Reflections on Stanford Visit

Hi Readers,

I am currently at the airport in Dallas, waiting for my connecting flight back to CU. Literally just 5 seconds ago, I ran into AX here, which was a nice surprise. AX flew out of Champaign on the same flight as me on Wednesday, except he was going to Intel for an interview and I was going to Stanford for my visit. What a coincidence that we ended up on the same flight again on the way back!

Anyways, back on topic. I visited Stanford on the DiscoverEE visitation trip for Electrical Engineers these past 2 days, and it was very, very eye-opening. Now I understand why people are encouraged to visit a campus before making their decision. My experience was a very mixed pot, and I am now feeling slightly stressed out about going to grad school (already).

Because Stanford couldn’t find a student host for me, I ended up finding one for myself. I crashed at my friend NJ’s place, where he had graciously taken me in and set up an air mattress for me. It was comfortable and he had a really nice studio (certainly much nicer than the studio that I used to live in). It ended up being really nice, because I could see the living conditions of the grad students, and NJ also took me around and told me a lot about things that I should expect and look for when I do come here.

Since I visited Stanford with JC and we had mutual friends there (including NJ), we ended up going out to dinner afterward at a place called the Straits. It was actually very nice and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Here’s a short summary of the positives and negatives I felt about Stanford.

Positives – Research

-I am really excited about the research opportunities that will be available at Stanford. There are so many professors there, and Stanford is really unique in that they encourage multidisciplinary and cross-discipline research. So I could literally go in and join a professor in the school of business, or agriculture, or physics, or any other major, as long as it is even tangentially related to Electrical Engineering.

-Stanford professors really encourage students to “hop” between different research groups in their first year, until they find a group that suits them. They even go as far as to say, “No I will not take you into my group immediately upon your entrance to grad school. But you can join my group temporarily to try it out first, and if it is a good match then I will take you.” This was really a big relief to me, because one of the things that I worried about was choosing a group that you are not compatible in, and then being miserable for the rest of your years while you try to battle out your research project and graduate. I always thought that it was a huge risk that I would have to take, but Stanford really minimizes this, which makes me feel better.

Negatives – Living

-Stanford’s campus seems somewhat boring. When I arrived at midnight on Wednesday, I did not see a single other person on the street apart from NJ, or cars as well. Though others told me that parties did happen in the dorms, it is still a big change from Illinois.

-Where are the restaurants and bars? After the student union closes at 10, the closest places to eat/drink are like 15-20 minutes away. No more Green St. and its bars and restaurants that are readily accessible and stay open till like 2am.

-HOUSING PRICES?!?! It seems universally agreed that at Stanford $600 is the lowest you can get, while on average it is around $1000 and can go up to $1600. And here I'm paying $320 a month. Ahhh that monthly rent payment will be so painful now!

I'm still pretty sure that I'll end up going to Stanford (since UC Santa Barbara seems to have rejected me, from its lack of response), despite JJ's attempts to convince me to go to UCSB. I'm just hoping that I won't regret it, since I turned down a full-time job at National Instruments to go to graduate school. It seems like the research is positive while the living is negative, which should balance out to neutral. I hope it'll all be great in the end.

Toodles for now! Next post on Japan earthquake.

-FCDH

Easy Cruising USA

Hi Readers,

So after my Canadian driver's license expired on my birthday, I finally decided to take my Illinois driver's test to get my license. Couple of reasons for it. I didn't want to leave Illinois without getting my Illinois driver's license (as kind of a souvenir). Also, I don't have a valid ID now for going to bars, and I'll be damned if I had to bring my passport to bars (another post on this some other day). So those were incentive enough for me to brave the crowds at the DMV (ugh).

It's been on-and-off the process for awhile, starting in my sophomore year. I took the written test during the fall of my sophomore year. I remember braving the elements, and taking the stupid buses to the DMV. Thankfully, this year I had someone who would drive me there, as well as let me borrow his car. I'm very thankful to JW for letting me borrow his car, and waiting with me at the DMV.

Several things I learned during this process:

1) The DMV's website sucks. A LOT. I swear I read somewhere on the website that the written test will remain valid for 8 years, so I went to the DMV expecting to take only the driving test. And then I was very rudely informed by the lady sitting behind the desk that my test had expired, and that I would have to re-take it.

2) The written test is really easy. Not having looked at any materials in the past 2 years, I was kinda freaking out when I walked up to the testing machine to take the test. I had forgotten how easy the test was. Apart from messing up on 4 questions, I passed with flying colors (90%) within a 5 minute period, and promptly left the booth feeling victorious.

3) The driving test is REALLY easy. Oh my god. I was definitely freaking out before the test, and during the test I made several errors. Errors that would've led to me failing in Canada, but errors that the examiner shrugged off in the US. I forgot to turn on my turn signal like 4 times, I forgot to stop at a red light when turning right, and I did my downhill parking incorrectly. So after 5 minutes of driving, when the examiner told us to go back to the DMV, I was thinking: "Crap I failed. ARGH. I have to come back again to re-take this crap? AHH THIS SUCKS." And then when the examiner said "Park in the far space" and I accidentally parked in the near one, I though for sure I had failed. Then he said "ok you passed" and I was like "OMG WHAT DID HE JUST SAY?!?!?"

I can't describe how ecstatic I was about passing my US driver's test first time, and not having driven for the past 3-ish years. I was so shocked at how lax the US driving exam was. In Canada, the test is definitely much longer, and the examiners don't shy away from failing people. I had to parallel park 3 times in my Canadian test, in different situations (no car, in front of a car, in between 2 cars). In my US test, I had to "parallel park" once, which might as well have been called "pulling over" because there were no other cars on the side of the road.

The 3-point turn in Canada was conducted in an alley dead-end where, if you went too far forward or backward, you would fall into a ditch on either side. The US 3-point turn was done in a parking lot.

I wonder why the US puts such a lack of importance in driving. Letting teenagers get their licenses so early, and having such a lax system, is probably problematic for combating drunk driving efforts.

But as of right now, I'm just happy that I have a license. Yay! Though my hair looks bad in it. Ugh. I need a haircut.

-FCDH