July 2003

I guess it all started around 7 AM Wednesday morning when I woke up. I noticed Windows 2000 was reporting errors about not being able to write to certain portions of my hard drive. I ignored it at that time because sometimes my laptop does quirky things, and I was pretty busy with class and stuff. However by the time I had time to deal with it (haha… while I was in Human Sexuality class supposed to be paying attention!) I couldn’t get my laptop to boot. The \winnt\system32\drivers folder was completely corrupted.

After some time trying to restore the directory, and even trying to do an alternate install on my second partition, I gave up and booted from my trusty Linux boot CD to start data recovery. A painful 36 hours later (by Friday night at 3 AM) I had recovered all of my data that I needed (by tar’ing as much as could fit in the RAM drive and ftp’ing it to my desktop computer – trust me, it was VERY painful but totally worth it to have my data!).

Now that the data is off of the drive, I have been able to try formatting and running disk diagnostics that would have otherwise destroyed the data. It would seem that I do indeed have a physically bad drive. In fact, while I was running the Department of Defense’s 7-pass format (0-write) utility, the output rate got slower and slower until it finally stopped. I believe the head finally gave out. I’m not sure, but now I cannot run any formatting utilities :-O

So anyway, I actually got to witness the physical death of my hard drive. *Sigh* it’s back to Rensselaer Computer Repair (RCR) on Monday to see if I can get a new hard drive. This will be the 6th time I’ve had them fix my laptop. It’s not that I’m hard on it, the laptop of my year just sucks. I mean, ’s LCD just gave out. My LCD also needs to be replaced, it just developed a dead row of pixels a few weeks ago… Here’s a list of the other things I’ve had replaced:

- New motherboard (the modem didn’t work, but since it’s integrated they replaced the motherboard)
- New “bezel” (the front part of the case – it was cracked)
- New keyboard mounting
- New LCD (row of dead pixels formed)
- New bezel, again

And now a new hard drive and another LCD. Again, I swear I’m not abusive towards my laptop! I haven’t put any stickers on it, I treat it with care at all times I’ve been told that they keep hard drives in stock, and they should be able to swap a new one in after they run some tests on it. Also, they don’t carry the 30 GB hard drives any more (which is what I have) they only have 45 GB. So I’ll actually get an upgrade Yay for upgrades!!

One of the options I’m considering for grad school is the University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin). To be dorky about this, I’ve decided to break this down by the same criteria I rated RPI in this entry. There are many more holes in this entry mainly because I haven’t actually visited UT Austin, and I haven’t really experienced more of it than I have read on their website or heard about from acquaintances.

Location

I’ve never been to Texas before, which may be part of its appeal. I spent three years living in Saudi Arabia, which has a very similar climate and is mostly desert (read on for the Weather bit below).

Most of my extended family lives in Eastern Iowa, but I’ve never really identified with them. I actually lived there for about 6 months after we were evacuated from Saudi Arabia (back when I was 13-14 years old) and I didn’t much care for being that close to all of them. My parents just moved back to Ohio, however they are constantly talking about where their next overseas destination will be. The point there is that I’m not sure how long they will actually be in Ohio, but if they are there for more than the next year, I suppose it is only a plane flight away.

The drawback to Austin is that it sits isolated in central Texas. On a map it looks close to San Antonio, Houston, etc. In reality (and I know this because I just looked it up on MapQuest) it’s 180 miles from Houston and 80 miles from San Antonio. I suppose it’s not a lot different than it is now: a drive from Austin to Houston would be like driving from Troy to Boston. I can’t complain because I’ve really only done that once. It’s not too far from Mexico, which means that there are tons of good, authentic (not the crappy tex-mex) Mexican restaurants in the area! I love Mexican food, and am fluent in Spanish. Mmmm… I’m making myself hungry already!

The nice thing about Austin is that it’s a true blue college town. There is never a shortage of activities, and there is no real separation between UT Austin and downtown Austin. According to a lady I work with, who was there last September, the campus is surrounded on all sides by very economical restaurants, cafes, shops, and entertainment. She said it’s classy stuff, places you could take your parents to and they wouldn’t complain, but that wouldn’t break the bank. I liked how she put that!

