Settled in...
Well, I've been at Cornell for a couple weeks now. Things are settling in and life is becoming routine! Luckily, everything with moving in went pretty smoothly. The drive out here took ~8 hours... it wasn't a terrible drive, but I'd still rather fly :)
Got here and my single is huuuuuuge. It's about the same size as a good-sized double at UNH... maybe even bigger. The other people in my dorm seem pretty nice. This dorm is probably 80% international students, which is cool. It's interesting meeting people from other countries.
For classes, I'm taking artificial intelligence, databases, system security, and project management.
AI is structured almost exactly the same as AI at UNH was. Which is good -- I find I'm understanding the material better this time around. And, we have to do a group project. Just like at UNH, you can do a project on any AI subject you want to, and write a paper about how your project works. I never historically liked group projects, but I was less afraid this time because I figured that grad students at Cornell would probably be pretty decent people. And they are. We had our first meeting as a team today, and both my teammates seem like good people.
In system security we are also doing a group project. That class is pretty interesting, learning all about how authentication works and so forth. I never knew there was so much to it. My group there seems pretty good as well.
My project management class is one of the best classes I've ever taken. It's all about how to lead project teams and interact with people and get them to be productive... really good stuff. Unfortunately it's at 8am two days a week. But, the professor is really good and the class is interesting, so I don't mind.
Other than that, Ithaca is a fun place. Bigger than I expected it to be. There's Ithaca Commons, which is like Portsmouth's Market Square and Boston's Quincy Market (sort of), there's Ithaca downtown, which is, well, downtown, with stores and restaurants and stuff. There's a big mall area, a "big store" area, and collegetown, which is all college apartments and convenience stores and such.
I still don't quite feel like a grad student. It's weird to think that I already have a college degree, and soon (hopefully) will actually have a master's degree. From a really good Ivy League school. It just blows my mind sometimes that I'm here. But I'm happy.
I also miss home quite a bit... miss my family, my friends from Merrimack/UNH... miss the fun times at UNH. Ho-hum. But life goes on.
Leave a message on the board if you haven't talked to me in a while :)
Got here and my single is huuuuuuge. It's about the same size as a good-sized double at UNH... maybe even bigger. The other people in my dorm seem pretty nice. This dorm is probably 80% international students, which is cool. It's interesting meeting people from other countries.
For classes, I'm taking artificial intelligence, databases, system security, and project management.
AI is structured almost exactly the same as AI at UNH was. Which is good -- I find I'm understanding the material better this time around. And, we have to do a group project. Just like at UNH, you can do a project on any AI subject you want to, and write a paper about how your project works. I never historically liked group projects, but I was less afraid this time because I figured that grad students at Cornell would probably be pretty decent people. And they are. We had our first meeting as a team today, and both my teammates seem like good people.
In system security we are also doing a group project. That class is pretty interesting, learning all about how authentication works and so forth. I never knew there was so much to it. My group there seems pretty good as well.
My project management class is one of the best classes I've ever taken. It's all about how to lead project teams and interact with people and get them to be productive... really good stuff. Unfortunately it's at 8am two days a week. But, the professor is really good and the class is interesting, so I don't mind.
Other than that, Ithaca is a fun place. Bigger than I expected it to be. There's Ithaca Commons, which is like Portsmouth's Market Square and Boston's Quincy Market (sort of), there's Ithaca downtown, which is, well, downtown, with stores and restaurants and stuff. There's a big mall area, a "big store" area, and collegetown, which is all college apartments and convenience stores and such.
I still don't quite feel like a grad student. It's weird to think that I already have a college degree, and soon (hopefully) will actually have a master's degree. From a really good Ivy League school. It just blows my mind sometimes that I'm here. But I'm happy.
I also miss home quite a bit... miss my family, my friends from Merrimack/UNH... miss the fun times at UNH. Ho-hum. But life goes on.
Leave a message on the board if you haven't talked to me in a while :)
