My semester finally ended this week. It has been a hard one academically and my grades are somehow managing to work themselves out here at the end of everything, but I wouldn't want to go through all the headaches of this semester over again. I've learned a lot of lessons about myself this semester though, and I'm looking forward to applying that knowledge in the future.
In other news, I think that I'm starting to realize that I'm not quite cut out for pure academic work for the rest of my life. I don't really know what that means for my future, but I guess its always good to cross things off the list of possibilities...
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Showing posts with label school. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
Monday, October 20, 2008
Trip to USC and other such things..
Baylor had its annual fall break this past weekend. Instead of taking my usual trip up to Arlington to visit family I headed out to California to visit Los Angeles and check out USC's graduate engineering program. A friend and I both received travel grants to make the trek, so the trip was mostly free. Yay for hard work paying off.
Famous Trojan Statue on USC campus
Greg standing next to a really big thermal vacuum chamber.
The visit was pretty amazing and I am so glad that I got to see what the school was like first hand. It was a totally different experience from Baylor's engineering school. We have one building and a really limited amount of lab space for our small amount of faculty; they have eight or ten buildings with what seems like limitless lab space for their 200 or so faculty who are doing groundbreaking research.
I know that the schools aren't really comparable due to the fact that Baylor's engineering program is pretty young, small , and pretty much ignored by the university as a whole. USC on the other hand has an established program that is the academic gem (or so the dean called it..) of the school and the university president is an engineer.
Despite all of that I can't help but find myself thinking about all of the ways that our engineering program could be better here at Baylor. There have been multiple times when I have approached a faculty member with an idea for entering Baylor into a competition or a conference or something along that line and the response is almost always "Baylor isnt' ready for that / we don't have the funding". The same thing tends to happen when I discuss graduate school with most of my professors. Even though the department is always touting how well prepared we will be for industry or grad school once we finish here the faculty usually recommend the same old schools for graduate work and they don't seem too excited by the prospect of a student of theirs applying to somewhere like USC or Stanford or MIT. If we are really just as well prepared as our peers shouldn't a student who excels here at Baylor be ready for the big leagues?
In the end I think that Baylor has a pretty good department, but I can see us becoming a truly great department one day. I guess I'll just have to check back someday and see when it is ready for greatness.
Famous Trojan Statue on USC campus
Greg standing next to a really big thermal vacuum chamber.
The visit was pretty amazing and I am so glad that I got to see what the school was like first hand. It was a totally different experience from Baylor's engineering school. We have one building and a really limited amount of lab space for our small amount of faculty; they have eight or ten buildings with what seems like limitless lab space for their 200 or so faculty who are doing groundbreaking research.
I know that the schools aren't really comparable due to the fact that Baylor's engineering program is pretty young, small , and pretty much ignored by the university as a whole. USC on the other hand has an established program that is the academic gem (or so the dean called it..) of the school and the university president is an engineer.
Despite all of that I can't help but find myself thinking about all of the ways that our engineering program could be better here at Baylor. There have been multiple times when I have approached a faculty member with an idea for entering Baylor into a competition or a conference or something along that line and the response is almost always "Baylor isnt' ready for that / we don't have the funding". The same thing tends to happen when I discuss graduate school with most of my professors. Even though the department is always touting how well prepared we will be for industry or grad school once we finish here the faculty usually recommend the same old schools for graduate work and they don't seem too excited by the prospect of a student of theirs applying to somewhere like USC or Stanford or MIT. If we are really just as well prepared as our peers shouldn't a student who excels here at Baylor be ready for the big leagues?
In the end I think that Baylor has a pretty good department, but I can see us becoming a truly great department one day. I guess I'll just have to check back someday and see when it is ready for greatness.
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Unfair
Sometimes I think that "Life's not fair" could almost be my mantra. I've had a number of "unfair" situations come up over the course of my (admittedly short) lifespan and it seems that as soon as one of them is nearing a resolution another one pops up. I'm not talking about some silly little "Poor me I didn't get the video game I wanted for my birthday" situations either, they are more like "I didn't get into the college I wanted to go to even though I had met every criteria for admissions ever published and had been recruited by them" kind of thing.
The good news is that things always end up being for the best. I (usually) come out of these situations more mature, more well rounded, and in a deeper spiritual place because of the adversity. If I had not come to Baylor I would have missed out on a lot of really great opportunities and my life would be completely different right now.
For some reason, that still does not make everything alright in the moment, right as the perceived "unfair" thing has happened. I know that what happened today isn't the end of the world, but I still let it ruin at least a couple of hours of my day. Maybe I've got some more growing to do...
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
The good news is that things always end up being for the best. I (usually) come out of these situations more mature, more well rounded, and in a deeper spiritual place because of the adversity. If I had not come to Baylor I would have missed out on a lot of really great opportunities and my life would be completely different right now.
For some reason, that still does not make everything alright in the moment, right as the perceived "unfair" thing has happened. I know that what happened today isn't the end of the world, but I still let it ruin at least a couple of hours of my day. Maybe I've got some more growing to do...
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28
Monday, August 25, 2008
Learning me some knowledge
Classes began today at Baylor University. For the first time in three years I feel like I really have a good idea of what to expect out of most of my classes and professors. My schedule is far from what I would really like it to be, (too spread out) but I'm sure I'll make due and figure out a way to use my breaks productively.
Another first for me is the feeling that Baylor's Engineering school is growing too much. I came to this school precisely because of the fact that it was small and I had a good chance of getting to know all of my professors. This fall, our department has somewhere around 216 freshmen and I have to wonder if we can really support that number of students. We don't have to facilities for that many people, much less the professors to make small class sizes a reality. It seems that our department's strengths have suddenly become our weaknesses. I'm worried that there are going to be a lot of growing pains for the department in the next several years, but hopefully my class won't have to be the one that ends up getting the short end of the stick.
Another first for me is the feeling that Baylor's Engineering school is growing too much. I came to this school precisely because of the fact that it was small and I had a good chance of getting to know all of my professors. This fall, our department has somewhere around 216 freshmen and I have to wonder if we can really support that number of students. We don't have to facilities for that many people, much less the professors to make small class sizes a reality. It seems that our department's strengths have suddenly become our weaknesses. I'm worried that there are going to be a lot of growing pains for the department in the next several years, but hopefully my class won't have to be the one that ends up getting the short end of the stick.
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