I also looked up an Austin events calendar at a local TV station’s website. (As a side note, I’m happy to see that Time Warner Cable operates an equivalent of Capital News 9 there! I love that channel!). You can see that there is stuff going on, and it’s all close to campus (no car required). But being able to get around on foot (or by any means without a car) is a good thing, because it would seem that traffic can be somewhat hectic. Austin is afterall a big city, and as such has traffic problems like all the rest. Haha… but so did Cairo Ever tried driving on Hoosick St during rush hour?

The final cool thought about Austin is that it’s home to a lot of HQ’s of major companies (Semetec, Ebay, AMD, and Motorola. Next to Silicon Valley, Austin has the largest growth rate in tech companies (and many other industries as well) in the country. The chances of me finding a job in that area after graduation are much better than at a school located in a poorer job market. You can read more about this in the Research section, but that’s part of the reason why UT Austin gets so much funding, because they’re right there so accessible to all of these companies. See the pic below, and notice all of the cranes in the background!

Weather

One of the first things I did when I first looked at UT Austin was to pull up Weather.com’s yearly average info for Austin. I wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to be too hot. The summer averages are well into the 90’s, but that is balanced by winter temps in the low 70’s. Then I remembered that in a hot climate like Texas, every place has air conditioning and really it wouldn’t matter if it got too hot during the summer. In Troy if the temps get above 90 everyone dies because only a third of the population has air conditioning (and electricity is so prohibitively expensive here that half of them refuse to use it unless it hits 95!). But honestly these temperatures are not unlike what you would find in Cairo.

I was also concerned about the desert feel. I lived in Cairo for almost 5 years, and it was a constant battle with the dust. Then I saw some pictures of Austin and I realized that at least anywhere near the city, it’s hardly desert. Since everyone irrigates, and there is a huge river flowing through the center of town, everything looks just as green as it does in the Northeast. Lots of trees, grass, etc as pictured in this image above (from a lady I work with when she visited Austin last year).

Academics

It’s really hard to judge a school’s academics from their website, and the US News rankings also don’t rank pure “academics” because such a criteria is really quite subjective. I did however visit many of what would be my department’s (ECSE) professorial websites. Just like RPI, all professors at UT Austin are required to teach undergrad classes, take on grad students, and do research. In the virtual campus tour, their are quick to point out all of the undergrad labs and project areas, just as RPI likes to show off the LITEC lab. But who knows, how does one guage the academic performance of a school? Is it safe to assume that a school ranked number 9 in the country has some good professors (and perhaps some duds as well)? Maybe I should just throw this category out?

Activities

Just like RPI, UT Austin also has a mostly student-run Union: The Texas Union. From what I can tell, it seems that clubs and organizations are university funded (no activity fee) which isn’t too surprising (RPI is really unique in that regard). All clubs are managed through the Dean of Students Office, and they maintain a listing of the clubs and orgs (both active and inactive!). They have some neat sounding groups, but I can’t tell how much or what kind of funding they receive. RPI groups (some years) get a lot of money to play around with, partly because we have the activity fee. Everything is student managed which is nice when you have good student leadership. Too bad their FAQ is “Coming Soon”…

Research

Here is where UT Austin really one-ups RPI and many other schools. Among other things, this secures its place at number 9 on the top 50 Engineering Grad Schools according to US News. In the Engineering school alone, they spent $98.7 million doing research last year, compared to RPI’s $25.9. Part of that is location (as I mentioned above, UT Austin is located in a richer area in terms of research potential). But the other thing is that a lot of professors have become quite comfy here at RPI writing rediculous research grant proposals and getting nothing. There is some interesting research going on (highlighted on RPI’s homepage), but only time will tell if recent changes to the grad tuition policy will have the effect that Shirley Ann Jackson intended (that is, stimulating the growth in research). A lot of grad students don’t find interesting profs and research going on, so they do bull research and write crap theses so they can graduate. I’ve had to work with graduate students, specifically in MIS and IT, and I swear a high schooler with an internet connection could’ve done better.

