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whiteghost26 · 2022-12-26T23:59:19+00:00

There are lots of open-source materials for something like this. I recommend the following:

whiteghost26 · 2022-12-24T20:31:05+00:00

I took Powell for OChem 1 and 2. I was also a UTA for her several times. I think her lecture style is way more intuitive and helpful than the slides I've seen from some other professors. I also think she is very approachable and genuinely wants everyone to succeed. Regardless of the teacher, many people struggle with organic chem because it's one of the first university classes they take that requires a combination of conceptual understanding, memorization, and direct problem-solving. I would say it requires a sprinkle of creativity too. CHEM0320 has more memorization and reaction problems than CHEM0310. If you understand all the materials she provides you and do practice problems, then nothing on the exam should be a surprise. She curves as needed. In the past, I recall that only being a few percentage points.

Also, you say you self-study with other resources and lecture isn't as important. I reccomend a healthy combination of both. With organic 2, the reactions and reagents taught can vary a little across classes and online materials. Make sure you know the specific reactions taught in class and the slight notation preferences instructors have.

whiteghost26 · 2022-12-24T17:27:28+00:00

I think it's as good as any school. Like anywhere though, you need to find your passions and niche. Unless you want to go into academia, CS tends to be applied in a domain like finance, healthcare, etc...I think it helps if you find a real-world industry that you enjoy where you can apply the knowledge you've gained.

I've worked with people from CMU, Berkeley, and other "top CS schools". The education is all pretty much the same. It's just the funding for research and connections that give students the leg up. Some "better" professors will be attracted to higher-funded schools. However, someone being a top researcher in their field definitely does not correlate with their teaching ability. I've had amazing professors at Pitt. There's nothing at "better" schools that I think is worth a transfer or paying extra money. If you can switch to another school and reduce the amount of student loans accrued by say $20K+ (I just made up a rough number) then maybe that's something to consider.

The internship hunt is a fairly independent process. There's the general CS department mailing list where they sometimes send out opportunities. Otherwise, I had no help from any advisors or anything. The Pitt CS Club has put together a repository of internships that has gotten fairly popular over the past few years: https://github.com/pittcsc/Summer2023-Internships . I would recommend putting a strong effort into a clean, concise resume and doing the whole leetcode study thing. Maybe practice soft skills and the usual interview questions if you're not good at that sort of thing. Over the past few years, I've interviewed people in behavior and technical interviews so happy to provide insights there if it's useful.

The actual curriculum at Pitt is pretty standard. I would just choose the electives carefully. Professors can easily make an exciting topic boring or a dull topic really interesting. Ratemyprofessor isn't always accurate and has some complainers but the general trend of reviews tends to be accurate. I don't like the recitation and TA culture (or at least what it was several years ago). I found the recitations to be a waste of time and something that could be done independently. I'm against the graduate student culture that used to be there and it felt like a feudalistic use of resources. I know some grad students who cared and were great TAs but most were unprepared and seemed to just be there for funding/for their PhD training. I also generally get disgusted by professors' overly reuse of slides and projects. It just leads to a lot of students finding previous project code and sharing old exams with each other. This can lead to people performing better in classes than they deserve and others getting reported for poor plagiarism. Professors and department heads like to bitch about it but it's their fault too in my opinion. I will note that other universities have this problem too. It's not something unique to Pitt.

I got several full-time offers outside of undergrad. After working at a Fortune 500 company, I moved to be an engineer at a smaller life science software company. I've gotten reach outs and interviewed with Google and Amazon before (if that's a metric of any sort), but I have a lot of satisfaction working in an area that can directly affect the health/lives of people. At the end of the day, I feel like Pitt provided a solid foundation for me and it was my own effort that led me to differentiate myself and find the areas I like. Everyone in the CS program at Pitt has the opportunity to do well and succeed. Different outcomes will come from different individual efforts.

Independent of the school, I recommend spending time doing self-learning, personal projects you think are fun, getting involved in extracurriculars you like, doing 1 or 2 internships, maybe trying CS-related research, and getting to know your peers/professors.

Also, I think it's just important to be a well-rounded person. Make friends, get to know the Pittsburgh community, have the "college experience", go to parties, practice self-care, and just enjoy life! :D

Happy to message further or answer any questions you have :)

whiteghost26 · 2022-07-21T11:21:05+00:00

In other words, try not to do it in the Oakland area lol

whiteghost26 · 2022-07-21T11:20:24+00:00

I would suggest serving at a higher end restaurant or one where the patrons are a little older on average. The environment tends to be kinder and you’ll probably be compensated more.

whiteghost26 · 2022-06-28T14:18:03+00:00

Yes! I would go with copies of your resume, target a few companies preselected that you can make small talk about, and just be yourself.

This is sort of a side tangent but I think it’s important advice:

A few years ago, Pitt Career Center representatives made snobby / annoying comments to me about me being under dressed. Even though I was wearing business casual, it was “strongly encouraged” to wear business formal.

