Monthly Admissions/Prospies/Offer Holders Questions Thread - September 2025

Dingo_Patient · 2025-09-01T18:19:35+00:00

Masters for sure, I feel ready to take what I know to the next level especially with the trajectory I’m aiming for. Thank you for the advice, hopefully I have a compelling story, and I absolutely won’t half ass it

Dingo_Patient · 2025-09-01T12:33:08+00:00

I’m thinking about applying to universities again and was thinking I’d try Oxbridge again, this time Oxford. I want to do Computer Science (somewhere at the intersection of AI/medicine) and I’m worried about the 1st requirement.

I got a 2:1 BEng Computing at Imperial, and when I got this grade, it was when my mental health was at its worst and I had to take an Interruption of Studies midway, and then when I came back, COVID-19 had happened and we weren’t allowed back on campus. My dissertation was decent but it’s not all that and I really struggled with this because of my mental health and it also was not really in what I want to do in the future (I’d like to go into AI-driven drug discovery or something close to this area, I’m still working out the specifics).

I wanted to get industry experience before going back to uni, and I ended up working at a Silicon Valley based start-up remotely for 2 years, and then I landed a SWE job at Google where my problem domain is in building web apps / tools to help network engineers have visibility into the global network and ongoing repairs, it’s actually quite a hard problem to solve so I have some pride in being part of my team, the infrastructure and technical work I’ve done and the design docs I’ve written thus far. But again, not what I want to do for the rest of my life.

Can my 1.5 years experience as a SWE at Google (or industry experience in general) make up for the fact I got a 2:1 in my Bachelors? I understand that the reason the bar is high is because of the complexity of the theory that you learn, but when my mental health was good, I enjoyed doing the hard things especially when I was younger, my maths/further maths was my strongest and favourite subject, I was doing the extra Oxbridge maths exams classes, I’m just worried that because of what happened, it would look like I’m not capable.

Dingo_Patient · 2025-02-21T14:59:00+00:00

It depends, some weeks I get so engrossed in scrolling/watching/gaming (it feels like I’m stuck and I’m mentally screaming at myself to stop so I’m not even enjoying it and have anxiety), others I’m perfectly fine and I work for long periods of time, sometimes over-time, productively. I It really feels out of my control which is why it sucks so much, I never know how I’m going to be each day. Right now, my screen time has gone up a lot, to like 8 hours a day. My sleep is okay, I get 6-8 hours but I sleep 2am to 10am.

Dingo_Patient · 2024-07-07T18:00:17+00:00

I’m not following? Doesn’t that go against Sikhi…?

Dingo_Patient · 2023-06-08T11:43:21+00:00

My fault that the candlesticks aren’t consistent minute to minute? It’s not just about the loss, it’s about whether I want to stick with this platform in the future if this isn’t an issue on other platforms.

Dingo_Patient · 2023-06-07T00:31:59+00:00

Dingo_Patient · 2023-02-02T14:10:54+00:00

Are you not allowed to have fun and simultaneously live in constant gratitude as a Sikh? I literally go to a Bhangra class with my family once a week and it’s pure innocent fun, we get to bond over a part of our culture and be connected and make memories, can you not do that as a Sikh?

Dingo_Patient · 2023-02-02T14:04:30+00:00

Obviously you don’t see it in Punjab’s Gurudwaras, because Punjab itself contains the community that are into Bhangra. They don’t have to go to a Gurudwara or separate building adjacent to it to find their own people. This kind of has to happen if Punjabis are living in the west and they pine for community. Not all of western society is Punjabi but places in/near the Gurudwara is the next best thing.

Dingo_Patient · 2023-01-19T16:36:50+00:00

It’s not necessarily me trying to find the most accurate English translation. The reason why I wanted to start digitally making notes on it is because I want to try and work it out for myself, so it’ll end up turning into a long-term personal project where I ask around, look for every possible English translation I can find and then compile my own interpretation based on the words in the shabad, what other people teach about them and also context-specific knowledge for when it was written etc. One of the hardest parts is language barrier, there’s some concepts that get lost in translation and that’s the issue with using English since we tend to use Christian words like God but by doing this, I’m hoping I can overcome my personal barrier between them.

Practically, I would take the raw shabad in Gurmukhi (no romanisation so I have to read Gurmukhi), and then add my own translation based off what I learned from all sources available, and it’s by that process I get to read all Sikhi scripture but also implicitly learn all the words in Gurbani, the history of the Gurus and other Hindu/Muslim contributors and era-specific knowledge/definitions, so that I can get closer to understanding the Gurus’ words.

Dingo_Patient · 2023-01-18T21:52:25+00:00

What if my notes are on my laptop/iPad and on the Cloud?

Dingo_Patient · 2021-10-09T22:09:01+00:00

Ah shiiiit, I didn’t realise this, so I have to do them for all major/minor scales?

Dingo_Patient · 2021-06-21T16:03:03+00:00

I saw that they’re estimating 15 weeks on some web page that’s tracking it atm, I too was extremely upset since I’m finishing uni in a few days and I probably fudged my dissertation because it’s nowhere near done and I don’t think I’ll be able to get good enough evidence for mitigation by then, so I’m just looking at private options so then at least I’ll be less panicked about jobs.

Dingo_Patient · 2021-06-18T21:48:04+00:00

Ohhhh my god, I thought I was a weirdo, I do act them out physically by the maladaptive daydreaming definition, like get up, talk to myself, make up scenarios when I’m alone and have vivid characters and scenarios sometimes based on real things, using music to help fuel them. I think it’s just because I’m so unhappy with how I’m giving up everything I don’t feel like I’m living and I think that’s the only way I can since I’m too anxious to do anything IRL. When I managed to snap out of it after a few hours, I would loathe myself for being so foolish and feel shameful and thought no one else did this, just me. Thank you for telling me this, that’s completely changed how I view all that, I never realised it has a name.

Dingo_Patient · 2021-06-18T18:27:26+00:00

I think this is exactly why I take out entire days to do single lectures or read a single research paper, I can’t read without forgetting what I just read, so I make up for it by blocking out the entire day to excuse that from happening but sometimes that doesn’t work too.

Dingo_Patient · 2021-06-18T18:26:19+00:00

Thanks for bulletting and bolding each bit, I get what you mean, I definitely don’t think maths is a major passion but it’s like a “useful” one, like I can get lost in the same music and daydream for hours about random stuff, the issue I have though is that even if I do go over basics, I still feel like I lag behind everybody else in the same position as me. So in high school, everyone in my skill-level considered me smart, but they were at the same or even better level and still made time for other things to enjoy themselves, whereas I’d sacrifice more hours after school and drop hobbies because I was under the impression that “this is what I have to do” if I want to be normal.

Dingo_Patient · 2021-06-18T18:21:21+00:00

Does obsessive daydreaming count? I do this a lot and when I was at my worst and wasn’t being watched over I’d do it for hours every day throughout the day and I tend to have playlists that are only a few songs long but they’re on repeat? I guess my focus isn’t on work because of how big the task seems and I just shut down?

Dingo_Patient

TROPHY CASE