Kestrad wrote:Aaah! Congratulations on finishing round 1!! (The physics GRE is two parts?! The bio one was only one part and it still completely wrecked me. I can't even fathom the endurance it takes to finish one part and realize you've got another one to go!) Also omg good luck with your thesis! And grad school applications! And GRE round 2! I'm so excited for you!
Thank you!! The physics GRE is just one part-- if it was two parts, I think I would riot. I'm taking the test twice because
I like to suffer it's super hard and I'm not sure how well I did the first time around.
I'm very excited about my thesis! I'm able to extend my summer research into thesis research and I have a wonderful PI, so it's been great! It's nice to have some research already done for it because I (hopefully) won't be frantically running around at the last minute because some part takes 2 months to ship.
Learning to code is such a good idea-- I had to learn some Python for physics, but they didn't formally teach us how to code. I took one CS class (also in Python) and I finally learned how to read documentation! Now, I know enough about general coding that I'm pretty self-sufficient (as long as I have internet access to google documentation lol).
Kestrad wrote:So most students only took a cs class if they were considering a degree in it. Then again, I graduated over 5 years ago (holy crap I'm getting old ) and, well, it was a women's college so the cs department was small (Thanks, microagressions! TBH a part of why I'm in software these days is definitely out of spite.) and probably couldn't have handled an influx of students only taking it for a mandatory requirement.
The CS department has grown a lot in the past few years! A CS major told me that there are so many people who want to take CS classes that it's difficult to get into the main intro CS class and the upper level classes. Apparently, first years aren't always able to get into the class despite CS being their intended major and seniors aren't always able to get into the classes they need to actually complete their major. It sounds like a bit of a mess. My intro class had around 100-110 people across all 4 course sections.
(The physics department has grown a lot too-- there were maybe 12 graduating seniors when I first arrived, but we have around 22 or 23 senior physics majors this year. It's pretty neat! Luckily, we haven't had the same issues with crowding as the CS department.)
As for the microaggressions, I've seen emails from the CS department asking for student input on diversity initiatives but I'm not familiar enough with the department to know if those initiatives have had a noticeable impact. However, I have heard through the grapevine that the department isn't great with students of color so it's possible that not much has changed since you graduated.
Also, you're getting married?? That's super exciting, congratulations!!!!