So, one other part of gearing up for the AMP program is getting your brain ready to be flogged mercilessly over the next year. I have to contend that my brain typically does not get stressed as much/fast as it did while in the AMP program. My job is certainly challenging and requires lots of thinking, but the 'drinking from the fire hose' encountered during AMP is a different animal all-together.
One of the things I did prior to AMP (and have started to do again) is to try to stretch my brain in ways which are different than what I encounter at my job. In the past I have periodically read brain-teasers or thought exercises, but this time I went a different route.
I am not sure how I was turned on to this site, but somehow I ended up at Lumosity. They have a free trial to let you explore the site and their games, which gives you a good sense of how their 'brain training' actually works. I am not sure I completely buy their propaganda, but I can tell you that it is both:
a) a diversion (i.e fun) and
b) a boost in confidence about your mental acuity (through improvements seen in the games)
Clearly a big jump in one's improvement is due to practice and a deeper understanding of how the games are structured. However, I found a few games very interesting. One was the fast-food name/order matching game, which attacks one of my weaknesses - name recall. I found that after focusing on that game, I was more apt to actively attempt to remember someone's name when I meet them, and therefore have a higher probability of remembering the name.
Again, I am not completely sold on 'brain training', but I think it does have some positive benefits. Give it a try and see what you think.
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Guest Posts
So JZF has invited me to post some of my impressions to the UVA AMP blog as full-fledged posts. As usual, I wanted to completely change the way he has the blog set up, and pushed him to add a Label list on the sidebar.
Since my posts will be out of chronological order, the easiest way to access my posts, in conjunction with JZF's posts is to use the labels to find related posts. In addition, all of my posts should also have 'Guest Post', if you wanted to view posts other than JZF's.
With graduation countdown at T-6 days, I am both excited to close the chapter, but sad to move on. As I have said to everyone, like most scholastic endeavors, AMP will return in proportion to what you put into it. It is hard to move on from something you have worked hard at, even if it was painful up until the final second. Alas, time marches on.
Since my posts will be out of chronological order, the easiest way to access my posts, in conjunction with JZF's posts is to use the labels to find related posts. In addition, all of my posts should also have 'Guest Post', if you wanted to view posts other than JZF's.
With graduation countdown at T-6 days, I am both excited to close the chapter, but sad to move on. As I have said to everyone, like most scholastic endeavors, AMP will return in proportion to what you put into it. It is hard to move on from something you have worked hard at, even if it was painful up until the final second. Alas, time marches on.
New AMP Student Prep
My decision to enter AMP was made a bit late, and therefore I did not get a chance to perform all the prep I wanted to before the first week in-residence. It had been ~14 years since my undergraduate degree, and many of my academic skills and knowledge had faded. My plan was to do as much as I could before I headed down to UVA, but I only achieved cursory refresher reviews on some subjects (and no refresher on others).
Prep review has three benefits:
1) It can fill any gaps or fuzzy areas in your knowledge base. (integration by parts? huh? ohh... yeah...)
2) It will kick start the academic habits (you forget that the discipline needed after ~14 years)
3) It will give you the confidence to undertake this journey.
Here is what I suggest reviewing, if you have enough time:
A) Calculus - Integration, double integration, differentiation, etc.
I had watched several of the seminars provided by MIT's Open Courseware, and I recommend the courses with video lectures. (Check under the 'Tools' for the course)
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/
B) Probability - Discrete probabilities, PDFs, CDFs, etc.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-041-probabilistic-systems-analysis-and-applied-probability-spring-2006
C) Matrix Algebra - Representing a system of linear equations, matrix transformations and computation.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-022-calculus-fall-2005/lecture-notes/l_notes33.pdf
Prep review has three benefits:
1) It can fill any gaps or fuzzy areas in your knowledge base. (integration by parts? huh? ohh... yeah...)
2) It will kick start the academic habits (you forget that the discipline needed after ~14 years)
3) It will give you the confidence to undertake this journey.
Here is what I suggest reviewing, if you have enough time:
A) Calculus - Integration, double integration, differentiation, etc.
