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12/22/2010 Personal Update Fall 2010
There goes another semester! I am writing on the Megabus home after my last final yesterday. At least the power works this time; usually neither the power nor the WiFi works. The WiFi only worked for 10 minutes before crashing today. At least Megabus now goes direct PHL-BOS without having to change in NYC! Why bother with the bus? Because it's cheap! I book in advanced, so the fares are only $5 or $10 each way. Even when you book late and pay $30, it's still much better than $80 on Amtrak or $300 on the airplane. I learned in 16.71J this year that the PHL-BOS airplane market had the highest yield (fare per mile) of any domestic route!
Anyway, I am very happy how this semester went. I had my own room this year; I think this allowed me to focus much more. I also came into the year with the mindset of fully dedicating my self to school work; not doing too much work outside of class work, and working all nights and weekends. I think I finally was able to achieve the proper level of focus at MIT, especially since I was taking 6 classes (69 units), which is 190% of "full load". You may remember that I struggled my first semester here. During my second semester (when I took 54 units), I did not have it all together either; I would sometimes do homework the day it was due, or not at all. This semester, I only did that once, and I don't think I missed any assignments. I am really proud that I pushed my productivity to an new level by stabilizing my learning.
I think 6 classes was just about the limit. If I try and do too much, I will not get enough sleep, and be far less productive. It's kinda like a control system, like we learned about in 6.01. I need to go right up to the line, without crossing it. I like being busy. I find that I am much more productive when I am busy. I hate just sitting around; I want the pressure to get stuff done in an efficient manner. Also, I still want to take advantage of my time here, by focusing on stuff I can only do when I am here.
This was my first term as a Course 15 Management major. The Sloan school at MIT has a very big MBA program, along with a whole bunch of various programs. (Each division at MIT has its own way of generating revenue. Most do it via research, but Sloan does it with students.) Undergrads take classes with the MBA students. Harvard does not do this. In 15.567, I was one of only 2 undergraduates. In addition, the students at Sloan are very international, which brings a wide perspective.
15.567 The Economics of Information: Strategy and Pricing was a mishmosh introduction to doing business online and using information in business. I don't know. In general, I was not awed by the experience, compared to other classes at MIT. The Sloan students are very different from the other MIT students. Many are only there for a year or two, fly home every weekend, and in general, have a very lose connection to the Institute. Most put more effort into finding a job; there seems to be much less passion than the rest of MIT. Their interest seems to be strictly limited to "how can I make money off this," with little tolerance for the details or culture behind it. Now of course I believe, this attention to details is what leads to success. For example, any one can put out a buzz-word compliant HR plan, but how do you actually implement it? No wonder front-line employees are filled with sarcasm about management. Ultimately, I am uninspired. In this class, I was dubbed the "class technical expert" by the professor. During presentations, one student said he would now accept questions from anyone in the class except me. The MBAs were sick of my tough questions. I got an A in the class, which is the highest grade I have ever gotten at MIT (although the +/-modifiers do not matter).
15.501 Corporate Financial Accounting was very boring. It is a boring, but necessary subject, but the lectures were extremely boring. Only about 5% of the class came to lecture each week. Luckily, the textbook was very helpful. The homework felt like busywork (and could be done in a group) and the exams seemed to measure how fast you could pound your calculator. I guess the other students did not take it seriously, since I got an A- for the year.
14.01 Principles of Microeconomics was another required course for 15. Jonathan Gruber, who was deeply involved in the writing of the new health care bill, was the lecturer this semester. It was nice to hear from him, but I wish he would have talked more (both more often and more in depth) about his "day job". 14.01 was largely a review of AP Micro Econ from high school. However, they teach the Calculus version at MIT. This was difficult because the units don't really line up in economics. Also the math parts were not taught very well this semester. The textbook does not go into the math concepts, and the P-Sets (HW) is due before the math is reviewed in recitation. In addition, Prof. Gruber invents very difficult exams. I ended up with a B in the class. I don't really know how I could have done any better.
I also took the first Course 6 EECS class, 6.01. I really liked it. I was a lot of fun. I really liked how the class was very well planned out. The lectures and assignments all fit together well, and I felt like I learned a lot. I also really like the beauty of EECS - namely that you reduce everything to reusable, abstract pieces. I thought that I did well in the class. I solved every homework problem correctly, I pretty much understood all of the material, I thought I did well on the exams, but I kept getting 80s on them! I ended up with an 86% for the year which is a B. I was shocked to see on the distribution that many people did better than me. I don't know what it is, but it seems like no matter how much I study, a lot of people do better. How do they pull it off????
My hardest class this semester was 6.041 Probabilistic Systems Analysis. This was a required class for Course 15, surprisingly. It was very difficult. I ended up with a C for the semester. I did spend a lot of time on it. I read every chapter in the textbook and took notes; I went to every single lecture, recitation, and tutorial (the class was 5 days a week), and I went to office hours almost every week. However, I was not very good at it, especially compared to the older students. I was at the same place in the grading curve (1 st. dev below avg) like I was all last year in every class. I think that I am not very good at abstract math concepts. When I can put a story behind it, and visualize it, I can do very well. For example, I did very well on Markov chains on the final. The one part which I did the worst on, was the part taught in the last week of the class. Since there is no homework the last week, I did not adequately review that material. I still think that I would have done far worse if I had not reformed my study skills this year.
