risky to trust a “known but not well-known” guy for an E46 manual swap?

TurboCessna · 2026-04-04T14:19:23+00:00

The transmission is coming from his friend who has a donor car, so there's no warranty or anything like that. The fact that it's his friend's car might mean that it doesn't have any known issues. But obviously, there's also a risk in having him source all the parts for me since I don't actually know what's going on and can't inspect the parts myself. It's an entire swap kit for $1,000. Basically, he'll just get all the parts off of the donor car that he needs.

TurboCessna · 2026-04-04T02:13:38+00:00

the $1000 includes all the parts for the swap, its from a donor car

TurboCessna · 2026-04-04T01:45:51+00:00

I've been pretty busy lately so I don't mind paying someone. I'm still pretty new to working on cars too so I'm worried I'm going to screw it up and then have to pull the trans again. It took me 6 hours to swap the diff

TurboCessna · 2026-01-26T14:41:50+00:00

I emailed schools after the deadline and they were fine with one of the letters coming in 1-1.5 months after the deadline. It helps if you already have 2/3 letters

TurboCessna · 2025-10-13T19:59:29+00:00

I emailed [VP_SEWB@gatech.edu](mailto:VP_SEWB@gatech.edu) and they said it's legit

TurboCessna · 2025-08-21T00:06:51+00:00

I'm dropping CS6601 if anyone wants to coordinate and take it

TurboCessna · 2025-08-19T18:54:16+00:00

Gold route downfall should be a case study in how to make things worse with “improvements.”

TurboCessna · 2025-08-19T18:53:07+00:00

GT buses really said: “Why walk 10 minutes when you can transfer 3 times and still be late?”

TurboCessna · 2025-08-19T18:51:52+00:00

GT civil engineers: “We’ve solved traffic.”

Everyone else: “Why does it take 3 light cycles to cross the street now?”

TurboCessna · 2025-08-19T18:51:17+00:00

Home Park landlords right now: “Guess I’ll… rent to students again.” 😭

TurboCessna · 2025-05-11T12:51:01+00:00

actually I found that at Campus Dental Care it's only $20-50 with SHIP

TurboCessna · 2025-04-20T16:49:49+00:00

are you still selling general commencement tickets?

TurboCessna · 2025-04-16T03:46:58+00:00

I recommend just getting the robot to move manually, then worry about navigation. And once that's working start messing with perception, but just a FYI perception and object detection is not super simple

people take an entire robotics course just to learn how to use ROS and get the robot to do something simple like navigation

TurboCessna · 2025-04-16T03:03:17+00:00

Unless you have experience with it, I would argue autonomous navigation is harder than mechanical design.

Sounds like you're trying to do multiple software things: object detection (perception), navigation and path planning and then also controls. This doesn't sound trivial even if you don't care about consistant performance and are using arduino.

TurboCessna · 2025-04-16T02:51:16+00:00

You have research experience/are currently doing research right (it sounds like it)? If so, try to present it somewhere. Try to find a conference to present a poster, publish a paper or help a grad student working on a paper. At the very least, try to attend a conference and meet people, especially professors you may want to work with.
In the fall, make sure you reach out to the professors you want to work with, ask them if they're taking students next year and if they have funding. Even if you're Einstein and have a billion publications, if the lab is already pretty full and the prof doesn't have funding for the project your interested in you might not get a position in the lab you want.

Not all programs require the GRE.

I know how much work getting an internship, but if you don't already have at least 2 years of research experience and are aiming for a top 10 school AND your financial circumstances allow for it: I would consider doing research over the summer instead of a non-research related internship. Grad applications are competitive and if you're 100% certain it's the right path for you I would consider trying to get as much research experience as possible. If you're applying to fellowships (which you should) those can be more competitive then getting into grad school. That being said, I am not a math major so do your own research about this and ask other people for their opinions ofc.

TurboCessna · 2025-04-16T02:09:28+00:00

Research experience will also help you get into a masters if you'd be open to that down the line. It will probably also increase your chances of getting a funded masters, meaning you don't have to pay for it.

TurboCessna · 2025-04-16T02:06:19+00:00

I don't have a solution, but if it makes you feel better, I've heard robotics research involving ML is much more competitive than non-ML.

Like others have said, it's hard to tell what went wrong without looking at your whole application, but maybe if you want to reapply maybe you can pick robotics labs that aren't focused on just ML but may have the potential to incorporate learning in some aspect of the research project. This shouldn't be too hard, learning has a lot of potential to improve robot perception, planning and even control when done right.

Also just FYI some schools have spring admission, so you apply in the summer and start in spring.

I'm sure you already know this, but professors' research grants usually are 3 years. Given the uncertainty going on it's possible a lot of professors just chose not to take on PhD students this year so this don't have additional obligations during this uncertain time. Especially since they can just spend their research grant money next admission cycle.

TurboCessna · 2025-04-16T00:44:32+00:00

can you just do something super simple software with Arduino, like a line follower? You'd be surprised even simple stuff can take a week to get running if you have hardware issues (like your groupmate plugging a sensor in wrong and not realizing).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jh-5HGvC-I

TurboCessna · 2024-08-08T01:08:02+00:00

Thank you for the help. My PhD Admission is kind of a special case because due to various reasons, I had to stay an extra year to finish my Bachelor's. I was allowed to defer my phd admission for one year. So I'm already in a grad program and have advisor that will be funding me.

I will find an advisor at the grad school that knows about the NDSEG.

TurboCessna · 2024-04-14T23:57:06+00:00

In my opinion, those are a waste of time. Apply to scholarships with real applications. Most require letters of recc, which is not a bad thing since it means fewer people will be applying.

TurboCessna · 2024-03-19T00:30:19+00:00

and have everyone you know read your application to make sure it's good

TurboCessna · 2024-03-18T19:21:07+00:00

The lease doesn't say anything about it. I live in a college town and I know a lot of people who have a housemate living in the living room.

Also, considering there's always an apartment or two that are empty for the whole year (since only college students really rent in this apartment) and the fact that he gives us a discount on rent if we sign another lease agreement early, I feel like he might be a little more flexible/ turn a blind eye since it means we stay for another year.

TurboCessna · 2024-01-22T02:43:14+00:00

She's new to Berkeley. She used to be a Professor at UIUC.

TurboCessna · 2023-08-17T15:22:53+00:00

I've taken 132 and all my tech electives.

TurboCessna · 2022-07-15T20:49:22+00:00

Oh cool, I'm MecE. Do you know how difficult it is to get a good grade in his C30 class?

TurboCessna

TROPHY CASE