stefan@wheaton.UUCP (Stefan Brandle) (12/06/86)
I graduated this year with a BA (cum laude) in philosophy. The last
two years I have been getting more and more interested in computers
and computer science. Specifically, I think that I would like to teach
CS at the university level. The rub is that my degree is not in CS. I
have been taking a fair number of science courses in the last two years,
but it still amounts to only +- a minor in CS.
Relevant courses I've had are intro & intermediate CS (Pascal, structured
programming, basic data structures, etc), data structures (advanced
structures, file management, data bases, searching, sorting), programming
languages (intro to tons of languages, fsa, language parsing, disecting
Wirth's small Pascal), ai (lithp, prolog, reasoning {ie itp}, expert
systems), computer systems and organization (computer architect., machine
language, several assemblers, logic design), independent study in parallel
processing, calc I & II, discrete, linear algebra & differential eqns., and
symbolic logic. I will be taking a class in operating systems next semester.
Areas of special interest are networking, AI, operating systems, and natural
language processing. However, I want to cover as many fields as possible.
At least, I'd like to get acquainted with them.
I worked as a CS lab assistant here the last year and a half and
am currently working for Wheaton College (the lucky Alma Mater) in charge
of running their computer labs, directing the lab assistants, and helping
users with their needs. My area of responsability towards users is the
academic users (faculty and students) -- as opposed to assisting school
administration.
I would like to hit grad school next fall. A number of schools should be
sending me the application stuff right now, but I'm afraid that they will
look down their noses at my background. Does anyone have any suggestions
on how to present myself so that schools will give me a chance? Somebody
suggested that I need contacts. Should I phone up the department chairs?
If anyone out on the net is willing to help me get in contact with the
right people at a good school, or if any of you is one of the *right people*
and you think I might have a chance at your school, please let me know.
Thanks for any help,
Stefan Brandle
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Stefan Brandle UUCP: ihnp4!wheaton!stefan
Wheaton College "But I never claimed to be sane!"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------wfi@rti-sel.UUCP (William Ingogly) (12/08/86)
In article <343@wheaton.UUCP> stefan@wheaton.UUCP (Stefan Brandle) writes: >I would like to hit grad school next fall. A number of schools should be >sending me the application stuff right now, but I'm afraid that they will >look down their noses at my background. Does anyone have any suggestions >on how to present myself so that schools will give me a chance? Somebody >suggested that I need contacts. Should I phone up the department chairs? Some schools are more hard-nosed than others about getting people with a heavy CS background. When I started graduate school in CS at the University of North Carolina, many of my fellow graduate students had liberal arts/humanities backgrounds. Four years later, departmental policy seems to have changed: they're getting away from admitting folks with non-CS backgrounds which I think is a BIG mistake (some of the most creative people in the department when I was there came from a non-CS background). I think the key is to sell yourself to someone in the department so you have an advocate. Get a copy of the catalog and see who in the department has been doing research in your areas of interest. Then schedule a trip to the school and talk to these people about your interests, showing them (if you can) some of your undergrad work. It sounds like you have a VERY solid minor in CS, so I don't think you have that much to worry about. By the way, my undergraduate major was English literature. I finished my MS in computer science in 1985. Good luck. -- Cheers, Bill Ingogly