Tuition

So it would seem that just when I said most other grad schools had adopted a flat rate for grad tuition, I should’ve left UT Austin out of that blanket statement. If I read their tuition and expenses page correctly, while there is a flat fee for undergrads, grads pay by the credit essentially. That’s good if I wanted to have a part-time job and take only 12 credits a semester! That way I could spread the cost of grad education out a bit, and make some money on the side to pay off some loans from RPI.

The drawback is that I’m not a resident of Texas, and I would end up paying out-of-state tuition. Now, the out-of-state tuition is nowhere near RPI’s tuition (for 18 credit hours, that would be $7,013.18 compared to $27,700 – a huge difference!). I was looking through the fine print of what is required to become a Texan resident. All you have to do is live there for 12 consecutive months… not too bad. BUT… you cannot become a resident for University purposes once you enroll in an academic institution. Damn.

However, if you get a position as a TA or RA, then they will consider you as in-state no matter what for tuition purposes. The deal for RA’s and TA’s isn’t as sweet as it is at RPI. Remember at RPI, they offer a full tuition waiver plus a $15K/yr stipend (however that’s only good for a few semesters now, depending on your program and how long you’re going to be here). In the UT system, TA’s and RA’s are given tuition credits based on the hours they work. I think they actually just cut you a check, but if you were to spend that money on tuition, you could just about cover the cost of in-state tuition. But there is no other stipend like there is at RPI. I guess they figure since the tuition is so cheap, why would you need all that money?

So UT Austin would definitely be more affordable, especially if I could go part-time over an additional semester or so and have a job on the side. I might go full-time for the first semester and see how it works out, it just depends on the program I choose and what kind of job I have. I might try to find a job with the University (which offers an employee tuition benefit, but you have to work for the school for a year in order to claim it… and then it’s only reimbursement for one class per semester).

Cost/Style of Living

After I read all about the school, I went apartment shopping online. I pulled up ApartmentGuide.com and started browsing through the listings. Within a few minutes, I found this place. Not saying this is a perfect place, but it’s good for discussion purposes. It’s not much more than the place I have now, and it’s quite a lot larger/nicer based on the pictures on the website. Certainly a lot cheaper than comparable places here in Troy. It’s also only about 10 mins drive from downtown and the UT campus. Of course, I have no idea what the traffic is like, but both the campus and the apartment complex are located relatively near to the same interstate, so it can’t be that bad. It just depends on the traffic on that interstate!

I’m thinking about calling GEICO (my auto insurance provider) just to see how much my premiums would go up or down in Austin. I’m really curious, especially after I got a quote for my parents house in Ohio and my rate would actually go up $250/6mo. I thought NY had the highest insurance rates! The nicest thing about Texas is that there is no state income tax, and utilities are rather inexpensive (thanks to Mr. Oil!). The sales tax in Austin is 8.25%, the same as it is here in Rensselaer County. That is still a lot higher than where my grandparents live (5%) or Ohio’s 8%. Then again, it’s no more than I’m used to paying, and there is no state income tax, so I suppose overall it would be cheaper.

According to people I’ve talked to, the area around the campus is very economical. The restaurants, bars, cafes, etc cater to the budgets of the college students but are tasteful in the upkeep and selections of their establishments. The same cannot be said of Troy’s places. If it’s cheap, then it really looks it (except for Ali Baba and a few others). If you want a nice meal in a clean place, you will have to pay for it. The same is true for entertainment. Even tickets to the Troy Savings Music Hall will set you back $25-$30 (when you don’t get them free through the Union!).

People

The cool thing about UT Austin is that it’s more than just an Engineering/Science school. It’s also a law school, they have psych students, arts, theater, etc. You name it (including possibly basket weaving and paperdoll making) and they probably offer it as an undergrad degree. They also have a wide selection of graduate programs. The point is that there is a huge variety of people and interests at UT Austin. I think I would like that. I have to look far and wide at RPI to find people who will even hang out with me on the weekends (thus parting with their computer for a few hours) and it kinda sucks. You can read more about my people rants in my RPI entry.

