| As I've mentioned before, I'm interested in going to grad school. As usual, I'm not aiming low; my top choices for schools are MIT and Stanford. I think my greatest area of interest is HCI, though networking, software engineering, and AI are also very interesting to me.
However, what really interests me is The $100 Laptop Project (affiliated with MIT, but an independent organization). You may or may not know, but I've always felt that "higher calling" feeling; specifically, that I want to do something really great, not just "cool" or even "impressive". And the $100 Laptop seems like it could be that. Talk about affecting a lot of people; if I could help build the software used to teach children who use these laptops, it would help advance children all over the world, AND could be eventually ported into American schools, as well. Not to mention the ebook possibilites (I don't mean our proposed company, I just mean in a general sense).
As I've been investigating it, I'm also starting to remember how much (like ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) scuzzlebutt) I'm interested in not only my own learning, but also in advancing our learning systems (ie: improving the POS public school system we have, or at least helping people who go through it to learn better). I've been perusing the projects of MIT's Future of Learning Group and easily half the things listed I've said "Oo! That sounds cool!". (I almost wonder if I should try to go back for a BS in Education or something similar, but I don't think I want to start down that road).
In any case, to the point: I'm trying to figure out where I should start, in the sense of what I need to do. Off the top of my head, my guesses are the more obvious stuff (not in any order):
- Take GRE (study for it first? what is it like?)
- Obtain letters of recommendation from professors @ UCI (& bosses? who do letters of req have to come from?)
- Write essay(s) for each school I'm applying to.
- Contact the $100 laptop project, or should I contact some of the people involved in it directly?
- Try to initiate contact with professors at one/both schools in the HCI departments.
I remember hearing that if you have a professor pulling for you, you'll get in as long as you meet the minimum requirements [or nearly that easily]. On the other hand, if you have no inside contact, it's WAY more challenging to get in. Is that true? - Apply to Stanford & MIT (and possibly Berkely & a school in Washington that is known for HCI)
I have a feeling I'm missing some things, not to mention the easiest way of doing them. Help? | comments: 15 comments or Leave a comment   |
| I found two ciphered texts on this random girl's profile on myspace. I cracked one, and messaged her saying so. (Hadn't been able to crack the other one, yet. But now I can't find it. Oops.)
So she put up more and messaged me about it. I just cracked that; she gave a hint about it that made it way too easy. Still fun, though. | | comments: 3 comments or Leave a comment |
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