However, I think that this class, along with my learning to learn experience has shown me that I can do hard classes if I put effort into them. I think challenging myself like this is worth it. Combined with my experiences above, It made me think that I would rather do EECS, than Course 15. I think at this point I will double major. As part of that, I need to plan out my schedule for the rest of my time at MIT to make sure that it is feasible.
After the first week of classes this semester, I decided that I wanted to add another class, so I looked through the catalog to see what would fit in my schedule. I had seen 16.71J The Airline Industry in the course catalog, and it filled in a hole in my schedule, so I decided to add it. It ended up being a fairly interested management-style class, since many of the lectures and assignments were about how to schedule operations. Much of what was taught works with any transportation methods, such as trains, which I am interested in. Some of it even made me think back to last summer working at Deutsche Bahn, the German national railway.
Outside of classes at MIT, I am still involved in university governance. I am still the VPFS at Baker House, and I am planning on running for reelection. The Institute Athena and printing committee] turned out to be over from last year. No one wanted to talk about Athena spaces this year. Our recommendations from last semester are being implemented. IS&T upgraded all of the Athena cluster printers to new models and is now providing paper and toner to dorm printers. They are currently building the authenticated Pharos system and they are planning on starting a trial during IAP.
I also became involved in the dining issue at MIT. For those of you who are unfamiliar, dining is MIT's perpetual controversial issue. I wrote a research paper about it last term. This semester, I became Baker's representative on the committee to select a new dining vendor. I proposed a radical idea, and got seriously flammed for it. At the end of the semester I was also appointed to the main dining policy committee, the infamous HDAG. My current position can be found here.
This IAP I will be an extern at State Street Capital in Quincy, MA. I picked this experience because I wanted a short induction to the world of finance. It turned out that this job is in their IT department, similar to last summer where I worked in the IT department of a train company. Still it should be a promising experience. I am also thinking about other activities which I can do to stay busy during IAP. I may be a research assistant with Prof. Brynjolfsson from 15.567 at the Center for Digital Business at Sloan. I am also planning on taking a night class introducing MatLab. There is also a Poker competition to build the best poker playing AI. I just want to listen in on the class, as I highly doubt that I can win. I also don't know how much time I will have to spend on it. Lastly, I will try to go to a series of lectures on the OLPC initiative at Sloan, by the founder of OLPC Walter Bender.
I have picked out a slate of potential classes for next semester. 15.401 Introduction to Finance, is a popular core Sloan class. I want to learn more about the financial markets, and learn more about why the financial crisis happened. 15.761 is another core Sloan class; this one is about making things efficiently. I also plan on taking the next EECS class, 6.02 which deals with communications at a very basic level. That should be very informative, although some of my friends told me it is not as fun as 6.01. I also need to take 7.013 Biology and 15.279 Managerial Communications as requirements. I am not looking forward to them. If they fit in my schedule, I will take them. If they don't then I will kick the can down the road again. I also need to take 14.02 Macroeconomics. I don't remember the currency markets very well, so I can use a refresher. I don't know what the format of the course is. I hope that it is taught better than 14.01. I am also signing up for two math classes. 18.06 Linear Algebra is supposedly a pre-req for 6.02. I did not see that before, so I am plan on taking it concurrently. 18.443 is one of the two options for a statistics class. I want to take the Course 18 Math version, because I think it will be more rigorous than the Course 15 Management version. I know this won't be too favorable for my GPA, but my experience in 6.041 says I can do it if I try. I also need to take a HASS class. I chose 4.211 The Present and Future City as the one that seemed to be the most interesting this term. Unfortunately it is not a CI-H or a HASS-D class, which will put me a little behind on those requirements. The HASS restrictions are just too complex and restrictive at MIT. Why are more classes not HASS-D classes? Lastly ESD.00 is a new class for this year. It is designed to introduce freshmen to the world of systems development, but it looks interesting, so I am planning on taking it as my fun class. Now I know that this is too many classes. I will likely end up with 6 of them that fit together in a schedule.
I have been doing The Weekly Spin during the term. Gdovin's internet connection at Kutztown has been bad (not as bad as mine over the summer though), but I hope the show is still informative for people. We are covering the same issues as always.
I took about 3,000 photos this term, bringing my flickr item total to 54,931. My family took me on a road trip halfway through the term, and I went on a walk through of the new MIT dorm W1/Massey Hall which will be completed next year. I have put the most of the rest of the photos into the Around MIT Fall 2010 set. These are my first photos with my new Samsung HZ30W camera. I am very happy with it; it is much better than my old Kodak M1093 IS camera.
I am looking for another internship this summer. I want something that combines tech with business, like last summer. However, this seems to confuse most companies I talk to. I always get pegged for a regular technical position, for which I am only moderately competitive for. Oh well, here's hoping I find something.--ThePlaz 16:05, 22 December 2010 (EST)
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