I googled for Austin, TX and I discovered that it was recently chosen as the most eligible city for singles. You can read more about the rankings at that link, but essentially it’s because Austin is inexpensive and has a lot of job/career potential. Those seem to be the same things that attracted me. It’s quite an interesting coincidence.

Summary

This was a long post, huh? UT Austin doesn’t sound like a bad place at all. I’ll apply and if I get accepted, I will probably go and visit to try and determine if the school and I are actually a good fit for each other. Since it’s a bit different that what I’m accustomed to, I would want to make sure before I committed the next several years there! And if I ever do make a trip out there, you can bet photos will appear in the album!

EDIT: I went back and added the People section.

This could very well be one of those posts I look back on in a few years and just laugh (for one reason or another). I’ve been doing a lot of planning for my future during the last few weeks. Last night and today I spent some time studying for the GRE’s, and I also spent some time researching grad schools. The biggest question I seem to face is whether or not I really want to stay at RPI for grad school, or if I would be happier elsewhere. I have to come to a decision very soon, because I want to get my applications in before school starts (even though I don’t graduate until May, 2004).

So here’s my attempt to break this discussion down for myself. I know I have some incoming freshmen on my friends list… this might be kind of a hard look at the school you’re about to attend so hang on!

Location

Whenever people say that there is nothing to do in Troy/Albany, I really just want to haul off and slap them. In the past few years I have found quite a bit to do in the area, a lot of it on a shoestring budget. I must say though that I have always been a bit bothered by the fact that Troy isn’t a real college town in terms of services or attitudes. The area around RPI is mostly residential, with a few scattered shops/restaurants. That leaves students at campus a captive audience to the overpriced services on campus.

Last year I got involved with the Troy Business Association (TBA) to try to rectify that situation. I was working with a group at RPI that wants to bring businesses from downtown Troy up the hill to 15th Street, forming a more classic “college town” area right around the campus. That way a student could walk to a local cafe for lunch, have some good ice cream for dessert, and see a live show at a local pub. This type of scene isn’t at all uncommon at most schools (in fact, since I know this is something I miss here, I’m looking for it at other schools and have found that many of them foster these types of environments).

Unfortunately the TBA was more interested in why students weren’t coming into downtown Troy and frequenting the shops down there. Local business owners didn’t seem interested in moving their failing business to the location of potential business, they wanted to try to bring business to them. Unfortunately students at RPI aren’t going for that – students with cars are going to go to Crossgates and students w/o cars are going to hang out around campus. I remember giving a small speech to that effect to the Deputy Mayor and company who were all in attendence at a dinner meeting I attended. Again, uninterested.

The point is that Troy isn’t a college town, and their attitude is such that they would rather not become one for whatever reason. They seem to halt all development attempts, and push delay after delay on any project that does get off the ground. I hate having to drive several miles to get to anything.

Weather

This past winter was a harsh reminder that the northeast has some pretty nasty winters, and this summer a reminder that heat and humidity are equally as unforgiving. It’s an interesting imbalance of extremes in this region – the winters are cold, and the summers hot. Last winter I averaged $130/mo on heat alone for my 1BR apartment, and I went around cold half the time. I think I would rather live in a more temperate climate, perhaps something warmer in the summers in exchange for milder winters. At least that way you know that everyone will have air conditioning if it’s normally hot in the summer!

Academics

I must say that in terms of an undergraduate program, RPI seems to have things figured out. After comparing notes with friends at other schools, I have to say that by far I have it best here in terms of the types of stuff that I’m doing in class, the contact I have with my professors, and the quality of their teaching staff (TA’s). I can only assume that since these same professors are mentors to grad students that the graduate programs, at least academically, are competitive with those at other institutions.

Activities

RPI is one of the few schools that has a student activity fee model of funding its student activites. We have so many great opportunities at our disposal, I think it’s a shame when I see students overwork themselves or sitting in their rooms doing nothing, either way not taking advantage of the fruits of their activity fee. This is definitely a plus for RPI.

