Trying to find an adviser

Continuing on my quest to add CS as a second major, today I tried to speak with an adviser in the College of Engineering. I had previously spoken with a CS departmental adviser, who pointed me to a page with information on transfer into engineering, but the little path-deciding web app returns "ineligible" when I put in my status. Since the College of Engineering maintains that system, the CS adviser suggested I see them. Alas, I only had an hour between classes and no adviser was available, so I could not see anybody today. I probably won't have time to stop in tomorrow, but I'll try to keep moving as quickly as possible.

Continuing to investigate dual degree options

For a while, I've been hoping to add a second major in CS to my current course of study in biology. The tricky part is that the CS program - and the College of Engineering in general - at this university is extremely competitive and transfer is not easy. As I heard from an adviser, apparently they consider me a transfer student due to my previous college experience, which means I don't have to be held up with the pre-engineering program, but also means there isn't an obvious path to entry into CS. I recently contacted my adviser again to get more specifics on that, but in the meantime I'm considering taking the next chemistry class online over the summer to free up space in my fall schedule. That way, I can take the next two foundation CS classes simultaneously despite them being moderately intense.

Running numbers for the lab

I'm continuing to help perform experiments in the lab, but recently I've also had the opportunity to do some data analysis on a set of aligned mRNA sequences. We're trying to determine what proportion of this protein's instances are from a certain splice variant. One might think this would be easy to detect in aligned sequences (especially since there's a consensus sequence that they're aligned to), but due to imperfect sequencing technology, there are some judgment calls. Nevertheless, I have some possible numbers that seem right from eyeballing a visual representation of the alignments. I will continue to work on making refinements and looking for interesting related metrics.

First round of exams survived

Today I got the results back from last week's differential equations exam. As expected, it turned out pretty well - I only got one point marked off (for an algebra mistake in an otherwise correct solution). This evening I took the first chemistry exam. Going in I was moderately confident, but it felt easier than I expected; I could answer all the problems without any issues. The downfall is that it was 19 multiple choice questions, so even a couple small mistakes could remove a lot of points. I'll probably find out the results at the end of this week. For a little while, I won't have to worry about any more exams.

Getting a head start on scheduling

Today I met with an academic advisor in the MCB department to discuss my schedule for the fall. Registration won't be open for a while, but I'm trying to think ahead so that I can keep open the possibility of doing a dual degree in CS as well as biology. It looks like I'll need to take the two tough foundational CS classes simultaneously if I want a good shot at admission to the program, so I wanted to see whether it was possible to do that and continue in the MCB sequence as scheduled and not go insane. There are two MCB classes that I'm expected to take next semester, plus an organic chemistry class. If I take that chemistry class over the summer, I could handle the remaining workload, even if I need to also take a physics class to be eligible for the CS transfer.

Exams OK so far

Last night's differential equations exam seemed pretty straightforward. I learned earlier this week that I scored 97% on last week's MCB exam, so things are going pretty well so far. The next test is chemistry next Tuesday, for which I will definitely want to do some reviewing.

A side effect of the trickle of exams is that I haven't yet gotten around to non-urgent things like seeing an advisor about dual degree options. I should do that very soon.

Trickle of exams

Just about a week after last Thursday's MCB exam, I have a differential equations exam tomorrow, followed soon by a chemistry exam next Tuesday. The trickle of them makes for a reasonably paced cycle of reviewing, at the cost of having no closure to a quick round of tests. Over the past few days I've reviewed for tomorrow's DE exam by looking at the practice/past tests. It's a good thing that I did, because otherwise I probably would have lost track of the tools we need to be able to use. I now feel pretty good about tomorrow, though it being an evening exam after a day of five classes will be rough.

First exam complete

This evening I took the first midterm for MCB. It was held in a theater that I hadn't taken an exam in before. I sat off to the side, which proved to be a small error because not all the lights covered the area, so shadows of my head were on the paper the whole time. Alas, I'll keep that in mind for next time.

The exam itself went decently well. There were a few questions where I waffled back and forth between two answers, but after going over them several times I'm happy with my choices. One in particular covered a little detail and took me off-guard, but I learned after returning to the dorm that my guess was correct. I'll find out tomorrow how I scored on the exam in total.

Preparing for exams again

My first exam of this second semester is this Thursday. It's shaping up to be a busy week with plenty of standard work to do and an evening meeting tomorrow. I feel moderately confident about this exam, having taken a practice test and attended a review session tonight. I'm a little concerned about it being an evening exam and me being tired for it, but Thursdays aren't terribly packed and I'll be sure to get good sleep.