Fall'08 balance (beginning of week 8) - part I

As promised, I'll try to put in writing a few ideas collected during this first quarter. Tomorrow we're starting the 8th week. Each quarter has 10 weeks for instruction plus one week for the finals. Up until now, as expected, I have had good and bad moments. I would like to share some of those with you.

I consider myself a reasonably stable guy. Such stability is, however, sometimes questioned when you're in a strange environment, surrounded by different people and facing an highly competitive environment. You tend to question very basic things. God knows the work I had in preparing my application to UCSD, but in the very first couple of weeks here, when facing small adversities, everything seems to be questionable. Even your mental health! I was asking myself: "what on earth am I doing here?". "I could be home, near the people I love, have a nice job, facing tasks I can handle". And although UCSD has practically all sorts of facilities around the campus, it doesn't seem to hold an office for motivating students to hold on to their endeavors. You need to find that on your own! As I said, being in a strange environment with different cultures and people, I think even the most stable guy can fall apart. But truth be said, I was not completely alone. Although I had just met André, I felt like I knew him for years! I've mentioned is name in this blog before, he is a phd student at UCSD in his third year now. He was the first one telling me to hold on through this first year. "It's tough, but you need to pull it off", "Don't let yourself go down". A student's life is not that bad; what bothers me is that I'm just not used to be a student anymore. Need to regain practice. Students do things without question, just because the Professor tells them to do so. That's all I need to do :-) 

I've to admit, not surprisingly, this is really a great place to live and one of the top universities in the country to do research. No doubt about that!

But moving on...

I think I'll be facing a dilemma in the next quarter. Because I'm not willing to put that much effort as I'm putting in the present one... Please don't think that I'm lazy. True, I have my laziness as much as the next person. But this place is, indeed, very demanding. UCSD is part of what people call the "public Ivy", which is a group of public universities in the US trying to "provide an Ivy League(1) collegiate experience at a public school price." 

Looking back in time, I can only compare this period of my life, with the time I was taking my masters and working at the same time. Those were also though days. And now, as in the past, I need to establish goals. Set landmarks. And my current objective is to finish this quarter with the best grades I can get.

Speaking of which... 

One thing I'm still very suspicious about, is the grading schema at graduate school. People say that at the graduate level, everyone will get either an A or a B. Which, as you might now, are good grades. I'm not very confident that this is always true, although I can make some sense out of the rationale behind this, I prefer to wait and see. Most naturally, as in so many universities through out the world, foreign graduate students pay heavy fees. Here, the ratio of what a California resident pays vs. a non-California resident (non-US or other states) is in the order of four less. In favor of California residents... In the end of the day, they'll be loosing a lot of money by sending me home :-) 

Getting back to grading issue: it's important in the sense that you're encouraged by your department to maintain a certain level (GPA). For the ECE department we have to maintain a B or B+ GPA. If you go bellow this, you can actually be thrown out of the program. Which wouldn't be very nice, especially after you've put so much effort into it.

I have brilliant colleagues, and although all the effort I've been putting in school, at this moment, and with such a long period of absence from student's life, I'm afraid I can't reach their level. I'm not really concerned or surprised about that, because I've my own ideas on what to do around here and with whom to do it.

It's time for a short break now. I'll try to pick up this balance later on during the week. 

Just a quick note to thank everyone who is continuously supporting me in this task. Always trying to do what is best for me, you know that I'll try not to let you down!

------------

(1) - the Ivy League is an athletic conference comprising eight private institutions of higher education in the Northeastern United States. The term is most commonly used to refer to those eight schools considered as a group. The term also has connotations of academic excellence, selectivity in admissions, and a reputation for social elitism.