Research

In this area RPI seems to be coming up dry. I hate to admit it, but RPI is falling far behind a lot of other schools out there with comparable enrollments and average GRE scores. A lot of the professors seem to be “lifers” here at RPI… they’ve been here for a long time, they sit in their offices responding to e-mail all day, working to find grant money, coming up with rediculous research ideas, getting no research dollars, but still taking home a paycheck from RPI. They are pretty easy to spot because on their website all of their research is either missing or pretty outdated.

RPI’s homepage (http://www.rpi.edu) often highlights some of their research milestones, and there are some impressive faculty members here doing some good things. The facilities are here, there is a lot of brain power. I’m not sure what’s missing. RPI just isn’t getting the grant dollars (only $30 million last year).

That segues nicely into our next topic….

Tuition

Last year RPI raised the graduate tuition to try to jumpstart the research program. They limited the number of hours that TA’s could teach, set minimums for salaries for students, etc. The problem was that grad students were taking 8-10 years to finish their PhD’s because they were teaching deadbeat professors’ classes, or doing the deadbeat’s research. There was a rather large uproar, mostly because of the tuition increase. Before, grad students could pay by the credit for their coursework, but now they pay just like undergrads, despite the number of credits they take. This is a fairly common policy at most grad schools, it was just a surprise to hit RPI, that’s all.

So my concern with RPI is that it does cost $27,700 (and that’s for the upcoming year, add 5% to that for what the tuition will likely be for my first year of grad school). I’m hoping that I will do well enough on my GRE’s and letters of recommendation to get a position as an RA or TA, or some other form of grant so that my tution will be waived. Thanks to the new graduate tuition policy, however, they have limited the number of semesters that a student can take advantage of such benefits. It’s unlikely that I could get my entire education paid for here at RPI. So one of my criteria is to either find a cheaper school (i.e. a state school with an excellent reputation), or a private school with better tution benefits. This by far is probably one of the biggest deciding factors.

Cost/Style of Living

Troy doesn’t have any rent control, meaning that landlords are free to raise the rent as they wish. Likewise, the on campus housing prices increase the steady 5% along with the tuition (sometimes a bit more). By the way, 5% is much, much higher than the current rate of inflation, which is now less than 2%/yr. However, the quality of both on and off-campus housing doesn’t improve noticibly for the increase in rent each year. Essentially, many of the apartments in Troy are dumps because landlords don’t really keep them up, and the nice places go for far more than any college student can afford. For the past few years I’ve been the only person at RPI officially working on Off-Campus housing (we have a website: http://offcampus.union.rpi.edu). We are making some improvements by helping to teach students how to judge value in an apartment, etc, and training landlords how to be more effective.

See my comments above about attitudes in Troy, but if the Troy City Council wanted to cater to college students (think of it as RPI-friendly), they would enact some form of rent control, and also enforce building codes by conducting regular inspections. Both of these are common practices in many other college towns in the US.

The dorms are way overpriced for what you get: a bed and a desk (essentially). Many students quickly learn that it’s a bad value and take the plunge into off-campus life. That’s how I meet most of them, and honestly it’s a good choice. It’s too bad RPI doesn’t cater more housing to upperclassmen and grad students. BTW, the married student housing is provides look like absolute slums… I toured last year. It’s like the RAHPS, but there are kids running around. Quite a sad sight.

People

I have made a few good friends here at RPI in the few years that I’ve been around the place. I never really got into the frat scene, so I never formed the close bonds that some people around here have with others, but I do have some close friends that I hang out with.

I must say though it is hard to break people away from their schoolwork and laptops around here. It’s a really busy school, but people choose to fill their time with AIM rather than getting out and spending time in the real world with tangible friends. That has always bothered me. It’s like some sort of anti-social gene. That makes it hard to get to know people very well because you can’t spend time with them. Chatting with them just isn’t the same as true interaction.

For those who speak Meyers-Briggs, the dominant male type on campus is by far ENTJ. That means essentially that they tend to be intelligent, somewhat outspoken, driven/motivated, and they tend to plan their time/lives rather than live on the edge. Those aren’t bad things, but compounded with a certain amount of arrogance, and you have the annoying, stereotypical RPI guy. Unfortunately I don’t get along with many of them very well – I like intelligent discussions as much as the next ENTJ, but some people just don’t know when enough is enough. There are kids in class who will tell a professor he is wrong and will stubbornly fight their point with no real intelligent evidence until the prof finally has to bring in some outside info, explain it to them, or just tell them to be quiet.

