How machine learning revitalized my love for computer science
As of writing this, I am in the middle of my third year for my undergraduate degree. Just like any other student, I’ve done my fair share of classes ranging from those I like to those I dislike. However, none have changed my outlook on the subject I study except one in particular.
As a student at UCSD, we follow the quarter system. To put it succinctly for those who are unaware, the more traditional approach to course instruction is the semester system, a school year typically is composed of 2 semesters of 15 to 16 weeks each. On the contrary, the quarter system is made up of 3 ‘quarters’ in a school year which lasts 10 to 11 weeks.
The most notable change that one can see is the duration of the individual components of the school year. Just think about it for a second: a student in the semester system essentially takes two sets of classes a year that can last 16 weeks, yet a student in the quarter system takes 3 sets of classes for just 10 weeks.
I believe that the quarter system is a blessing and a curse. As a student of such a system, this has changed my approach to my academics drastically. Material in each class can be covered extremely fast, and by the end of the quarter, I’m just grateful classes are over; Yet, i sometimes feel unfulfilled. It’s as if I did not engage in the material enough to have it really stick.
As such, throughout my years so far at UCSD, I’ve felt as if I have only been trekking along and only doing what is necessary from me. Beyond just imposter syndrome that many face, there have been very few instances in my higher education career that I can point to where I am truly passionate about what I’m doing. You might be asking yourself: “Why did you choose to study computer science in the first place?” and quite frankly you have a good point. I didn’t know what to study in college. I didn’t like writing nor the core science like biology and chemistry but I was good at math. I didn’t want to study pure mathematics, because I thought that it didn’t have many opprtunities in the industry with just a bachelor’s degree. I was good with computers and knew about how broad and applicable the subject was.
However, for the next two years I would continuously doubt myself as if I made the right choice. Sure I was getting good grades in my classes, but it just didn’t feel rewarding. Some might argue that’s due to the fact that these were lower division courses, but even so I didn’t fully enjoy my time. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate the many classes that I’ve taken but none have given me a sense of direction to what I would want to do beyond my graduation of my undergraduate studies.
That changed this quarter.