Major Discovery

ENGR 101

I entered UW as an engineering major with only an amorphous idea of the actual work engineers undertake. Luckily, the same is true for most incoming engineering students, so we are required to take ENGR 101, a seminar in which engineers of all disciplines present on their jobs. This was one of the best classes I took during my first quarter – not because I found it interesting, but because I didn’t. I sat through 10 weeks of speakers who explained their own journeys through engineering, and none of them grabbed my attention. By the end of the quarter, I made up my mind: engineering was not for me.

This artifact was the culminating project in ENGR 101. My team was assigned the problem of “making surgeries safer,” for which we had to devise a solution and explain how different engineering disciplines might contribute to implement and maintain our system. My partners immediately claimed their slides, hoping to discuss the disciplines they wanted to study. I, on the other hand, had no preference or passion for a specific discipline, and was dutifully assigned whatever was left over. That was alright with me, since I was already looking forward to the next quarter.

CSE 143

In my second quarter, I gave myself room to experiment, taking an introductory computer science course (CSE 143) that changed my perspective on the subject. I had always shunned CS as a major option, determined to stay away from a life bogged down by computer monitors. However, 143 showed me that CS is more than rote programming. Instead of just learning syntax and jargon, I was able to apply concepts to various applications – building a game of hangman or compressing files for storage. I was enthralled by the algorithmic thinking associated with CS, where each idea was logical, each step planned. Furthermore, I was able to discuss the mathematical background and ethical questions of CS in an associated honors seminar, getting an idea of where the field has come from and what questions (technical and societal) are still unanswered. This class illuminated the diversity of opportunities in CS, which ultimately convinced me to apply for the major.

This artifact showcases one of the applications I had to build for a homework assignment. It allows you to simulate the vibrations of guitar strings, which can be read by your computer and translated into sound. It was the first coding assignment I had done in which the end result served a genuine purpose, rather than just being an assignment for the sake of learning. I have attached a clip of my guitar program playing [insert song here]. (I tried to translate one of my favorite songs at the time, “Sea of Love” by Cat Power, into the machine code, but it ended up being a collection of sporadic, off-key notes. I thought the reader might enjoy this more.)

CSE Application

I applied to the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering during the spring of my freshman year. This is one of the more competitive majors at UW, accepting only 7% of direct-to-major freshman applicants, and even fewer applicants already at the school. I had a pretty good academic standing and demonstrated interest in the program, as I was concurrently taking a non-major CS course and working in an INFO school lab. However, as many students describe it, the CS admissions process is somewhat of a lottery, so it was a nervewracking process of writing, revising, and peer reviewing that led me to my final application.

I was admitted during the summer between my freshman and sophomore year. Receiving this acceptance letter was extremely validating, since it was the culmination of all the hard work I had put into the past year. It was also an exciting moment for the scholar in me, since it meant that the majors-only courses in computer science were now fair game. I remember rushing to my computer and planning out the courses I wanted to take for the next few years – rifling through old course websites and syllabi, checking scores on RateMyProfessor. Most people hate registration, but it’s my idea of a good time.

MATH 464

Now that you’ve seen my journey into computer science, its time to talk about math. I had always planned on double majoring in math, even when I was on the engineering track, but it wasn’t until the spring quarter of my freshman year that I was able to take an upper-level math course. I petitioned into MATH 464, thanks to Professor Bube graciously overloading his course, and showed up on the first day of class excited to take on this challenge. About halfway through the first lecture, when I was hopelessly lost and all the other students around me seemed bored by the minutia of definitions they had previously learned, I began to regret this decision.

After reflecting, I decided to stick it out for at least the first week. The lectures started to make more sense, the first homework assignment came and went, and pretty soon I found myself in a good rhythm. I closed out the course with a perfect score on the final, which I had studied for more than any other test in my academic career. This was a major personal accomplishment, since I was taking this course to be a litmus test for whether or not I would succeed in the math major. I ended up applying for the major the following fall, gaining entrance during winter quarter. Since then, the math courses I have taken have been some of my favorite courses here at UW, each offering a unique challenge, like MATH 464, along with a litany of interesting topics that I hope to continue exploring in graduate school.