Another stint at college

I’ve done my four years and now I am going to do two again. Ever since I decided on the university, I have wondered, after a small sigh of relief, what will it be like?

My undergraduate years have shaped me beyond my imagination. I have, to use the cliche, turned from a boy to a man in those years. But I am 22 now, and only so much for a month. How then, will this experience shape up?

It is a Masters course and the duration is only 18 months. Academically, I will only be doing courses in Computer Science, which will be a huge relief. This graduate course is tailored for Computer Science and shall help me that way. Although, I do hope the faculty turns out to be of ‘Ivy League repute’ as my research for it has promised me. I’m done with my complaining about bad lecturers killing the courses and I do not want to do that anymore. What I want is a good mentor if he exists somewhere. (Is this Scrubs speaking?!)

The fact that it is a foreign country doesn’t bother me so much. I know the feeling, and I can even say that I have seen worse. To be surrounded by a group of people speaking a foreign language and being completely ignored is something I have already been subjected to. In that way, being an Indian helps; Telugu, Tamil is as foreign to me as German and French [1]. At least they speak English in United States. :). Although, it being New York, I wouldn’t sound far fetched if I say I might encounter all the languages in the world!

At the end of these two years, I want to accomplish certain things – publish a paper in an international conference, seek a 4/4, contribute more to my projects, restrain myself to only one one extra curricular activity and give my best to it, take some quality time out for her and my family and my friends. But foremost is that I want to plan my entire time for all of this, so that I can have fun at the same time. It is New York City after all and I want to make the most of it! I look forward to all that it has to offer!

Ramit Sethi on his blog (with a to-the-point caption) – ‘IWillTeachYouToBeReach’ – talks about how graduate life is fundamentally about meeting people. The article, I think, is primarily for Bschool grads, but still, it largely holds true. I will not forget that. It will definitely be a time to meet new people, and I hope to find some good friends. Also, according to me, I have always underestimated the student-teacher relationship and I will be wary, not to repeat that again.

Ramit’s blog also gave me the following links which I found very useful.

• Ian Ybarra: Are you a freak?
• Paul Graham: Hiring is Obsolete
• Seth Godin: The power (and the fear) of self determination

I hope some of you who are also planning to attend college in near future will find this post helpful. If you have some more perspective on this issue ( or any piece of wisdom for my gradschool ), please post it in your comments below.

[1] – This idea was influenced from Shashi Tharoor’s s book ‘India: From Midnight to the Millenium’,