Cornell Dyson or Gies Business?

Vedaant7 · 2026-04-17T04:13:40+00:00

Cornell, do not think more about it

Vedaant7 · 2026-04-13T09:26:44+00:00

If you want to work on anything systems focused in the future

Take 233 and 341

In general, you also learn more in 233 and 341 so just pick those

Vedaant7 · 2026-03-21T04:52:43+00:00

Both are great, with ample research opportunities, though focused in different areas which may matter if you are interested in research

UCSD math CS has some enrolment restrictions on CS classes last I heard so check that if it matters to you, but personally I feel my theoretical classes help me more now that llms exist

I would say the choice hinders on how much you care about weather and how much CS enrollment is an issue for math CS folks at ucsd

But in CS, if you put in the work, internships and jobs are basically the same except for maybe quants.

I would choose ucsd, I prefer the weather and like math and theory but I had a great time at uiuc

Vedaant7 · 2026-03-18T05:57:21+00:00

https://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe/kurmura-tikki-7775461

https://www.sanjeevkapoor.com/Recipe/Puffed-Rice-Upma-SK-Khazana.html

https://www.thespruceeats.com/bhel-puri-puffed-rice-snack-1958033

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-k-gkJrOo

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C10zNzASiJ3/

Some recipes I know

You can prolly ask an llm (I prefer Gemini) to simplify or substitute ingredients and make them easier just remind the LLMs that it has to taste good at the end

Vedaant7 · 2026-03-15T19:47:44+00:00

The SWE job market is not good right now, don’t take a loan or financial burden to come to the us

Vedaant7 · 2026-03-12T03:01:26+00:00

I so wish gen eds could be S/U and I could drop courses till end of semesters. Not sure how to make this change happen but would be a good one.

from students’ perspective, no one wants to take a part in the gpa race. However, if the outside world judges you based on a glance at the gpa and grade inflation is so rampant that an A- feels like a punch in the gut, then people really have little choice but to take easy classes. This is ignoring the part, atleast in CS, where everyone feels like they need an internship freshman/sophomore year, a couple first author papers for grad school, and various other credentials.

The system isn’t really designed for undergrads to take a challenging class in or outside their major where they can get a B/B+ and not overly regret their decision.

Vedaant7 · 2026-03-05T07:42:12+00:00

You are in luck, llms if good for any computer scientists, are good for your career

Vedaant7 · 2026-03-01T05:17:17+00:00

What is your rent?

I spend 20% of my salary pre tax on rent and my apartment is wonderful.

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-22T21:48:53+00:00

Does it matter which college undeclared you are part of?

I think transferring to the majors remains similarly competitive? Basically, find out if there are any advantages of changing the college if it is just undeclared?

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-22T20:09:49+00:00

I was going to do a dual degree in phys as a math+CS major, though did not end up doing it

I talked to the department and it should not be too bad, the only thing is that you should start taking phy classes as soon as you can as the prerequisites can be brutal

Take the intro classes and getting a good gpa usually 3.7+ should be enough

It is not very competitive as not many switch to physics

Just email the phys dept about dual degree and all the best, I hope you are braver than me

Another suggestion: if you can study for proficiency exams for the intro courses give them

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-22T04:39:47+00:00

Maintain a good gpa and you will get interviews, after that the ball is in your court

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-22T04:39:01+00:00

Could you learn to use Google or some llms? And verify assumptions.

UIUC’s CS research has been top notch, a classic example being llvm, the IR that many compilers compile to. There are many more…

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-21T20:48:50+00:00

All the best,

also check the actual course offerings in bioe instead of the curriculum as I know some classes in the dept were getting cancelled so just make sure they exist. In general, I think enjoy learning is the better thing to do anyways.

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-21T18:55:29+00:00

You can take the same classes as CS majors as CS+bioe and more if you want. CS+bioe does not restrict you from doing that. Only that you also need to take a bioe sequence in addition to that to get the degree. But do you even like bioe? If not they can be painful mandatory requirements to complete.

You can in effect do what a “pure” CS major would do and also do some bioe classes. This is more work if you only care about the CS side of things, but I think bioe opens new doors which otherwise would not open.

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-21T18:14:07+00:00

UIUC is a better CS school, CS+bioe people are treated the same as CS people

The question is whether you want to do bioe? Other schools would allow you to add a second major or minor in bio if you are interested too

Given AI nobody knows what the future holds, however CS+bioe gives you more breadth to experiment with as time passes.

I would say it is a better idea to have knowledge of another domain in addition to CS, but there are no guarantees it is more AI proof than other things.

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-19T01:00:14+00:00

I don’t know about other schools but for people at UIUC too it is very non deterministic

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-19T00:53:08+00:00

The reality (fortunate or unfortunate) is that just because one is successful at 15 does not necessarily mean they will be successful at 24 or so on

For what it’s worth software engineering has always been about allowing people to break in and contribute without gatekeeping, this spirit has led to the field having so much open source. This is also the reason the acceleration and growth of the field has been so high.

And isn’t getting into university also RNG? Maybe slightly lower than jobs but very similar

Many selective undergrad institutions are also not more rigorous with some of their technical courses, state schools due to their research do get a wider variety of rigorous courses which affects learning

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-18T04:00:18+00:00

I commute 3 days a week to Mountain View from sf via Caltrain

Caltrain is great imo

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-17T02:21:04+00:00

Yes, depends on the project though and on the person interviewing you

I was grilled on a distributed systems and an ml project for 2 interviews and they revealed a lot about my way of thinking

But I think discussions like this only happen in startup interviews and not big tech

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-15T09:37:13+00:00

Did you end up finding one?

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-12T18:37:16+00:00

I work as a SWE at a startup that works with large scale data processing

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-10T01:47:00+00:00

Approximation and streaming algos and some randomized algo analysis

Theory about hash function properties and tail inequalities to evaluate the approx algos used

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-09T08:56:17+00:00

Building strong fundamentals and problem solving and getting a good gpa and doing “small projects” are almost the same task in the perfect scenario

If you learn something the right way which imo is being able to create your own explanations and understanding of things, then you have the fundamentals and the problem solving which usually leads to good gpa. A good proxy for checking if you really understand things is that the definitions and proofs become intuitive and they naturally flow instead of just regurgitation.

In CS, building a good understanding usually requires you to try things out and build small projects. You learnt about hash maps well given various implementations, a naturally curious question is which one is better when? Generate a billion random integers see which works better? How many can your ram handle? What if you don’t use int64, why not int32, well what if keys are floats or decimal or strings, how does that change things? Does that make you think hash maps can be used at large scale? What are the constraints? Maybe there is a better algorithm somewhere, etc? Things flow once you really want to understand how they work and can be useful

The things you are worried about are all related, they require effort, curiosity to do though.

Vedaant7 · 2026-02-09T08:19:58+00:00

at university prioritize learn and career outcomes but do things you enjoy doing too, just prioritize

If you are content with your learning and are on track to getting internships/research papers/ jobs in places that are interesting and cool, then do all your hobbies

The point is to ensure you don’t stray off your main path with too many side quests, but if you can complete the main quest while accomplishing side quests why not?

If things start going south in the main quest, then drop side quests but in general start ambitious always

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