A lot of guys complain about “the ratio” at RPI. I’m not sure it’s as big of a problem that many make it out to be. It’s just that the girls here aren’t really the type that most guys go for – they are independent, intelligent, etc. It seems that a lot of guys are intimidated by that. Again, not really a problem for me – not very many schools in the country feature motivated, intelligent women. It’s great to be sitting in class next to a female who is equal if not better than you (except when they fit into the arrogant guy thing above).

But what does seem to be a problem is the fact that many people here (boys and girls alike) suffer from what I call the “boyfriend/girlfriend back home syndrome”. They come to RPI with a bf/gf, stay together long distance, but don’t get out and do much while they’re here. They spend most of their free time chatting it up with their significant other on AIM or the phone. Perhaps the lack of singles at RPI contributes to guys somewhat overinflated view of “the ratio”. Either way, that really kills the dating scene, and makes it really tough to just hang out with people even in a non-dating sort of way.

Summary

So after proofreading my entry, it seems that I may have become an old, bitter RPI student just like all the rest… maybe that above all else is the indicator that I should move on and find something else? Perhaps tomorrow I will post another entry about one of the top schools I’m considering: UT Austin. Until then… your comments are welcome!

Ok, sure, she seemed kinda high school about her love for Rob, but come on at least it was genuine! I would’ve chosen Paige over Erin. But that’s the romantic in me.

And that folks is my trash TV commentary for tonight. I’ve got a Signals exam to study for!

Right now I’m sitting on the airplane in Dayton ready to take off for my trip back to Troy! I love being on PCS’s Vision network, I can be connected from almost anywhere A few days ago I was connected on the flight here, and I was IM’ing . That was pretty sweet… afterall, how many people receive IM’s from someone on an airplane?!

So I’ve pretty much enjoyed my trip to Kettering, despite the weather and lack of fireworks. I have quite a bit of homework and other work that I didn’t really do while I was gone. Oh well, that’s what tonight will be for! I have a Signals & Systems exam on Tuesday, and tonight I have to submit my personal ads for Human Sexuality. I also have some Signals homework due tomorrow which I will take care of tonight. It’s going to busy busy busy!

So the steward just stopped by, and in his thick Russian accent (his name is Favian) reminded me that I’m sitting in an Exit Row seat on the plane. Yay for extra leg room Sorry, I had to fit that in there somewhere!

Ok, we’re about to take off, and people look at you weird if you are using a cell phone or other electronics while in flight. Time to post this and get back to Troy!

My family made attempt two to see the fireworks tonight, rescheduled after last night’s big storm. Just as we were about to turn onto the road leading to the fireworks place, a police car blocked the intersection, and a whole bunch of firetrucks came rushing away from the scene. A few minutes later we heard air raid sirens, and while we were stuck at this intersection we heard the cop yell something about a tornado.

Immediately I flipped on the radio, and sure enough there was a funnel cloud spotted less than a mile or so from where we were. Luckily it was heading away from us, but it was still kinda strange! This is now my third close call with a tornado. The first was in Urbana, OH, and the second in the movie theater in Cedar Rapids, IA.

So long story short, I still haven’t seen any 4th of July fireworks this year! And it looks increasingly unlikely that I will before I leave tomorrow afternoon :-/ But I’ve still enjoyed the time here in Kettering spent with my family!

I’m sitting in my parents living room (in Kettering, OH) on this somewhat stormy 4th of July, a bit distraught that fireworks have most certainly been cancelled due to the weather! The interesting is that my first reaction after seeing the clouds moving in was to open up WeatherBug on my laptop, click on the little radar button, and track the storm for myself. Geeky, I know!

Anyway, I spent almost 20 minutes trying to figure out if the fireworks show at Delco Park was cancelled. Actually, I was more interested to see if it was on for tomorrow night (so maybe I would get the chance to see some fireworks before I leave!). But that remains to be seen, I guess some people/events haven’t quite caught up with the internet age yet!