I had watched several of the seminars provided by MIT's Open Courseware, and I recommend the courses with video lectures. (Check under the 'Tools' for the course)
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/
B) Probability - Discrete probabilities, PDFs, CDFs, etc.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/electrical-engineering-and-computer-science/6-041-probabilistic-systems-analysis-and-applied-probability-spring-2006
C) Matrix Algebra - Representing a system of linear equations, matrix transformations and computation.
http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-022-calculus-fall-2005/lecture-notes/l_notes33.pdf
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Thus, it is done
I'm trying to keep busy, or at least keep the appearance of being busy, so I must make this brief.
AMP was awesome. The program is outstanding and very worth it IMO. If I had to do it over I would definitely do it again. I wish that I could get another Master's degree in this manner.
The last week was challenging. I explored the depths of how much sleep one can forego. But at the end of it all, much like with the program, the inconvenience was only temporary and I am left with knowing a little more about myself.
There is something to be said for finding something to do after the program to keep your momentum. I definitely recommend taking some time for R&R, of course. But how do you plan to reinforce all that you have learned? I've been reading books voraciously and have enjoyed the extra time I have to actually be able to workout.
Me and some of my mates from school will be trying to see how much more punishment we can give ourselves when we attempt tough mudder in Charlottesville in October. I think there is some degree of commonality between therace adventure and the program. http://toughmudder.com/
I'm attempting to keep a blog together at my site www.functioningacademic.com. If you are so inclined you can check in over there to see what is keeping me busy post AMP.
To borrow from Gibson, Scherer, Gibson (or GSG as we say), thus it is done. I wish all the future AMP students all the luck. Drop me a line when you have a moment.
My Best
John Fields
AMP Class of 2011
UVA
AMP was awesome. The program is outstanding and very worth it IMO. If I had to do it over I would definitely do it again. I wish that I could get another Master's degree in this manner.
The last week was challenging. I explored the depths of how much sleep one can forego. But at the end of it all, much like with the program, the inconvenience was only temporary and I am left with knowing a little more about myself.
There is something to be said for finding something to do after the program to keep your momentum. I definitely recommend taking some time for R&R, of course. But how do you plan to reinforce all that you have learned? I've been reading books voraciously and have enjoyed the extra time I have to actually be able to workout.
Me and some of my mates from school will be trying to see how much more punishment we can give ourselves when we attempt tough mudder in Charlottesville in October. I think there is some degree of commonality between the
I'm attempting to keep a blog together at my site www.functioningacademic.com. If you are so inclined you can check in over there to see what is keeping me busy post AMP.
To borrow from Gibson, Scherer, Gibson (or GSG as we say), thus it is done. I wish all the future AMP students all the luck. Drop me a line when you have a moment.
My Best
John Fields
AMP Class of 2011
UVA
Monday, February 21, 2011
The Smart Grid Initiative
This is a pretty good article that reflects what the smart grid industry is all about. As you can readily see, the smart grid initiative is very applicable to systems engineering. My parent company owns both the hardware that reports the reads back in near real time as well as the software to make it go. A classic systems problem.
http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/11/02/austin-smart-energy-project?utm_source=2011_02_21&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=IU_DAILY&utm_term=Original-Member
http://www.intelligentutility.com/article/11/02/austin-smart-energy-project?utm_source=2011_02_21&utm_medium=eNL&utm_campaign=IU_DAILY&utm_term=Original-Member
Friday, February 18, 2011
Monday, February 14, 2011
Recording your Lectures, other miscellany
I'm embarrassingly late to this, but I am really keen on recording your lectures. It's also very realistic that you might be able to record your entire program from your laptop. This is yet another example of how different school is just ten years later. In addition to your first step for every assignment being google or wolfram alpha, the ability to easily make a high quality recording, I think, is a welcomed technology advancement.
Check with your professors first! I think some of them may object, so is a good idea to check first.
One of the things that I have been thinking about as AMP winds down is how to I retain what I have learned and how do I end game. This being my second graduate degree, I can tell you that I had very unrealistic expectations of what the world would be like as soon as I received my degree. People aren't exactly standing around waiting to call you up as soon as you finish your education and send you a huge check. Well, maybe they are for some people and for better schools but it surely didn't happen for me the first. I'm actually more concerned about retaining the skillset. I don't (fortunately) use probability every day. Though I can speak to some of the topics I learned in network optimization, if I had to do a bellman ford I would have to go back through my notes.
