Where did you go to School?

[Pointedstick]

Hey, just curious:  Did you ever consider UIUC, your hometown U?  I'm guessing you wanted to get out of town and go to a cooler place, but just wondering.

At the time I was still a flaming liberal and I wanted to go to the most incendiary left-wing institution I could find. My parents were also not-so-subtly guiding me in that direction. Finally, in high school, I abandoned math and science as soon as they became challenging so my grades in those subjects were poor; it's possible I might not have even been admitted to UIUC. So no, I did not consider it, although in retrospect I totally should have. It's easy to look back at that phase of my life and shake my head at how many silly decisions I made, but it's all turned out well regardless so I try not to beat myself up over it.

[WiseOne]

Johns Hopkins BS in EE.
University of Pennsylvania MD/PhD

WiseOne, that's an interesting path.  Did you go directly from the EE degree to med school?

I worked a couple years in between while deciding whether to take the plunge.  You might be surprised to learn there are quite a few engineers who go into medicine, and in fact EE is the major that has the highest medical school acceptance rate.  There's no such thing as a "premedical degree".  There's a core set of required courses that can fit into any college degree program.  Anyway it's worked out well, because there's a lot of engineering work in what I do now.

Of course at a place like Penn, "interesting backgrounds" has a whole new meaning. There was the Broadway actor who had a role in the musical "Hair", then went for his MD/PhD then medicine residency.  He used to sing his presentations on hospital rounds.  Awesome.

[Tyler]

I think some percentage of engineers go into industry and are very motivated by their jobs, but I've run into SO many engineers over the past 25 years that are not all that satisfied with their career path. 

Well, engineering is a broad field and it's possible to get stuck in a specialized track you don't care for.  There's also a great deal of burnout due to increasingly rapid development cycles.  But in general it's an excellent choice that can take you many directions in life.  The core skill engineering teaches you is how to solve problems. 

I've never really thought about EE's going into medicine.  Cool!  When can I get my Wifi implant?

[WiseOne]

Yes, I agree - regardless of where you end up it's a great foundation - certainly far better than a "business" major or a liberal arts degree.  I just decided that while I wasn't unhappy in the industry job, I didn't see myself on that path long term.

Wireless implants are actually being developed as we speak!  I'm involved in a couple of DARPA grant applications in this area in fact.  Pretty out there stuff.

Also for general info, here's the list of courses you need for med school:  biology of some kind, preferably cell biology (1/2 year), inorganic and organic chemistry (1 year each), physics (1 year), calculus, English, and a foreign language.  That's it, and half that you should have from high school advanced placement courses.  My university had a natural sciences area major that let mediocre premed students satisfy those minimum requirements and then pad their GPAs with easy, worthless courses in psychology and anthropology.  Those were also the ones who would race into class to grab front row seats, try to sabotage your lab work, and play other little one-upmanship games.  A big reason why I waffled about going into medicine was that I wanted nothing to do with idiots like that.  Fortunately, medical school admissions committees agree.

Desert - where did your second-grade son get his information about medicine??  How those little guys are sponges for information.  Anyway he shouldn't expect to be making "a lot of money" unless he goes into a surgery specialty, and then he'll be too busy to spend it.

[Pointedstick]

I have a brother-in-law who's a radiologist. Judging by the size of his house and the private schools he sends his kids to, I'd say it sure looks like he's making a boatload of money. But I know that was his explicit goal and he went into his specialty because of a supposedly favorable income-to-sanity ratio.

[dualstow]

When I was a kid, there was a guy at our temple who was a radiologist. I only remember two things. He had a cool Ferrari, and he was so fat that he could barely fit into it.

[WiseOne]

Dualstow's radiologist is quite an image    Sitting in the dark all day reading scans can do weird things to people.

Radiologists used to start at $400K (yes I consider that a boatload of money!) but that's changed in the past couple of years because the radiology CPT codes got completely slammed by the ongoing CMS reviews.  Those salaries are coming down for sure, or will very soon.

GPs and general pediatricians in private practice are somewhere not too far above $100K, definitely less than $200K.  Not that much more than engineers and probably less than that on a per-hour basis.  Don't forget that includes weekend, holiday and overnight call which can get pretty brutal.  I think that's the main reason why there are general neurologists in my department, apparently content to earn half of what they could get in private practice for exactly the same work modulo the call schedule.

[dragoncar]

None of the above (AFAIK, the specific combination might be unique to dox me), but staying semi-on-topic I'll note (it is known) that I'm an EE who went into law.

p.s. I found learning about both subjects very rewarding, but practicing not so much.  Which is why I pursue FIRE

[drumminj]

Not very active here, but thought I'd chime in given the # of UIUC grads.

University of Illinois, BS Computer Science, 2000.

[Gabe]

University of New Mexico, BS Applied Mathematics, 2014. Was pretty close to a second BS in Computer Science, but settled for the minor and went to work instead.

[murphy_p_t]

BSME UIUC

[Greg]

So many people here for UIUC. No love for Penn State and Georgia Tech from others? boooo.... hah.

[Cortopassi]

TennPaGa,

Eight years for a PhD, I wouldn't have had the patience!

