CMU: Week 1

One week. 7 days. 168 hours. This is my attempt at a riveting start to a quick lowdown on my first week at CMU. Except, this isn’t my first week at CMU if you count orientation week, and it isn’t really week since I’m writing this on Labor Day, Monday, which means it’s been slightly more than a week since classes started. But thanks to the American tradition of honoring the economic and social contributions of workers, there were no classes today.

In retrospect, a three-day weekend makes sense after the first week of classes. Why, you ask? Well because, truth be told, CMU hits freshmen with a shovel in the face in the first week. By the end of the first week, you can make out if you were the guy who knew when to duck, or if you just got a faceful of metal and lost a couple of teeth. Luckily, I knew when to duck. And am happy to report that the situation is well under control.

I’m taking 4 courses for the first half of the semester, and will be taking one addition course in the second mini or half-semester. Namely, they are:

• 76-101 – Interpretation and Argument: This is an English class aimed at improving argument interpreting, summarizing and argument synthesis skills.
• 22-122 – Integration, Differential Equations and Approximations: The title of this intermediate-level calculus class is pretty self-explanatory. I already know most of what’s taught in the first half of the course. It’s the approximations bit that will be new material for me.
• 33-106 - Physics I for Engineering Students: Sadly, this is a basic level physics course covering much of what I learn in 11th grade – which is annoying, because everyone else who took AP courses gets credit for this stuff. (This is usually the point when I repeatedly hit myself over the head for not bothering to independently registering for AP exams, unlike some others I know)
• 18-100 - Introduction to Electrical and Computer Engineering: This is essentially the class that makes me grin from ear to ear. Circuits, signaling, amplifiers, microprocessors, labs – a healthy mix of topics that covers a broad array of the subjects I’ll be studying over the next 4 years.
• 99-101 – Computing @ Carnegie Mellon - This is the mini course I’ll take October onwards – it’s mainly about how to use the networks and computing resources at CMU. Can’t comment more on this till I actually take the class and don’t want to base anything on hearsay.

Oh, and here’s a rough idea of what my schedule looks like.

Key points to be noted here:

1. My classes begin at 8:30. Every weekday. Before you ask, this was intentional, because I consider myself to be a morning person. It’s a different matter that this paradigm usually comes dangerously close to being dashed to the ground once you actually reach campus, but as far as possible, I do try to wake up early.
2. That lone class on Wednesday from 6:30 to 9:30 is my ECE (read Electrical and Computer Engineering) lab, where we get to do cool stuff with protoboards, solders and oscilloscopes. I am definitely looking forward to my first lab, which is this coming Wednesday.
3. There’s always time to get lunch between classes – my first block of classes ends at 10:30 AM, and the next begins at 1:30 PM.

Getting to and from classes if fun and easy – it really does only take 10 minutes to walk across campus. Classes are supposed to end 10 minutes before the designated time slot is over. So a one hour class is really just a 50 minute class. Unless, of course, the professor has other plans, and takes up another 5-6 minutes, which turns a determined walk to the next class turn into anything varying from a slow jog to a full sprint, depending on just how late you are and just how far the class is.

Class sizes for the lectures vary really – but they are large enough for a professor not to remember you by name unless you actually bother to go for office hours or walk up to him after class to clarify a doubt or two (76-101 is an exception here, because class sizes are small). Recitations, on the other hand, are small enough for you to get to know your TA (read Teaching Assistant) on a personal level if you so want. Me? I like to participate in a healthy discussion in class and hope to get to know the faculty well in the coming weeks and months.

Now that I’ve kind of described the way lectures and recitations work, perhaps talking about what actually goes on in those classes isn’t such a bad thing. Well, 21-122 has me solving integrals by parts and trigonometric substitution for now. 18-100 is going over the basics of electrical circuits. 33-106 is going over scalars and vectors (agonizing, but the depth is surprising). 76-101 has me reading blog posts about the effect of participatory media and making argument maps. I should explain that the section I took for 76-101 (Section AA) revolves around analyzing the rise of participatory media vis-a-vis a slight decline of traditional media. This section was of particular interest to me because A) I’m a blogger and B) I usually get my news and information from a healthy mix of both kinds of sources. And yes, I am loving the class, thank Bob for that.

Most classes have readings i.e. sections of the text which a student should ideally read before coming to lecture, and homework – questions and problems that need to be turned in by a certain date. Each of the homework assignments, in-class quizzes, mid-term exams (usually two-to-three per semester) and final exams, along with a number of other factors such as class participating and attendance, count towards the final grade I get on the course, which in turn affects my semester QPA, which in turn affects my cumulative QPA. What this means, in theory, is that every single thing I turn in counts towards my final grade.

Just to provide some context, I just came from a school system where everything was oriented towards the final exam – the CBSE board exam. The attitude of the school, staff and everything was all pro-finals. Monday tests could be skipped (though nobody would ever really acknowledge that fact). Sure, in earlier grades, half-yearlies and Monday test counted too, but then again, the grading just just the cumulative total of all the exams I gave. My in-class participation and homework never really counted.

At the same time, this was something I was prepared for, something I’d heard about before I even got here. Which is why I pounced on the assignments handed out on the first day (yes, they do that kind of thing at CMU), and attempted to finish them off as soon as possible, disregarding the fact that the deadlines were quite far away. That’s going to be my policy, and I shall try to stick to it as much as humanly possible.

But I will be the first to admit the fact that the homework is generally doable (with the exception of some courses, or at least this is what I’ve gathered from some of my friends). At the same time, the combination of readings, homework and revision does take up a considerable chunk of time. Each of my courses at CMU is about 9-12 units. Each unit stands for one hour of work I do for that course. A part of this (usually 3-5 units) is taken care of during lectures and recitations, but the department, and the professors, expect the students fulfill the credit hour requirement through readings, revision and homework. So, I have spent a considerable amount of time in the libraries already, keeping up with whatever the profs throw at us.

There is so much more stuff I want to talk about – food at CMU, the weather, the city, the places to explore at CMU, student organizations, games of manhunt, Disney movie marathons, how the Carnegie Mellon Tartans beat Grove City at American football, but those are topics for another day, and another post. Till then, may the force be with you. I’ll just leave you with this photo of Gesling Stadium – home to the Tartans.