That's a long winded way of saying listening to your lectures randomly after school is over might help you retain the information better.
"editor's note"
There may be a few more posts to come to talk about, openly, how it might be best to maximize the last stretch of classes. I can tell you that this semester has significantly less homework than the last semester.
That being said, I think I have approached the limit as to reasonable insight into the AMP program. If you are following along and are near this point in the program in years to come, you should have things figured out by now. I also don't want to completely remove any mystery that may be surrounding the program. I plan on giving insight into our capstone project, and I am very much looking forward to the last week in residence, if its anywhere as near as fun as the first week.
Aside from probability, I have been able to put in long enough hours to be reasonably happy with my grades. I'm clearly not one of the elite students in the program, but I have been able to get back up to speed and find the amount of (pain and suffering) study time that works for me. I still want another shot at probability, but at this point I know its best to let it go.
Check with your professors first! I think some of them may object, so is a good idea to check first.
One of the things that I have been thinking about as AMP winds down is how to I retain what I have learned and how do I end game. This being my second graduate degree, I can tell you that I had very unrealistic expectations of what the world would be like as soon as I received my degree. People aren't exactly standing around waiting to call you up as soon as you finish your education and send you a huge check. Well, maybe they are for some people and for better schools but it surely didn't happen for me the first. I'm actually more concerned about retaining the skillset. I don't (fortunately) use probability every day. Though I can speak to some of the topics I learned in network optimization, if I had to do a bellman ford I would have to go back through my notes.
That's a long winded way of saying listening to your lectures randomly after school is over might help you retain the information better.
"editor's note"
There may be a few more posts to come to talk about, openly, how it might be best to maximize the last stretch of classes. I can tell you that this semester has significantly less homework than the last semester.
That being said, I think I have approached the limit as to reasonable insight into the AMP program. If you are following along and are near this point in the program in years to come, you should have things figured out by now. I also don't want to completely remove any mystery that may be surrounding the program. I plan on giving insight into our capstone project, and I am very much looking forward to the last week in residence, if its anywhere as near as fun as the first week.
Aside from probability, I have been able to put in long enough hours to be reasonably happy with my grades. I'm clearly not one of the elite students in the program, but I have been able to get back up to speed and find the amount of (pain and suffering) study time that works for me. I still want another shot at probability, but at this point I know its best to let it go.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
R programming for those coming from other languages
Just found this! Could have been useful before stats/sim.
http://www.johndcook.com/R_language_for_programmers.html
http://www.johndcook.com/R_language_for_programmers.html
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Weekend miscelleanous
Stats exam was easier than I thought it was going to be. Clearly, the professor had mercy on us. But that misses the point of the class. I am pretty sure that the high pressure class, though unpleasant, leaves us retaining a lot more of the material than a laid back environment.
Stats is over now.
I regret not doing better on my sim homework, but that is a very small part of my grade. We are awaiting the final exam for Sim today. This will be a tough week because have to go back again this Friday, which means we have to finish the exam this week and prepare for the courses on Friday.
I hope to prepare for the next class today and then do the exam once it is posted.
Stats is over now.
I regret not doing better on my sim homework, but that is a very small part of my grade. We are awaiting the final exam for Sim today. This will be a tough week because have to go back again this Friday, which means we have to finish the exam this week and prepare for the courses on Friday.
I hope to prepare for the next class today and then do the exam once it is posted.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Post for Posterity
We have a stats exam tomorrow. Our final is something like 40% of our grade, so I am, as a classmate said, "Anxiety on defcon 5." I didn't realize how important the in class homework assignments(quiz) is to our grade until too late so I am regretting that move. Hopefully, that will be curved up some. I have done well on the actual homework assignments so I hope that translates well to the exam. I took the practice exam and have studied that several time so I feel pretty confident. Unfortunately, I have felt confident about tests before and bombed them so this is not a good predictor.
