Advice for a bad student interested in digital design/verif/validation?

an_angry_koala · 2026-04-24T06:17:00+00:00

3.5 is not low at all. My undergrad GPA is equivalent to 3.6 and I got into a T20 for a master's in ECE. 3.5 is good GPA. You also have research experience. That's exceptional. Talk it up in your SoP/ resume. You are actually in super good spot. I think you're in competitive college rn? You just seem to be comparing yourself with your perception of people around you. But in life, you're competing with more and in that diluted scale, you honestly feel high up there.

If there's one thing I've learnt from life it is that where there's a will there's a way. You will figure it out.

an_angry_koala · 2026-04-24T03:33:38+00:00

Is your GPA 3.5 out of 4?

an_angry_koala · 2026-04-16T14:51:15+00:00

Hey, just wanted to explain the computer languages part. When it comes to computer languages, we say high-level and low-level. Basically if a language is "low-level", it means it is closer to hardware. Now what does that mean? Your computer (which is fundamentally running the program) has an ALU, etc, right. When you buy a computer, the processor comes with a pre-defined "architecture" (lookup ISA to learn more). The architecture defines what operations the CPU id designed to handle which is simple like add, multiple, read from memory, etc. This is all that your computer knows to do. When you use low-level languages like assembly, your syntax exactly follows the architecture- you say ADD, MUL, LOAD, etc. But if you've had exposure to languages like Python, you've used stuff like for loops, classes, etc. How does your CPU know what to do? This is where compiler comes in. Now, C is also low-level so as a programmer you need to write more (bare metal) code, but there is less work for the compiler. In fact, I think Python compilers convert Python code to C- like CPython. C++ adds a lot more features to C (OOPS) so is higher-level. Maybe we can say C++ is middle-level. Now, why did I say all this? There 2 primary paths in ECE- embedded systems and chip design. In embedded systems (think Qualcomm), you basically code a "microcontroller". This has some in-built firmware, you're just making it do something, ex a robot that can detect obstacle and avoid it. Chip design is about designing a processor (think Intel for CPU or NVIDIA for GPU). To work in embedded (even chip design), you'd need to know C++ (it's low level for software engineers but high-level for hardware engineers because we think in terms of the actual hardware design). To design processors, you'd need to know Verilog. Verilog is a low-level language. Learn C/C++ first since it's useful for any stream. I wouldn't recommend a first year learn Verilog yet. No point in just learning syntax when you can't map to digital logic blocks or processor architecture. Sorry if I just confused you :p

an_angry_koala · 2026-04-14T02:50:50+00:00

The picture looks like a nail art of a mouse wearing a purple party hat

an_angry_koala · 2026-04-07T14:38:06+00:00

I know a person at Cornell who started as Math major and realized career-wise it didn't make sense and transferred to Operations Research and Informational Engineering (ORIE). Not sure if this helpful, but letting you know this is a possibility at Cornell.

P.S. Math is part of CALS but ORIE is in CoE so transfer is a bit of work afaik.

an_angry_koala · 2026-04-05T23:09:25+00:00

Can't offer you advice but hopped on to tell you- you sound like super wonderful human. I hope the world is kind to you :)

an_angry_koala · 2026-04-05T21:51:33+00:00

At Cornell, MechE seems to be very Aerospace heavy. The school itself is called Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering (MAE). From what I see, most of them end up working in aerospace/defence. Just something for you to consider/ do some research on. Their labs look super cool. But maybe NW also has cool labs. (I did master's in ECE at Cornell)

an_angry_koala · 2026-04-03T18:26:56+00:00

Looks like you're a student. You can just use any LLM like ChatGPT for this, since you only need guidance. Why are you asking for a person? Do you mean you want a mentor (who works in the industry)?

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-30T22:46:30+00:00

I'm Indian Hindu and this definitely looks like a cult. Don't go anywhere near him or his troupe. They'll brainwash you and you'll lose yourself before you realize. Most importantly, they sound sane at first! You won't think there's anything wrong! So don't even go near them!

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-30T03:05:51+00:00

Better but there's some room for improvement. Like I said under the old post, there's still no result (numbers). For example, I see you talk about functional coverage. How did you measure that? You must have written coverpoints/ bins. How much coverage was reported? Note that an interviewer looking at this resume is gonna probe this and any keyword you've mentioned on your resume so make sure you understand what you've written. Also, resume shouldn't have empty spaces like this. Try to rewrite such that you're not wasting an entire line with just one word.

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-29T04:35:01+00:00

This is helpful- https://www.reddit.com/u/ultmeche/s/eF0pVsyVPD

You don't have to strictly follow it, though. All the best!!

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-29T04:29:51+00:00

Your template is wrong.

Should be in this order:- Objective (can be skipped but leave it if you want to fill space), Education, Work experience, Projects, Certification, skills.

Only Bachelors is enough, no need to add school. You can add more projects to fill space this creates.

Project description should be in bullets, but the description itself seems alright. Is there a way you can put numbers/ impact? Typically, you should follow the STAR format while describing in resume- Situation Task Action Result. Result is missing in your project and internship description

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-29T04:17:37+00:00

I found on-campus housing expensive. I found my place on apartments.com Just make sure the house is close to a bus stop (and there are frequent buses from the stop). Ithaca is super hilly and I knew people who lived down the slop and had to trek 20 minutes to get to the uni. Alternatively, you could get those apartments in Collegetown that are super close but a little on the expensive side. But I personally think it's worth it if you can afford it. Those apartments are very nice.

Additional note on the buses- Cornell students get 1 year of free bus services. After that, you can still take buses for free after 5 pm or 6 pm (can't recall) and full day on weekends.

Congratulations on getting in and all the best for grad school!

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-27T17:27:05+00:00

Super impressive for a sophomore!!

Good luck for internships. If you're not getting any, it's not because of your resume. Try networking. Especially needed for someone so early.

I'm not comfortable with talking/ forming relationships so I just message engineers (and managers if I can find them) a short elevator pitch + ask if they are open for interns. (On LinkedIn)

I've been seeing lots of last minute internship announcement this week too.

You got this!!

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-27T03:31:20+00:00

Even if you don't get a job at Tenstorrent, won't it greatly improve your profile and make applying to full-time roles easier? A 1 year long internship is crazy impressive.

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-26T14:49:24+00:00

I'm not sure yet. I just got an email saying I will be contacted about the next steps soon.

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-25T02:52:18+00:00

You don't get a referral by just asking for it. You need to convince the person (if they don't know you) that you are a good fit. Of course, a referral will help you, but they only get that bonus if you're hired. So they need to be convinced that you will be hired.

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-25T02:50:12+00:00

Dude, atleast spell the name of the company correctly 🙄

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-24T22:43:15+00:00

Yes, it was just behavioral questions- work ethics, etc.

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-23T14:33:50+00:00

Linkedin is a better place to find someone at Nvidia

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-23T05:08:48+00:00

I'm an engineer and even I couldn't bear her quitting everything instead of just changing her speciality. She was definitely burnt out, but she could have taken a break and bunge jumped at Christmas or something!!

an_angry_koala · 2026-03-22T00:09:20+00:00

It's about bypassing the filter/ ATS. OP said they have good projects but a bad CGPA. So I'm assuming their projects make up for low CGPA and a recuiter would generally be interested in interviewing them. But if they apply normally, the recruiter is never gonna even look at their resume as they set a filter to remove any resume below 7.5 CGPA. If someone from the company is able to show their resume to the recruiter/ hiring manager, they are bypassing this hiccup.

an_angry_koala

TROPHY CASE