Education Summary

I've been attending college for the last 5 years. I am currently pursuing a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley, possibly to be followed by an additional degree in Chemistry or Computational Chemistry (if the latter degree is available at an institution I want to attend). I have already completed the necessary coursework for AS degrees in Computer Science, Management Information Science, Web Development, and Mathematics, and an AA degree in Business.

Note: unit numbers to the right aside from the total need to be updated.

Graduation Counter

There are 92 days (13.1 weeks) until I graduate.

Spring 2012

Note: Planned semester not in progress.
Probably my last semester at Berkeley unless I apply for a 5th.

Intro to Technology, Society, and Culture satisfies the ethics course requirement.

I'm just taking care of a few remaining degree requirements at this point. One more "design course" (user interface) that should be somewhat time consuming, computer security of medium difficulty, and a last humanities course. It's not a really hard semester or an especially easy one either, but a good one toward the less stressful end of the spectrum that I think will be a good one to end with. I'll likely need to squeeze in some interviews during this semester as well.

After Spring 2012 I plan to occasionally take courses at community colleges, CSUs, or UC Extensions as they seem useful to things I'm working on.

Fall 2011

Note: Planned semester not in progress.

I'm taking some Bioengineering and Physics classes this semester to satisfy some personal interest that is a bit outside the typical EECS curriculum. Thankfully the Bioengineering courses count toward the "Technical Engineering Courses" unit requirement.

Summer 2011

Note: Planned semester not in progress.

Spring 2011

This was a pretty rough semester. Both Compilers and Operating Systems are "design courses", "providing a major design experience based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier coursework and incorporating engineering standards and realistic constraints". Typically they wouldn't be taken together but with the difficulty of getting into classes (due to both class sizes and overlapping schedules) I decided to take them as soon as I could get in.

Taking these classes together actually provided a lot of insight into groups and people that I might not have learned if I had taken them separately. Both classes involve group projects and, as you may expect, several members in each group either did not work or did not do any reasonable approximation of their share of the work. If I had taken them separately, I would have been irritated but would have been able to pick up the slack without too much stress. Taking them together, I was able to pick up a lot of the slack but not enough to fully compensate for several group members in multiple groups simultaneously. This provided a situation where I really needed my team and had to learn to get things done with limited personal resources.

Also interesting to me was that in Operating Systems I had a plan in the beginning of the semester to select the best people from the class so that I would be able to divide that class's work evenly and not be overloaded. I selected team members T and X, and X then recommended Y and Z. I met all these people in Machine Structures the previous semester and all seemed very competent. Unfortunately, X and Y did no work at all on the project the whole semester. What was interesting to me was that both of these people are in fact competent and able to do the work but simply chose not to, because grading is not sufficiently based on participation for their nonparticipation to matter to them. So even though it burdened the others in their team, their concern was for optimizing how they look on paper. On paper they're taking a bunch of classes, getting pretty good grades overall, and doing a lot of extra-curriculars, so they look like great people to hire. Good luck with that, if they end up where you work. My mistake here was picking really smart people without considering their work ethic and motivations. There are a lot of lessons learned here about their methods, but I won't go into all of it, except to say that I think lessons learned will carry over to a corporate environment. I'm glad that one of my picks, T, really kicked ass.

There was a different but similar situation in Compilers. In summary, the semester was really rough and at times it looked like my GPA was going to decline dramatically. A friend of mine was encouraging me to just accept this fact, but by not accepting it and not reducing my expectations, even though it was a lot more stressful and a lot more work, I managed to claw my way back to a pretty good semester GPA.

I also was a Lab Assistant for Machine Structures this semester, which was fun.

Fall 2010

I took Summer 2010 off because Chem 405: Quantitative Analysis, was not offered at any of the local community colleges, and I wanted some time to prepare for moving to Berkeley rather than being thrust immediately into the semester there while also looking for housing, learning where things are on campus, etc.

Pre-semester notes: I was trying to take Chem 15 (similar to above and prerequisite for Physical Chemistry) at Cal this semester but the schedule didn't work out, so I'm trying to get into CS 170 (Efficient Algorithms) instead. I want to make good use of my time at Cal and get as many useful classes under my belt as I can before I use up all my available semesters (they say we get 4 with a very small chance of 5). There is also a unit cap so I am trying to time it so I will go over the unit cap in my last semester and overrun it by quite a bit.

Post-semester notes: I ended up dropping Microelectronic Circuits due to the structure of the class. Lectures didn't seem to cover the material necessary to do the homeworks, and homeworks were assigned at too short intervals so I didn't have time to do any practice problems before doing the homeworks. I was thinking about sticking it out and then I got sick for the second time in my first five weeks at Cal, so on the day of the drop deadline I cut that one loose. Although I was hoping to move through classes faster, I think it's also important to not put myself in a situation that could dramatically reduce my GPA.