I have grown to quite like Prof Brown. He isn't exactly the easiest professor ever, but I liken him to the gruff football coach that you hate while you are doing the 20th wind sprint but appreciate after the fact.
I came to Charlottesville early to come to the Darden TA sessions. I have found them to be very helpful.
I am currently at the doubletree, having a refreshment and looking over the material one more time. Again.
I haven't even looked at the sim assignment. I have done well on the first couple of assignments, and the homework there constitutes 2.5% of my grade per week, so I did an optimization. Or something. I'll take a swing at it tomorrow. Saturday we play the bay game, will be nice to finally see that.
I have grown to quite like Prof Brown. He isn't exactly the easiest professor ever, but I liken him to the gruff football coach that you hate while you are doing the 20th wind sprint but appreciate after the fact.
I came to Charlottesville early to come to the Darden TA sessions. I have found them to be very helpful.
I am currently at the doubletree, having a refreshment and looking over the material one more time. Again.
I haven't even looked at the sim assignment. I have done well on the first couple of assignments, and the homework there constitutes 2.5% of my grade per week, so I did an optimization. Or something. I'll take a swing at it tomorrow. Saturday we play the bay game, will be nice to finally see that.
Sunday, January 16, 2011
stats tips learned the hard way
I've said previously I prefer R's implementation on windows over mac. I've learned a few workarounds and have an update.
As noted previously, I go to class with a Mac. It's new as of this year and has an I5, so it has great horsepower.
Prof Brown's in class assignments have a time element to them. If you are on Mac and you try to copy and paste in your graphic, your image will be rendered in PDF and you will hate your life. Your machine will be come non-responsive. This happened to me the first week and I wanted to - redacted, essentially become very aggressive with the hardware.
Learn to love the jpeg(file ="yourfilenname.jpeg") along with this trick
http://www.labnol.org/software/insert-images-in-word-documents/8144/
Essentially, as you are building your reports for homework, you can write your graphics out to a folder on your box. Then you add with insert and link to your word docs. This will keep your graphics in sink as your models change.
Before you submit, you "prepare" the doc as above in the link. Then you will want to save to PDF.
Hope that helps.
--jzf
As noted previously, I go to class with a Mac. It's new as of this year and has an I5, so it has great horsepower.
Prof Brown's in class assignments have a time element to them. If you are on Mac and you try to copy and paste in your graphic, your image will be rendered in PDF and you will hate your life. Your machine will be come non-responsive. This happened to me the first week and I wanted to - redacted, essentially become very aggressive with the hardware.
Learn to love the jpeg(file ="yourfilenname.jpeg") along with this trick
http://www.labnol.org/software/insert-images-in-word-documents/8144/
Essentially, as you are building your reports for homework, you can write your graphics out to a folder on your box. Then you add with insert and link to your word docs. This will keep your graphics in sink as your models change.
Before you submit, you "prepare" the doc as above in the link. Then you will want to save to PDF.
Hope that helps.
--jzf
Monday, January 3, 2011
Stats, Sim Update
Quick hits -
Did my sim exam weeks ago. The exam is 40% of my grade, but I am trying to be complacent with my effort to date. Being a software guy, I have some advantage to those that aren't in that the class is largely based on the R development environment.
As a .Net guy, I am automatically skeptical of open source languages. R has proven to be refreshingly well done.
I've had to go back and read/re-read my stats book. Looking back, I missed more than I am comfortable with as far as stats terminology. Also, the final exam constitutes 40% of my final grade and with my "emerging to standard" in class homework grade, I need to do well on my final.
The biggest piece of advice I can offer for stats is to read the book and be very comfortable with the day's concepts ahead of time, because you will be "tested" on them with "in class homework" which is essentially a quiz. But as far as I can tell, I have some company with so-so in homework grades, not that this is much consolation. I'm trying to look beyond grades and worry more about learning the material, but it'd be good to have good grades as well.
Did my sim exam weeks ago. The exam is 40% of my grade, but I am trying to be complacent with my effort to date. Being a software guy, I have some advantage to those that aren't in that the class is largely based on the R development environment.
