Vivek's Blog

My world, My views

Posts Tagged Grad School

The Life of an MIT Grad Student

Sep 9

Posted by Vivek in Education, General | 5 Comments

This post has been simmering in the back of my head for a while now. However, a multitude of orientation events and more generally, “getting settled” has taken priority. There’s also the small matter of finding a research group and a project that I like before all the good ones get taken. But that can process in the background. Let’s get on with the blogging.

So, after a largely comfortable (albeit hot) three months at home, I arrived in Boston/Cambridge on August 27 and immediately got to work taking care of administrative nonsense and settling in. I have a nice room with enough space to store all my belongings and still have room for a few people to sleep on the floor, shall the need ever arise. My dorm has a small gym, a games room, and a decent DVD library for residents to utilize. Our incoming class is pretty large (60 or so new students in the department) so I’ve been meeting a lot of people. I haven’t had much opportunity to explore Boston yet, but I have five years to rectify that.

My stored items showed up on Saturday and I’m oh so thankful that I have my speakers back. After spending a week using only my laptop speakers, I had forgotten what bass (not necessarily the instrument) sounded like. At the same time, it sounded too deep for my liking initially so I had to turn it down! Speaking of music, this will be a busy month for me. Porcupine Tree, Alice in Chains, and Pearl Jam are releasing new albums and I have a ticket to see PT live on the 27th. You can rest assured that a review of their new album is forthcoming, as is the concert review. I won’t be doing a review, but I saw District 9 recently and loved it. If you like sci-fi, do yourself a favor and watch this movie. It does get a bit nasty, so I wouldn’t recommend it for the squeamish.

I had my first class today. Now that I have an MIT ID, have registered for classes, and started attending them, I finally consider myself an MITian. I’m happy to be here and I keep reminding myself that I can’t slack off at all. People are nice, but most professors are notoriously difficult to get hold of, which explains why I haven’t picked a research group to join yet.

Some people have asked me to put up pictures of MIT and the surrounding area. I do have some pictures but I’ll take some more before uploading everything in one go, so please be patient. In other news, I dumped Firefox 3.5 for Opera 10. The other day, Fx was hoarding 1GB of RAM which convinced me to finally make the switch – Opera is speedy, stable, and sexy. I dislike how some websites won’t work with Opera, but the “Identify as/Mask as” option seems to work pretty reliably.

P.S.: That title really doesn’t make a lot of sense in the context of what’s in the blog post. Meh.

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Updates Orgy

Jan 30

Posted by Vivek in Education, General, Technology, Updates | 4 Comments

I really should blog more often, especially since I have Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays off this semester. Oh well. I think I’m going to have to be brief here, but the following lines will catch you up on what I’ve been doing (and what has happened to me) since I left India.

I now have a twitter account. Follow me here.  I attempt to update at least twice a day (which is about 100x more often than my blog, har har).  I’m going to try and add my twitter feed to the blog soon.

This post is coming from Firefox 3.0.5 running on Windows 7 Ultimate (beta).  I’ve been using the 64bit beta on and off for the past two weeks now, and I like it.  The interface changes are good and I’m happy that they finally put in shortcuts to minimize and maximize windows.  ArsTechnica did a great article on the beta, so you might want to read that for the skinny on Windows 7.  So far, the only thing to not work: abc.com’s video player.

Last Friday, I received a call from Northwestern University.  After introducing himself, the nice guy at the other end said I’d been recommended to the Ph.D. program in Materials Science.  After staring into space, wondering what that meant, and subsequently collecting my jaw from the floor, I said, “oh, that’s great” and proceeded to mumble through the rest of the phone call.  Following that shocker, I received word from MIT and Stanford this Wednesday, congratulating me on being accepted.  Thus far, only Northwestern has told me how much financial aid I’ll get, but to get into three out of my top four choices has left me excited, delighted, shocked, and <insert adjective describing joy>.  It also means that I have a tough decision to make, but thankfully, the scheduling works out so that I can visit all three places in the coming months.  I’m hoping that the visits convincingly swing my decision one way, since April 15 is not that far away.

I just spent several hours of this week working on a solar module donation request to BP Solar.  If we get the solar panels, we (Columbia University Engineers Without Borders) hope to set up a health center in Melghat, India that will house a vaccine fridge, indoor bulbs, and outdoor lights all running off the panels.  Considering that our budget for all the equipment other than the panels is about as much as the panels would cost, we’re really hoping to get the donation.  It would be a major achievement, and something to brag about in our résumés.

Man, all this writing has made me hungry.  I should go get some food before BATTLESTAR GALACTICA at 10.  Peace out.

