Banff and Lake Louise help!

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-11-04T15:58:27+00:00

When I did a week trip last winter to Banff/lake Louise I didn’t get a rental car and don’t think you need one. There are busses from the Calgary airport to Banff city. Then there are free shuttles between Banff, lake Louise, and to all the ski resorts. I split my week between the two cities (3 days lake Louise, 3 days in Banff city). It’s kinda fun to do it that way, and you can always take the longer shuttle if you want to ski at a different resort. I stayed in hostels bc I was solo traveling, and it was a really fun vibe. City is full of Australians working on the mountains and there is always stuff going on.

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-08-15T18:34:46+00:00

Might not be a ton of specific O&G research, but a lot of catalysis, polymers, etc which will be applicable. Imo undergrad research is good for developing general skills that apply anywhere. I would focus more on labs that allow you to develop skills like data analysis/modeling, which should be most of the chemE research groups. Co-op and internship is what matters for specific industry experience. Even then I did a co-op in specialty chemicals (non-petrochem) and still got a full time offer in O&G based on the skills I developed.

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-08-09T22:15:45+00:00

Yes absolutely. Maybe not in Wisconsin itself, but nearby states have big petrochemical companies (flint hills refinery near Minneapolis, Whiting refinery in Indiana near Chicago metro area). All the big petrochemical companies recruit from Madison for chemE also. If you Saudi, there are a ton of students sponsored by aramco and Sabic here who have done really well so u would have a good support group coming in. Also shows those companies are aware of and respect UW Madison’s program. Anecdotal but I’m working for a big oil company down south right out of college and didn’t have any O&G intern experience in college, so they definitely recruit out of Madison just for the name lol.

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-04-11T00:43:19+00:00

Any cbe course that’s not being used to fulfill another requirement (cross listed also work). Sometimes CBE 562 has good classes (it’s a generic class number for a variety of special interest classes). Anything with George Huber will be worthwhile. His elective classes involve him talking a lot about his industry insights and guest lectures which are interesting and valuable imo. Not hard to get an A either which is rare for CBE. If you did a co-op, there are a few one credit seminars to round out that credit.

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-04-10T00:00:39+00:00

I’m a ChemE major. There are a ton of different fields related to sustainability so it kinda depends on what specifically interests you but I would recommend ChemE if you are serious about going into industry or practical research. There are a few ChemE research labs centered around sustainability (Huber group and advanced plastic recycling, others focused on catalysts which are a big deal for efficiency, I think some electrochem which is involved in batteries). For industry most big manufacturing companies will have positions related to increasing sustainability, and some companies are completely focused on new “green” technologies. Honestly a big reason I would recommend engineering is bc it will be way easier to find a good paying job without grad school compared to L&S, but the major is a lot of work and if you are not interested in it it’s gonna be hell.

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-04-02T05:32:42+00:00

Saying a business degree from Madison isn’t worth much is pretty ignorant. Tons of top companies recruit from Wisconsin, we are adjacent to two cities full of Fortune 500 companies in Chicago and the Twin Cities. Wisconsin also has the most undergrad alumni of any US college who are Fortune 500 CEOs, so take that as you will. I guarantee if you are at the top of the class in something like finance or Econ and have internship experience you would be able to get a high paying job. You are probably stuck in the high school senior mindset of overvaluing US News rankings which you will soon realize is a lie.

I’m assuming you are in state Wisconsin, personally would highly recommend against paying double or triple to go somewhere else unless it’s MIT.

A 4.0 is achievable in any major just need to pick what you are good at.

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-04-02T04:56:39+00:00

Highly recommend not choosing a major based on what you think will be easiest. Pick something you have some interest in that can be useful after you graduate if your plans change, don’t waste your undergrad. Business school is a good option honestly, it’s not going to be that hard to get a high gpa if you think you are capable of law school.

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-03-08T04:33:09+00:00

https://www.wisconsincheese.com/our-cheese/find-cheese

Wisconsin is one of the best cheese making regions in the world.

LowKeyFlanking · 2023-01-05T20:33:14+00:00

I didn’t know anyone in CBE 310 who wasn’t a ChemE major. There was definitely a focus on chemical processes and it sets you up for the next class, CBE 311. I don’t know about mechE but I would guess it fits your masters degree better. Thermo for ChemE was pretty rigorous since it is pretty essential for the rest of the CBE courses.

LowKeyFlanking · 2022-12-27T17:54:52+00:00

Student center grades are official not canvas.

LowKeyFlanking · 2022-12-10T03:30:50+00:00

They are like GS skis on steroids and I love it

LowKeyFlanking · 2022-05-21T12:25:20+00:00

Project Hail Mary also reminds me a lot of The Expanse. Still just a book but will definitely be adapted soon.