As a .Net guy, I am automatically skeptical of open source languages. R has proven to be refreshingly well done.
I've had to go back and read/re-read my stats book. Looking back, I missed more than I am comfortable with as far as stats terminology. Also, the final exam constitutes 40% of my final grade and with my "emerging to standard" in class homework grade, I need to do well on my final.
The biggest piece of advice I can offer for stats is to read the book and be very comfortable with the day's concepts ahead of time, because you will be "tested" on them with "in class homework" which is essentially a quiz. But as far as I can tell, I have some company with so-so in homework grades, not that this is much consolation. I'm trying to look beyond grades and worry more about learning the material, but it'd be good to have good grades as well.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
Intro, Network and Probability
While we have a little break in school I want to circle back and jot down some quick hits about what happened in AMP before I started blogging about the experience.
For the target audience( prospective AMP students) its a good idea to come to an open house and see Saunders Hall, Darden proper and meet Prof Smith, Mrs. Harrison and Prof Scherer. Prof Scherer will be your professor for the first week of Intro.
Granted, Intro has been a long 8 months ago at this point, so my memories are probably viewed through rose colored glasses at this point. Professor Scherer is a high energy professor and one of the most talented people I've had the pleasure of being around. In hindsight, Intro plays an important role in the educational process and I won't play the spoiler. The class and the week are great. I learned a lot and I walked away from that class with a lot. My hope is that your experience there will be as good as mine or better.
The next two classes are Network Optimization and Probability. For me, probability consumed as much as 10x the amount of time as Network Optimization. I have found out, though, that others did not feel this time crunch, which is not all that hard to believe. I did not do particularly well in probability.
Network optimization is a discipline that transcends computer networks. It has very little to do with routers, subnets etc. In fact, this was a bit of a frustration for me, working in software, in that many of those that I spoke with at work heard the phrase "Network Optimization" and could not think of anything more than cat-6e and server farms.
In hindsight, I would have been well served to have taken the probability class offered by Professor Lark ahead of the AMP program. Unless you are a solid pro with probability with lots of time on your hands, its hard for me to imagine a situation where the probability refresher would be a waste of your time.
Your next classes are Risk and Econ, and I think I have those fairly well covered.
For the target audience( prospective AMP students) its a good idea to come to an open house and see Saunders Hall, Darden proper and meet Prof Smith, Mrs. Harrison and Prof Scherer. Prof Scherer will be your professor for the first week of Intro.
Granted, Intro has been a long 8 months ago at this point, so my memories are probably viewed through rose colored glasses at this point. Professor Scherer is a high energy professor and one of the most talented people I've had the pleasure of being around. In hindsight, Intro plays an important role in the educational process and I won't play the spoiler. The class and the week are great. I learned a lot and I walked away from that class with a lot. My hope is that your experience there will be as good as mine or better.
The next two classes are Network Optimization and Probability. For me, probability consumed as much as 10x the amount of time as Network Optimization. I have found out, though, that others did not feel this time crunch, which is not all that hard to believe. I did not do particularly well in probability.
Network optimization is a discipline that transcends computer networks. It has very little to do with routers, subnets etc. In fact, this was a bit of a frustration for me, working in software, in that many of those that I spoke with at work heard the phrase "Network Optimization" and could not think of anything more than cat-6e and server farms.
In hindsight, I would have been well served to have taken the probability class offered by Professor Lark ahead of the AMP program. Unless you are a solid pro with probability with lots of time on your hands, its hard for me to imagine a situation where the probability refresher would be a waste of your time.
Your next classes are Risk and Econ, and I think I have those fairly well covered.
Monday, December 20, 2010
December Break
Quite a nice break, actually. Finished the sim mid term last night. Some people did theirs last weekend. Starting on stats momentarily.
Sleep. Glorious sleep. I have been sleeping a lot since the last day of school. Slept in this weekend a little. Took a Saturday morning off.
I feel like I can see the finish line from here. There remains a rather intimidating stats exam, 2 more sessions of this semester, the electives and then the last week.