[Kriegsspiel]

Ohio University 2008.

[dualstow]

So many people here for UIUC. No love for Penn State and Georgia Tech from others? boooo.... hah.

I've got a Korean friend who went to Penn State and loved it.
It was a very important part of his life in the States.

[Greg]

I've heard only good things about Penn State.  I visited the campus once, a long time ago, for a football game.  Cool place.  I think PSU fits well in the B1G too.  Big school, good academics, great football tradition, lots of drunken undergrads wandering the streets.  It's beautiful.

I did really like the school but it was on the cold side and a very overcast city so during the winter you didn't see the sun much. Also that made the snow not melt which just turned into gray sludge.

And I was there when it was voted the #1 party school in the country (2009). I never got too much into the party scene but did have my fun there. It always bothered me when I'd be getting out of the labs at 1 in the morning on a Wednesday and people were STILL trying to get into clubs. Didn't these people go to class?? I also never went to a game while I was there. I only ever went to one college game (Georgia Tech vs UMiami) because it was free.

I was also glad that I had another school to talk about (Georgia Tech) for where I said I went to school when the whole Jerry Sandusky stuff was exploding in the press.

[Gabe]

University of New Mexico, BS Applied Mathematics, 2014. Was pretty close to a second BS in Computer Science, but settled for the minor and went to work instead.

What type of work are you doing now?

I started working as a software engineer at the local government lab a few months before I graduated. It was a great gig, but as much as I loved the team I was on, having a security clearance and sitting in an office staring at a screen from 8-5 started chafing at my soul. Plus I wanted to travel again. The prospect of working fewer hours, remotely from wherever I wanted, for a much higher hourly rate, was extremely enticing. So I quit a few months ago and started a consulting company doing more or less the same thing: developing web apps. For those who speak webdev, most of my experience is with Ruby/Rails and JavaScript/Redux/React.

[Mountaineer]

Gladiator worshipers all!
You keep the faith but in a ball.
Pi are square,
The ladies fair,
But all in all, it's the ball. 



... M

[Jack Jones]

So many people here for UIUC. No love for Penn State and Georgia Tech from others? boooo.... hah.

I was at UIUC from 2003-2007 for Computer Engineering, but didn't study enough so I wrapped up my undergraduate degree in Computer Science at West Chester University of Pennsylvania in 2008-2009. I'm still paying for the expensive out-of-state degree I didn't graduate with.

Somewhere in there I spent a summer on my buddy's couch in Happy Valley (Penn State) after getting in some trouble with my parents. I was totally broke but I remember it fondly.

[dualstow]

Sounds like the basis of a tv series!

[Greg]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2014/1 ... b6bd9f1f86

Interesting article. Pretty short on whether athletics influences a school's reputation. Based on their responses, they are saying no.

I'm not sure I fully agree with this, although I'd like to. I feel like hiring managers and such look at the name of the school that someone went to, and try to think of anything they know about it. It could either be whether that school is in the news a lot (due to football, etc.), or whether they know/have worked with an alumni of that school at all. It seems like a quick but flawed way for humans to determine, at least on paper, whether they want to continue the interviewing of that candidate or not in a sea of candidates.

[vnatale]

Time for another update for the current participants here who have never responded to this Topic?



Among the original responses, I see that the vast majority were either engineering, science, or computer science majors. WiseOne's combination is QUITE impressive. Explains all the brilliance I see every time she write ANYTHING.




I did not have a straight line progression to my final degrees.

In high school I excelled in math and sciences. English was by far my least favorite subject.

The summer after junior year of high school my parents and I made a visit to Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) in Worcester MA. Solely that I'd scored an 800 on the Math II achievement exam the person we were meeting with said to my parents, "Your son would be an excellent candidate for early decision."

That is what I did. Applied early decision and received my acceptance letter the day after Thanksgiving. The only college I applied to.

WPI then was a math / science / engineering school and was supposed to be for those who could not get into MIT.

It was also a super tiny school. As a four year college it had less students than my three year high school.

Senior year of high school I took calculus and achieved the highest score possible on the advanced placement exam. That led to entering WPI with 7 college credits.

I'd taken drafting my senior year of high school just to have a subject that did not have homework. But I could never figure out that "third view". On the basis of that I, on my own, made the leap that I was not cut out to be any kind of engineer. When I got to WPI I looked around and it seemed like majoring in math was the only suitable major for me.

First year I got A's in calculus 3 and 4. They were continuations of my high school calculus in that they were full of formulae and low on theory.

My second semester freshman year was saved by Kent State in May 1970.

I had thought that I was going to double major in math and computer science prior to entering school (especially after being ahead by 7 credits). But I could not fathom the bits and bytes in that first computer science course. I was willing to fail it because I did not think it was worth it to spend any time at all on something that was incomprehensible to me.

Although I'd got A's in regular and advanced physics in high school, I could not understand all the theory in physics on the college level. Headed to a poor grade in that class also.

After Kent State I was arrested for protesting the draft (one of only seven from the entire college to do so). At the time we set the record for the largest mass arrest (238 people) ever in U.S. history but it was later many times eclipsed.