Spring 2010

I should be transferring after this semester. Also, the combination of math courses I'll have taken up to this point will have made me eligible for an AS degree in Mathematics. I had to enroll in all but one class at American River College due to class schedule overlaps at Sacramento City College.

Because the ARC version of Physics II and III were only 4 units and because of their nice schedule organization, I was also able to fit Ballroom Dance into my schedule. I've been meaning to take a fun course for a while but haven't had time until now. I was considering squeezing in a few other courses as well, but I think whether I transfer or not will not be affected much by doing so, so I've chosen not to exhaust myself in my last semester before transfer.

Fall 2009

I had planned to take Organic Chemistry this semester in addition to the classes I did take, listed below, but there just weren't enough hours in a week to make that practical. I still intend to take Organic Chemistry at some later date, but it isn't worth risking my hard earned GPA taking on the additional burden this semester.

Also, I am retaking Data Structures at ARC because it transfers to more universities than CRC's Data Structures that I took a few semesters ago.

Post-semester update: This felt like a very challenging semester, although in hindsight I suppose not more than some I've had in the past. I'm very glad that it turned out so well. During this semester I also had to complete my UC application, which made the month of November more challenging.

Also, although Data Structures was a repeat course, there were several programming assignments that were different from those at CRC. If I remember correctly, the CRC course did not include Binary Search Tree or Heap (they were discussed but not coded, although similarly complex data structures were coded). This course also included a mergesort, whereas a quicksort was assigned at CRC.

Summer 2009

The most important class this semester is Calculus. Taking this class in the summer will keep me on track to complete the calculus and related math series before transferring, and also makes it possible to take the first two physics courses. I will likely not take the third physics course in the series because it is not required for my major if I were to transfer to UC Berkeley, so it would be additional work and GPA risk for little benefit. However, it is required if I were to transfer to UC Davis, so I may take it for that reason. I will also be speaking to counselors at various colleges about GPA calculations, course articulation, and so on. Hopefully I will not need to retake Data Structures in the Fall, because I took it at CRC instead of ARC.

Now isn't the time to slow down. This semester, I need to get other obligations out of the way and from then on hit the books as I was doing originally. 3 years from today to a degree is better than never, and I can still look for other opportunities along the way, but the opportunities will likely be better after transfer so I need to at least do that.

Spring 2009

In Spring 2009 I'll be taking the second semesters of biology and chemistry, working toward finishing both series. My plan is to complete a substantial amount of sciences before transferring in order to make a successful transfer more likely. Also this semester I will be taking the last course I need for a Business AA, business math. Lastly, I'll be taking precalculus, that will allow me to begin the calculus series next semester.

Note: This semester is now complete. Animal Bio was a very time consuming class, but I ended up learning a lot from it. Also during this semester I was attempting to build a supplement to the current transfer planning site, assist.org called AssistPlus with major goals of creating an API that would allow more automation of planning tasks. I also build a rather good prototype of an online Intersegmental General Education Transfer Certificate form for use by Sacramento City College, but when funding did not come through to complete the work this project was (at least temporarily) abandoned. I also did some a few weeks of contract work for someone running for political office in Texas.

Unfortunately, when balancing all these demands on my time, sometimes not everything works out perfectly. Overall though, I'm satisfied with how this semester ended. After realizing I'd overextended myself about midway through the semester, I refocused on my grades because ultimately that is the record I will be judged by in the near future. The lower bound I have set for myself is a minimum 3.5 GPA in any one semester and I am glad to have continued to meet that standard. Currently I'm considering taking 25 units of math, science, and computer science courses in Fall 2009. I'm nervous about this but I believe I can continue to meet this standard even under that workload. We'll find out in the Fall, I suppose.

Fall 2008

I haven't had a math course since high school, which for me means about ten years ago. Therefore I've chosen to take a couple of the easier math classes this semester, but take two at the same time. I plan on paying close attention so that when I take Calculus all of this will be fresh in my mind and second nature. In the past I haven't emphasized math so much in my independent learning, but because of the careers I am considering math has become more practical.

Summer 2008

During the summer I provided contract web development services to the Center for Collaborative Policy at CSUS. Also for a variety of sites owned by SacData.com that are still under construction by their full time personnel, and provided PHP training for SacData.com personnel. I also completed Compare Curriculums, which got listed on SlashDot as one part of my marketing efforts. Additionally, I began working on a new site at www.localhangout.net www.meetpeopleat.com.