I'm starting to think hard about what to do post graduation to keep up the momentum. I want to keep studying in some capacity. The intersection of skills learned in AMP with skills applicable to the smart grid is quite significant. I'm anxious to apply some of the skills learned here to the Energy sector, perhaps I will find an as of yet undiscovered application of these skills and disciplines. Or maybe it will help me understand what we already know about energy a little better. Either way, very pleased with the relevance of the program to my particular career concentration.
We return to school in less than 2 weeks. I'm hopeful to find some time to review what we have covered in stats so far and perhaps have some time to read ahead a little.
Sleep. Glorious sleep. I have been sleeping a lot since the last day of school. Slept in this weekend a little. Took a Saturday morning off.
I feel like I can see the finish line from here. There remains a rather intimidating stats exam, 2 more sessions of this semester, the electives and then the last week.
I'm starting to think hard about what to do post graduation to keep up the momentum. I want to keep studying in some capacity. The intersection of skills learned in AMP with skills applicable to the smart grid is quite significant. I'm anxious to apply some of the skills learned here to the Energy sector, perhaps I will find an as of yet undiscovered application of these skills and disciplines. Or maybe it will help me understand what we already know about energy a little better. Either way, very pleased with the relevance of the program to my particular career concentration.
We return to school in less than 2 weeks. I'm hopeful to find some time to review what we have covered in stats so far and perhaps have some time to read ahead a little.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
An application of statistical sampling
Professor Brown, our stats teacher, has for his first lecture an example of statistics applied to the D Day invasion. The contribution from statistics and probability to the defense sector is very real and I enjoy the examples of their application.
I thought this was another interesting example.
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/12/06/military-intelligence-from-serial-numbers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheEndeavour+(The+Endeavour)
"During World War II, America and her allies needed to estimate the number of Panzer V tanks Germany had produced. The solution was simple: Look at the serial numbers of the captured tanks. If you assume the tanks had been sequentially numbered — as in fact they were — you could view the serial numbers of the captured tanks as random samples from the entire range. You could then use statistics to estimate the range and hence the number of tanks produced. More details available here."
Neat stuff.
I thought this was another interesting example.
http://www.johndcook.com/blog/2010/12/06/military-intelligence-from-serial-numbers/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+TheEndeavour+(The+Endeavour)
"During World War II, America and her allies needed to estimate the number of Panzer V tanks Germany had produced. The solution was simple: Look at the serial numbers of the captured tanks. If you assume the tanks had been sequentially numbered — as in fact they were — you could view the serial numbers of the captured tanks as random samples from the entire range. You could then use statistics to estimate the range and hence the number of tanks produced. More details available here."
Neat stuff.
Saturday, December 4, 2010
AMP as a Parent
We had an open house today and a young couple with an exceptionally cute little boy attended. Prospective AMP students may be wondering what to expect as far as attending school with small children. As a father of a little one, I think I can probably speak to the experience of attending AMP as a parent.
Any prospective graduate student must weigh the opportunity cost of attending school. Fortunately, the AMP program permits you to continue working while you obtain your master's degree from The University. This is an advantage in my opinion over quitting working to return to youreducation. There is no free lunch, however, and the stud- work model carries with it certain tradeoffs. Depending on your particular circumstances, this tradeoff will be valued differently. This is a fancy way of saying going to school with young kids while you are working means you forego time with them. I'm not a parenting expert and I offer no advice to the best age to take time away from those duties to go to school. I can however, note my experience.
Fortunately, I have lots of help and understanding from key people in my life. I have had to spring for babysitters, had to forego trick and treat and have had to bite my tongue many times to not compromise my child care coverage.
I have learned that the Saturday returning from AMP is a good night to allocate for time with the little one since your brain is very fatigued and you probably aren't going to be doing a lot of studying anyway.
I do want to be clear about something, though. I do not consider having a child while attending AMP(or any graduate school) to be a complete disadvantage. I will tell you that the level of motivation that you have while attending graduate school sans child just doesn't compare(or at least it didn't for me) as when you have a child. Again, this may be my personal thing, but failing yourself is much more forgivable than failing your offspring.
As with all things, when you have a little one that depends on you for everything, you must weigh your decisions carefully. This includes studying a little longer, going with a little bit less sleep, and suffering a little bit more.
