don't mean to scare you but it's not about just getting an A in the class; it's about absolutely crushing the fuck out of it and making it your bitch. It binds into damn near every class of your first year.

[Heavencloud]

Definitely pass/fail.

Volunteering won't be an issue, I have something in mind. How should I approach research? At the moment I'm more concerned with classes.

Good luck on the step 1. I took one look at the study guide and put it back down for a while.

Research will depend on where your school is. If you're interested in a particular specialty that needs research (i.e. ortho) then the best way is to get in contact with residents at the teaching hospital. Or, your school might have dedicated research programs for the summer of 1st year. It's fairly straightforward.