One result was that we were allowed to choose to take either a grade or go Pass /Fail in our courses. I chose grades for Calculus and Gym, thinking I could get All A's for the first time in my life at any level, and Pass / Fail in all the others (I think I had dropped that computer science class). Somehow I only got a B in gym!

Next year ended in a disaster. Two MORE semesters of physics. And, my math was also a disaster. I had to drop the Advanced Calculus class as it was all theoretical with none of my beloved formulae. And, Modern Algebraic Theories! What happened to all my numbers??!!! The only numbers I'd see in that course were the problem numbers! NOT FOR ME!

2nd semester was the true disaster. One C, two D's, and an F (physics!)! I think that was a 0.69 GPA??!! In one year I went from top half of the class to being on academic probation!

Meanwhile I'd applied for transfer to Boston University as I wanted to be in Boston so as to be right where the major rock bands came to play instead of having to travel there from Worcester. I was accepted but I was going to lose a semester of credit. After two years of school I'd gone from 7 credits ahead to a semester behind!

One night that summer I was doing a radio show at the WPI radio station. Some friends came by. This is so long ago that the radio station used tubes. And, there some major tube that after you shut one thing down you had to wait a another full hour before you shut could finally shut down that tube.

So during that hour my friends and I smoked a lot of marijuana. I seem to remember us listening to "A Child's Garden of Grass" record. One of the friends wanted to steal a scale from one of the science buildings (for use in his marijuana dealings). He kept asking me to be the driver of the getaway car. I think I said NO the first four times. But being so stoned I finally was so worn down that I said YES the fifth time he asked.

He never did steal it but we were spotted by a security guard and I was suspended from school, not that I was going to go back. At some point I also decided I not going to follow through on the transfer to Boston University.

That summer I also became the manager of a rock band. I thought that we were the best band in the state of Rhode Island and we were going to be the next Beatles. I loved everything about my life's situation at that time.

Then, all of a sudden, at the end of August I said, "I need to be in school! I need to maintain my 2S otherwise I am going to be 1A for the draft."

I ran down to Rhode Island Junior College on the absolute last day to apply and met with a dean and had to convince him why he should accept someone who'd just been suspended for being part of an attempted theft. They accepted me for the fall semester 1971.

Then in October I got a message from the Selective Service telling me that I was 1A and I needed to go for my physical at the induction center. I called them to say there must be some mistake. I'm a college student and I should be 2S. The woman told me that I was in my third year of college and needed to be making satisfactory progress towards a degree, meaning I should have been a college junior and NOT at a junior college.

That was a MAJOR problem with me having #8 in the draft lottery! No way were they going to miss taking me.

But another story for another day as to how they missed me. I did complete that semester at Rhode Island Junior College.

A year or two later I made the proclamation that I was FOREVER done with college and was going to be "the self-made man".

I moved to western Massachusetts in November 1973. My second day in Amherst, MA I wandered into a natural food coop. And, when I went to the office, I saw a guy using a calculator. I immediately told myself, "I want to do that!"

Turned out he was the coop's treasurer. Shortly after he put a notice in the coop newsletter saying he was looking to be replaced. I ran down there, thinking there would be all kinds of competition for this (to me) dream volunteer position. He told me I was the only one who had expressed any interest in it.

My only exposure to any form of accounting in any way was a bookkeeping course I'd taken that one semester at Rhode Island Junior College.

I loved being the treasurer but I had no idea what I was doing. The prior treasure had been an English major, was as smart as me, but between the two of us we had zero accounting skills or knowledge.

One spring day in 1975 a coworker said he was going to go to the University of Massachusetts to see about getting an electrical engineering degrees (he had an associates degree). I said I'd go with him to see about getting an accounting degree. It was strictly a whim as my sole goal that day was to get the rest of the day off from work.

I went, met with someone, and decided to take a summer school class in accounting. Loved it. While taking the course I was also the manager of a rock band in western MA and my first real profit & loss and balance sheet were the financial statements for the band (NOT a pretty picture!).

That summer school course led me to quitting my job and entering the program full-time (September 1975).

One day in the library, another friend told me he was going to be a TA in the graduate program and was going to be paid $3,600 a year. $3,600 a year! As soon as he gave me that information I went right to the graduate school office and met with the department head. He told me if I entered the program I could also be a TA.

On yet another whim I entered the graduate program. Going to school full-time plus summers, I had both my BBA and MSBA in accounting by May 1978. Nearly nine years after I had first entered WPI in September 1969!

Vinny

[Kbg]

That's a seriously good life story. Thanks for sharing.

[geaux saints]

I second that motion, Kbg. I am glad you post here, Vinny.

[dualstow]

So during that hour my friends and I smoked a lot of marijuana. I seem to remember us listening to "A Child's Garden of Grass" record. One of the friends wanted to steal a scale from one of the science buildings (for use in his marijuana dealings).

I swear this was also an early episode of Louie (Louis CK), maybe season two?
Well, i never thought about it before, but drug dealing students must have tried to steal scales from schools all over the country. Where else are they going to get them.