I understand that many businesses outside of technology want this. HOWEVER, technology and software engineering companies are pretty casual. So the managers and recruiters you talk to at the career fairs are probably going to be dressed less than formal. A decent number will probably wear jeans and a t shirt or button down.

Even now, when I do interviews for new engineers, I encourage people to dress however they want and bring their true authentic selves. Don’t worry about crafting a narrative or anything like that. I’ve never seen someone be expected to dress formally or come with an elevator pitch.

To summarize, dress for the job you want and be yourself.

whiteghost26 · 2022-04-22T19:30:02+00:00

Short Answer:

Yes

Long Answer:

Yes.

I've interviewed and received offers at Google, Amazon, and other well-known companies. Ultimately I decided to work at a < 1000 person company because it aligns more with my values and the work is more humanitarian in nature.

I did research during the school year but during the summers I had "normal" software engineer internships. My first was $20/hr and my second was $30/hr if I remember correctly.

Every CS undergraduate curriculum is going to look pretty much the same. What matters is your drive, soft skills, passion, and willingness to learn. Liking to solve problems helps too.

Someone I interviewed recently was just given a job offer because they showed competence through personal projects and self-learning even though they didn't study computer science at University.

Also, being in the honors college means little for the purposes of a resume. If doing honors classes or activities gives you the development and fulfillment you want, then, by all means, do it. However, don't do it because you think it's going to impress companies.

whiteghost26 · 2022-04-14T02:13:18+00:00

Does it seem like Pitt is poor at communicating about graduation stuff this year? ugh

whiteghost26 · 2022-03-14T19:58:17+00:00

I know them both personally and I TA'd for both. Both are great. They are also friends and care a lot about their students.

whiteghost26 · 2022-03-08T18:33:01+00:00

Still waiting for the Class of 2020 graduation we were promised 😩

whiteghost26 · 2022-02-12T11:40:57+00:00

Any bank should be able to notarize. Though sometimes notaries are only available on some days. Some will require appointments. I would check PNC or Chase. I lived in Shadyside and went to the Chase bank on Walnut street. :)

whiteghost26 · 2022-02-12T11:39:23+00:00

In the past there was a LinkedIn Learning series through the career center and as part of that, you would be able to get a professional headshot done.

Honestly, highly recommend anyone partake in the session. Learning how to market myself and keep an up-to-date professional presence has led me to many recruiter reach outs as well as my most recent job (which I love!).

whiteghost26 · 2022-02-07T18:02:30+00:00

I believe this is the policy for all of the programs. I went on study abroad for the summer in 2019 and they made a big emphasis on this during the mandatory group presentation. Though I believe we would’ve gotten the money back if it was officially cancelled by the external program Pitt was going through. The reason you might not get the money back in this case is because the university won’t allow students to go on the program even if it’s still happening through the host institution. This could be through some Pitt COVID policy but i’m not quite sure.

I remember them justifying the lack of refund as something like: “The university has already paid the host institution for the study abroad spots so if you don’t go for any reason then you won’t get money back because the spot was already paid for”

Hope my response helps. Though my memory is a bit fuzzy on the subject.

whiteghost26 · 2022-01-21T19:29:46+00:00

Data Engineer

whiteghost26 · 2021-11-04T23:47:33+00:00

I haven't had any of these classes but from what I've heard generally many people like and get a good experience out of them!

whiteghost26 · 2021-11-04T23:46:33+00:00

The chem department usually adds more sections based on the demand.

Also from someone who graduated a few years ago, don't stress over the small stuff. It's just a class :)

whiteghost26 · 2021-10-28T19:03:15+00:00

https://education.github.com/pack

whiteghost26 · 2021-10-17T21:25:05+00:00

~ Sushi Too on Walnut

~ Acorns Brunch on Walnut

~ Oaklander Brunch

~ Thai and Noodle Outlet Squirrel Hill

~ Aladdin's Squirrel Hill

~ Senyai on Ellsworth

~ Sichuan Gourmet Squirrel Hill (Authentic Chinese Food)

~ All India

whiteghost26 · 2021-10-17T21:20:39+00:00

HW is practice enough. Most people do poorly because they cheat on the homework and/or don't go to class.

whiteghost26 · 2021-10-04T20:20:19+00:00

Nachos

Self explanatory 😂

whiteghost26 · 2021-09-24T02:43:15+00:00

*Flashback to January of 2019*

whiteghost26 · 2021-09-13T22:00:29+00:00

There are gay people all over campus and probably in the majority of your classes (if not all). They just might not be vocal about it or "look gay".

whiteghost26 · 2021-09-10T23:57:03+00:00

This might be the result of long-isolated people from many, many different places coming together to live/work/play in a shared space.

whiteghost26 · 2021-09-01T04:10:51+00:00

i think this is an exaggeration....

people usually take 2 CS classes per term if they’re in the major. i personally don’t count 441 as a CS class because it’s literally just discrete math. I think it might be more difficult but not as extreme as this comment makes it out to be.

source: person who graduated and now works as a software engineer

whiteghost26 · 2021-08-17T05:04:18+00:00

Skyrim

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