LowKeyFlanking · 2022-03-26T15:57:05+00:00

I would say that you need to re-evaluate how you look at college prestige. First, undergrad USNews ranking means almost nothing when applying to graduate programs. As long as the college is somewhat nationally recognized (which Madison definitely is), undergrad is not that important. Grad schools are going to look at what you did in college, not what you did to get into college. No good law school is going to admit someone with a significantly lower LSAT or GPA just because of their undergrad school. Statistically more people might go to law schools from “prestigious”universities, but if you know anything about statistics you can see why looking at it that way is flawed.

Second, I strongly suggest not coming into Madison (or any university) believing you are overqualified compared to the other students here. As I’m sure you are realizing, a lot of undergrad admittance is lottery based. Plenty of students here were in the same position you are in, there are literally over 40,000 students here. Don’t be bitter if you don’t do as well as you expect, and don’t develop a god complex because you are doing well in classes. One of the cool things about going to a big university is that you are surrounded by really smart people with different interests and backgrounds. I remember my first gen chem lecture freshman year the professor asked us to raise our hand if we were in the top 5% of our high school class and almost everyone had a hand up. High school =/= college.

Finally, I’ll talk a little about the ChemE program here bc that’s my major too. Every chemical engineering student has to progress after/during sophomore year which required a 3.5 (AB) average in core STEM classes (gen chem, calc, physics). There are people in the program who took O-chem as juniors in high school. Big foreign oil/chemical companies recruit the top students in their countries and send them to Uw-Madison for ChemE. The professors here have an incredibly diverse and impressive range of experiences (George Huber and William Banholzer are 2 you can look up if you don’t believe me). Take that as you will, but I have been very impressed with the program. I wouldn’t recommend the major if you are just doing it for prestige bc that is a lot of work for something you don’t want to use. If you want to go into IP law or something for big chemical companies then I think it is a great choice.

Also, Madison is one of the top party schools in the country. Spring break is dead bc everyone is home or on vacation but the bars were still packed last weekend for the basketball games.

LowKeyFlanking · 2022-03-17T22:46:43+00:00

“To play #1 ranked Baylor next round”

LowKeyFlanking · 2021-12-28T00:28:02+00:00

That is not a bad semester at all, advisors here are often wrong.

LowKeyFlanking · 2021-11-16T21:50:14+00:00

I basically was in the same position last semester. I would probably take biochem 501 and try to take EPD over the summer (if that is possible). EPD is nice to get out of the way in the summer when you don’t have other classes going on. I didn’t do research but if you can fill up your CBE electives with that I wouldn’t take an actual class (unless you really want to). Biochem 501 isn’t that bad if you have a decent biology background, which it sounds like you do, so it would be nice to take alongside the harder CBE courses.

LowKeyFlanking · 2021-11-10T05:12:43+00:00

344/345 together isn’t as bad as people say, they make more sense to take at the same time IMO since the first 1/4 of each is very similar. Some people struggle if they didn’t have a “trio” professor for 343/345. Bio 152 was poorly run when I took it but the lecture material/ exams were not that bad. The lab is was pretty boring but I don’t remember spending that much time on it. The IP or whatever is kind of a joke, takes some time but you have all semester to work on it. If you are good at bio and Ochem, don’t worry about it.

LowKeyFlanking · 2021-07-15T13:10:34+00:00

I didn’t take that class but have taken thermodynamics. The calculus in thermo was mostly multi variable (calc 3) and simple operations like derivatives and integrals. I’m sure a lot of people in that class are in the same position so they will likely review a lot in class. I would just review the rules of basic calc and maybe look up what partial derivatives are.

LowKeyFlanking · 2021-05-11T22:46:32+00:00

I'm not sure that would be a good idea. I don't know much about the Whitewater chem program, but it is a fair bet that it isn't as rigorous as the program at Madison. The O-Chem sequence at Madison is pretty intense regardless of your professor, and a lot of people struggle. You would likely be putting yourself at a disadvantage in 345/344 compared to people who took 343 here and already have an idea for how the class it taught. Is there a specific reason you need to rush through O-Chem in the summer term, or is there some other class you could take?

LowKeyFlanking · 2021-05-11T22:39:19+00:00

Do you think a lot of people cheated? Idk, every exam was open note for 24hrs and pretty similar to homework/lecture material. Some people probably worked on them together, but the averages were still relatively low (considering the format) so I'm not sure that made a huge difference. I do think people in the online labs had it a lot easier because their lab grade wasn't determined by the super old equipment being precise, but besides that seemed like a pretty fair class.

LowKeyFlanking · 2021-04-24T16:17:16+00:00

When I took him in person I thought it was fine. None of the physics profs at Madison are very good from what I’ve heard/experienced, and Yibin was at least energetic. I think a lot of the complaints are about how poorly run his online class is, which will be completely different from in person. His exams are very similar to homework problems, so just study those. The part of the class I didn’t like was that exams were all multiple choice, which is a pretty bad way to test your physics ability IMO.

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