The other advantage is that as a parent, you are already accustomed to your time not being your own, having to forego certain luxuries, and showing up to work with no sleep and still delivering.
In Intro, we had a time where we went around the room and shared a little something about ourselves. I deliberately didn't mention my son, only because I didn't (and still don't) want special treatment. Predictively, this came out soon enough anyway, just for scheduling reasons. In hindsight, I wish I had shared this, but in fairness, my interviewer didn't know to ask.
The takeaway is this. Attending AMP with a little one is completely doable. Things may be different for you, but you should be accustomed to this. For me, its an excellent opportunity to positively influence your little one by setting an example of lifetime learning.
Any prospective graduate student must weigh the opportunity cost of attending school. Fortunately, the AMP program permits you to continue working while you obtain your master's degree from The University. This is an advantage in my opinion over quitting working to return to youreducation. There is no free lunch, however, and the stud- work model carries with it certain tradeoffs. Depending on your particular circumstances, this tradeoff will be valued differently. This is a fancy way of saying going to school with young kids while you are working means you forego time with them. I'm not a parenting expert and I offer no advice to the best age to take time away from those duties to go to school. I can however, note my experience.
Fortunately, I have lots of help and understanding from key people in my life. I have had to spring for babysitters, had to forego trick and treat and have had to bite my tongue many times to not compromise my child care coverage.
I have learned that the Saturday returning from AMP is a good night to allocate for time with the little one since your brain is very fatigued and you probably aren't going to be doing a lot of studying anyway.
I do want to be clear about something, though. I do not consider having a child while attending AMP(or any graduate school) to be a complete disadvantage. I will tell you that the level of motivation that you have while attending graduate school sans child just doesn't compare(or at least it didn't for me) as when you have a child. Again, this may be my personal thing, but failing yourself is much more forgivable than failing your offspring.
As with all things, when you have a little one that depends on you for everything, you must weigh your decisions carefully. This includes studying a little longer, going with a little bit less sleep, and suffering a little bit more.
The other advantage is that as a parent, you are already accustomed to your time not being your own, having to forego certain luxuries, and showing up to work with no sleep and still delivering.
In Intro, we had a time where we went around the room and shared a little something about ourselves. I deliberately didn't mention my son, only because I didn't (and still don't) want special treatment. Predictively, this came out soon enough anyway, just for scheduling reasons. In hindsight, I wish I had shared this, but in fairness, my interviewer didn't know to ask.
The takeaway is this. Attending AMP with a little one is completely doable. Things may be different for you, but you should be accustomed to this. For me, its an excellent opportunity to positively influence your little one by setting an example of lifetime learning.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
PC or MAC
short answer - PC
long answer - I bought a macbook pro for alterior motives. I wanted to get on the platform so that I could have something to dev I phone apps on. As a technologist, I recognize this an emerging part of the market. It's part of my job to be on top of these like this. Plus, as a guy that spends a lot of time on the computer, the hardware is first class.
As a student, though, going Mac has not been without its disadvantages. R behaves differently. You will need a special cord for the break out rooms to use the projector. Office works differently. Perhaps most maddeningly is office 2008 didn't handle formula symbols very well, which meant I had to use PC.
If you are looking to optimize your capability as a student, I say go PC. You won't need an amazing machine, only something you are comfortable with . Any CPU from the last 5 years will suffice.
My $.02
long answer - I bought a macbook pro for alterior motives. I wanted to get on the platform so that I could have something to dev I phone apps on. As a technologist, I recognize this an emerging part of the market. It's part of my job to be on top of these like this. Plus, as a guy that spends a lot of time on the computer, the hardware is first class.
As a student, though, going Mac has not been without its disadvantages. R behaves differently. You will need a special cord for the break out rooms to use the projector. Office works differently. Perhaps most maddeningly is office 2008 didn't handle formula symbols very well, which meant I had to use PC.
If you are looking to optimize your capability as a student, I say go PC. You won't need an amazing machine, only something you are comfortable with . Any CPU from the last 5 years will suffice.