An increased workload as well as some procedural difficulties in registering for other classes resulted in the low course load this semester. I'm looking forward to resuming a quicker pace in the fall, though again due to workload I will probably only be taking 18 units instead of 30-something.

Spring 2008

Between the end of the Fall 2007 semester and the start of Spring semester I spent 3 weeks at the 24 hour Starbucks bringing my math skills up to speed. I haven't had a reason to invest the time in it previously, as high school algebra is all that is generally needed. A computer science degree though requires three semesters of Calculus and then some. In that three week period I was able to progress from high school algebra up to precalculus according to my school's assessment test, just a few points short of testing into calculus. Not bad, I think, for someone that hasn't had a math class since 9th grade algebra almost 10 years ago.

I was planning on retaking the test to get into Calculus, but the instructors in almost every class I took all started the semester with an unusually high workload. Also, by the end of the second week it was clear that General Chemistry would be a challenging class and that having extra time to study for it would be useful. Three quarters of the class failed the first exam. I received either the highest grade in the class or close to it, with a 77.5%. Yes, you read correctly. There were no As or Bs on the first exam for this instructor. Apparently, as the old knight said in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, I chose my instructor unwisely. The other instructor teaching the same course handed out a dozen As on the first exam.

Update at the end of Fall semester: even with the highest grade in the class my instructor assigned me a B, meaning there will be no As for the class. I will be disputing this grade with the Chemistry department head.

During the semester I also hastily put up a shirt selling website and attempted to market it somewhat with the limited time I had available, at www.DemocratShirts.net. Personally I am not partisan but the Republicans have been screwing up more than usual lately and I saw an opportunity in that. Also, I have organized a local web developers group of seven students from my Web Projects class and a few other people from out of state, and we plan to do contract work and possibly an entrepreneurial endeavor sometime in the summer, circumstances permitting.

I also put together a few concept websites, some of which are bare bones skeletons, others marginally more, at www.RelationalThesaurus.com, www.JobCompare.info, www.JogUp.com, and www.DontBeAnIdiot.info. I also built another site that is fully functional and looks and performs well, but I decline to mention it for the moment. Lastly, as part of my Web Projects class I built the PHP back end for the Sacramento City College Transfer Center and Directors of Volunteers in Agencies.

Ah, yes, and I almost forgot. At the end of this semester I'll have fulfilled all the general education requirements to get most of the associates degrees mentioned in my Fall 2007 comments. Unfortunately I will still have three general education classes left before I meet the IGETC requirements to transfer, and two classes left before I can get my Business AA.

Fall 2007

I heavily rearranged classes from what I had planned -- a rather difficult thing to do at the last minute, relatively speaking. Instead of pursuing an Associates in Science degree in Business and many related Associates in Science degrees such as Business Management, Small Business Management, and Bookkeeping and Office Administration, I have decided to pursue an Associates in Arts degree in Business instead, which I will transfer to a university. I will still be getting Associates in Science degrees in Management Information Science, Web Development, and Computer Information Science.

Now that I'm closer to transferring, and after approximating that it will only take one year to get a Bachelors in Science degree in Business Administration, it doesn't seem as valuable to have multiple AS degrees related to business. I am assuming, and have gotten the same opinion from many other people whose opinions I believe are credible, that after I have the Bachelors degree, the many Associates degrees I have in a similar area will not matter much. This will be even more true after I receive a Masters in Business Administration, which should happen around the end of 2010 if I proceed at a moderate pace.

For the same reason, I eliminated any further courses from my plans that were required for the Webmaster Career Certificate. Because I will already have an Associates in Science in Web Development, the CC probably won't matter. Even though it takes just as much work as an Associates degree and has somewhat divergent course requirements, it doesn't really add much to the resume. So, I will probably take any useful classes from that CC separately. Or, gasp, I could teach myself from a book or something.

Note : Due to doing all the advanced assignments, recieved 117% final grade in C#, similar to what I received in C++ in the Spring.

Summer 2007

Well, that was interesting. Thirty units in one semester, and actually it wasn't as bad as I expected. I did, however, get a B. I suppose I could have gotten the A, but I will admit it, I was getting a bit worn out by the end of the semester. It's not the end of the world.

Spring 2007

After getting back into the college routine, I decided I could handle a larger load of units, so increased to 32. This is about double what is considered a heavy load, although I will admit many of these classes are beneath my skill level and so didn't require the typical amount of effort. These are all required either for a degree or various certificates I am pursuing. I also built FindItGetIt.com during this semester as well as the previous version of the site you're viewing now.

Fall 2006

This was my first semester back in college since I was 16, so I took a light load of "only" 20 units. Most of these courses were introductory and I took them simply because they were required for my eventual degree or for certifications.