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61 Days

Dec 18

Posted by Vivek in General, Updates | 1 Comment

It has been so long since my last blog entry that I don’t even know where to begin.  The period in between has been nothing short of eventful, but now that the semester is done for, I can finally attempt to regain my sanity (and catch up on sleep) over the next few days.

Let’s get the boring details out of the way first.  I finished all my graduate school applications last week, and it’s now up to my recommenders to submit their recommendations on time.  Then, it’s a painful waiting game until the decisions start rolling in early March.  Also, since I very nearly killed myself with a heavy workload this semester, my schedule for next semester allows me to take classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays only, leaving every other day wide open.  Yeah.

So, I ended up buying the ASUS G50V-A2.  Yes, it’s slightly bigger than the average 15.4″, but I think the positives definitely outweigh the negatives.  The orange color is actually not bad, and the laptop color scheme reminds me of Half Life 2, one of my favorite FPSes ever.  The display is gorgeous, and I’m loving all the expansion ports and 400GB of hard drive space.  Gaming so far has been a delight, with the laptop running UT3 and Left 4 Dead at 1680×1050 without hassle.  And yes, it can play Crysis – I tried out the demo.  Over the winter break, I plan to finally play Half Life 2 Episodes 1 and 2 and Portal, along with Bioshock.  Lest I forget, this was the G50V model with a Blu-ray drive, and ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that The Dark Knight on Blu-ray is an orgasmic experience, even if I don’t have a 1080p-capable display.

I’m flying back on the 20th, and should arrive in Delhi on the 21st at night, barring any delays.  For a change, I am not going to promise a flurry of articles over the break.  I need some goddamn sleep.

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It’s Quiet In Here

Oct 18

Posted by Vivek in General, Technology | 2 Comments

If you whisper loud enough, it will echo in this place.  At the start of the semester, I had a crazy plan to take six classes, and simultaneously work on graduate school applications.  The reason was simple – if I had fewer classes, I would simply waste more time, and the time spent on apps would work out to be roughly the same.  But with the knowledge that I was constantly running out of time to finish the applications, I would work hard on them.

It has been semi-successful so far.  But what it has also done, is turned me completely anti-social, and on the verge of breaking something.  On a Friday night, when the rest of NYC was out partying like it was 1999, I was sitting in my room and writing grad school essays.  To make matters worse, the laptop gods obviously don’t want me to get a new laptop.  Every day, I go through phases when I’m close to buying a certain laptop, only for that to change a few hours later.  As of this writing, the HP Elitebook 8530w has its nose ahead for the durable construction, good battery life, and non-glossy looks.  I was almost certain to go with the ASUS G50V, when along came a new version with a more conservative silver/grey color scheme and a better GPU.  The stripped-down Best Buy version is not ideal, and the size is still bothersome.  Battery life will probably take a hit with the new GPU – not good news when it was a paltry 2 hours to begin with.  But with the rupee being pretty weak against the dollar, the Elitebook is an expensive proposition compared to the ASUS.  But, but, but, maybe the durable construction and battery life make up for that?

Run along now, I only posted this entry to remind everyone that I haven’t suffered a nervous breakdown yet, and that I was really, really bored while writing these essays.  I hope that makes you feel better.

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Grad School Hunting

May 20

Posted by Vivek in Education, General | 1 Comment

So it begins.  I’ve formally started researching graduate schools to apply to later this year.  I’m trying to come up with a list that includes some of the top graduate programs for Materials Science, but at the same time, I need some backup schools.  Places that I’m nearly guaranteed to get into.  During my undergrad college search, Adelphi and Georgia Tech were my backups and I got into both.  I need to do something similar again.

So far, my list includes schools like Northwestern, MIT, Standford, UT Austin, Caltech, etc. and I have to do more research before I can finalize this list.  I also don’t want to apply to too many colleges so top choices + backups seems to be the way to go.  If I get into any of my top choices, I’ll definitely go.  Otherwise, my backups should be good enough to make me want to pursue graduate study.

Of course, if I get into multiple programs, then things like financial aid will play a big role in my decision.  But wait a minute, all this is months down the line!  I need to first prepare and do well on the GRE exam and then send in strong applications.  Decision time is almost 10 months away.

I’m also going to try and look for a job.  If I can land one I like between now and March-end, then I might consider working for a bit before going into grad school.  We’ll see, I guess.  Also, just what the fuck is up with the weather in New York?  It’s far too cold for May!  Also also, it seems like the theme switcher is now working fine.  I haven’t worked on the theme or on anything else website-related today.  Tomorrow will be different!

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