My $.02
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Stats is hard
i'm just now finishing up week 1's homework assignment. Some things the prospective AMP student needs to know;
You've probably just finished up Risk. Stats will give you no quarter.
Do prepare for Stats. Our class appears to be "emerging to standard" to put it nicely. Professor Brown suggested, in response to our exasperation, to practice as we read through.
which brings me to my next point. Do read through first. It's clear those of us who have read and those of us who haven't.
You will want to fully absorb this course as the skills learned here are powerful. So is risk. I think maybe we over-did risk at the expense of Stats. That's the royal we.
R is very much like programming, or so it seems to those who don't program for a living. So if you aren't comfortable developing by google, you will need extra time to get comfortable with R. There is no escaping this.
You've probably just finished up Risk. Stats will give you no quarter.
Do prepare for Stats. Our class appears to be "emerging to standard" to put it nicely. Professor Brown suggested, in response to our exasperation, to practice as we read through.
which brings me to my next point. Do read through first. It's clear those of us who have read and those of us who haven't.
You will want to fully absorb this course as the skills learned here are powerful. So is risk. I think maybe we over-did risk at the expense of Stats. That's the royal we.
R is very much like programming, or so it seems to those who don't program for a living. So if you aren't comfortable developing by google, you will need extra time to get comfortable with R. There is no escaping this.
Monday, November 15, 2010
Early Bird Penalty
I think it is fair to say that your success in AMP will in some part depend on your ability to make time to study. Each person in AMP will have a different personal schedule, but I think it is fair to say that with a full time job, a little boy who has his father's personality and various other commitments, i'm as stretched thin as anybody else in the program.
What I have discovered is that there is a bit of an early bird penalty. What happens is that the homework assignment is given to the cohort shortly after the class is over. Invariably, there will be things that are unclear about the assignment. As members of the cohort begin to ask questions of the TA or other members, items that are unclear are resolved. The first person to "pioneer" through the assignment does so without the benefit of someone else finding all the nebulous items and getting clarification from the TA. If things are unclear to enough people, the TA will send out an email clarifying the assignment. If you didn't have this information, you may spin your wheels in the wrong direction for some time, or sit there and scratch your head and try to figure out what you are missing. Thus, the early bird tax. Those that come through later have the benefit of those that go before.
On the other hand, those that do their homework late play a different game. There is only so much time for the material to sink and for the student to iterate over their work. So, we have a bit of a trade off. I tend to get a bit anxious if I don't have my homework squared away, so the early bird penalty is worth it to me, because at least I feel like I am putting in work towards learning.
Sometimes it makes sense, especially if the assignment builds upon itself, to only go so far and let things shake out.
If you are fortunate enough to have a job that will let you flex work, then this is the time to get in work. If things are still unclear about the assignment, put in work with your day job so that you can have more time to work on the assignment en masse.
Okay, my $.02 and unrefined. I need to get back to studying.
What I have discovered is that there is a bit of an early bird penalty. What happens is that the homework assignment is given to the cohort shortly after the class is over. Invariably, there will be things that are unclear about the assignment. As members of the cohort begin to ask questions of the TA or other members, items that are unclear are resolved. The first person to "pioneer" through the assignment does so without the benefit of someone else finding all the nebulous items and getting clarification from the TA. If things are unclear to enough people, the TA will send out an email clarifying the assignment. If you didn't have this information, you may spin your wheels in the wrong direction for some time, or sit there and scratch your head and try to figure out what you are missing. Thus, the early bird tax. Those that come through later have the benefit of those that go before.
On the other hand, those that do their homework late play a different game. There is only so much time for the material to sink and for the student to iterate over their work. So, we have a bit of a trade off. I tend to get a bit anxious if I don't have my homework squared away, so the early bird penalty is worth it to me, because at least I feel like I am putting in work towards learning.
Sometimes it makes sense, especially if the assignment builds upon itself, to only go so far and let things shake out.
If you are fortunate enough to have a job that will let you flex work, then this is the time to get in work. If things are still unclear about the assignment, put in work with your day job so that you can have more time to work on the assignment en masse.
Okay, my $.02 and unrefined. I need to get back to studying.
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