So today I went to the UT Honors Invitational for prospective and future Dean’s Scholars students. It felt really awkward at the beginning of the day when I first walked in and sat down at the table. There was breakfast provided, but I was [01] still in agony over the loss of my Zune (more about that later) and [02] full from the strawberries I ate earlier, so I opted out. Kind of wish I didn’t, because the breakfast tacos looked good, but ah well.
First I talked to a Chemistry student about the honors program itself a bit, and then another guy from Computer Sciences came over and we chatted. Eventually, the staff called for order, and each one of us went around the room introducing ourselves by stating our name, where we were from, and what major we planned on pursuing. Most people were biology/chemistry, a few physics, and - including me - THREE future CompSci majors. One was a girl from Houston, the other was a really quiet boy from… Fort Worth? Forgot about that one, my bad. Anyways, after the assistant dean and directors talked a bit, we split off into majors to chat with students or faculty. We three CS majors spoke to the program director Dr. Alan Cline himself, which was a nice experience. I found out I can be cross-listed at both Dean’s Scholars and Turing Scholars (CS honors program - points if you know what that name references), so that’s definitely good.
At 11am the parents attended a meeting while we students attended some classes. All three of us CS people plus a few others went to a Discrete Mathematics class. (I was hoping to pick up on some signal processing concepts to throw into my scifair project, but nothing applicable was covered today, sadly!) I really enjoyed it, and one hour flew by faster than I thought it would. We headed back to Welch Hall for the DS Friday Lunch, which is a social event occuring - as the name would suggest - every Friday. The faculty provides everyone with free lunch (it was Schlotzsky’s today =D) and then one of their faculty gives an interesting lecture. Today’s was actually about the concept of the 4th dimension, taught by the same professor who taught the Discrete Mathematics class, Professor Starbird. I felt right at home because I’ve been interested in theoretical astrophysics since I was young! =) Most of the lecture I knew from previous reading (Stephen Hawking - read his works if you can, they’re amazing!) but Prof. Starbird was very clear in his explanations and seemed to easily instill ideas. I hope I get to take one of his classes next year.
After lunch, I headed to the Computer Organization and Programming class. They were covering Boolean Logic today, so I -really- felt right at home since I endured this torture fall semester in CS2. They expanded it to include circuit/gate diagrams, though, so I did learn some! Unfortunately, I had to leave early to make it back for my scholarship interview. Each student had two, and I got to speak with Dr. Cline (again) and Dr. Kalthoff. With Dr. Cline, I had an awesome conversation about the honors program itself and I also talked a bit about my science fair projects. With Kalthoff, I talked more about my personality and also mentioned Sekai no Melody as a demonstration of my leadership skills =D How’s that for some good pluggage?
After interviews, we walked to the Honors Quad (dorms) and took a brief peek into various rooms and floors (did I mention that today was TERRIBLY cold (40?F without factoring in the wind chill) but I was walking around campus most of the time?), but returned to the same building where we had scholarship interviews to listen to a presentation on undergraduate research programs. After that, we headed to the O’s Cafe for some refreshments and chatting, and then we all split for the day. I did manage to chat with three current CS majors (the guy I’d met in the morning along with two of his friends). I’m kind of psyched to be in a major that is scarce in females. It sets you apart and - no offense - guys in CS are usually pretty freaking awesome even when they are boasting. Girls boasting about CS gets kind of annoying, and yes I realize the irony since I am a girl myself, but do realize that I don’t boast about my CS skills.
I’m pretty much set on attending UT next year, but this visit has made it better for me to accept the fact that I -will- have to stick around in Texas for another 4 years before heading off somewhere else. MIT will have to wait, but they’d better take me for graduate school! =D I’m way too excited; high school needs to hurry and end already!
The funny thing is that I didn’t see anyone from the UT 2012 class on Facebook at the event =| I was hoping to meet at least that one girl, Sheejal, who was hoping to get accepted too. Ah well. When I got home, I called Sapphi for updates on scifair (apparently Tanner criticized my project? =<), ate dinner, and then got on the computer and finished up the new SnM layout, complained about stupid people to Steven, talked with Umi and Rosie, and attempted to work on my CS programs, but that fell through. Tomorrow I’ll have to make up all the work I missed for Monday, which includes doing summaries and a take-home test for Moderato Cantabile, while I am totally not understanding at all. Sigh.
EDIT: Oh yeah, never mentioned the loss of my Zune. I was having a mental breakdown this morning because I thought I had left it on the bus after the AP Biology trip or something because it wasn’t in my Alice bag. Yes, I have anger management issues, but only around people I’m comfortable with. My mother eventually found it in my backpack, which is the least logical place for it to be and thus I had never checked there. Figures.