People may assume that holding a bachelor degree is equivalent to having an expertise in the field that he or she studied. I don’t know if it is true for others, but I am definitely not the case. I recently graduated from the University of Central Missouri (UCM), but I still consider myself as a novice. Four years of undergraduate program just exposed me to the field and prepared me for next journey of graduate study.
My master program at the George Washington University (GW) just started this week, and I was really excited about learning new stuff. It was just the first day of each class, but I already had a vision of the entire semester. The Game Design and Programming would be the most interesting, enjoyable, and easiest one among the three courses that I am taking this semester. It is an undergraduate course but can be taken for graduate credits, and that might explain for its easiness. The other two are a lot tougher because they are the core courses of Computer Science. In our program, there are three core courses that all CS students are required to take. As expected, Computer Architecture and Algorithm just drove me crazy on the first day. Since I am a software guy and Computer Architecture is a hardware course, I will have a rough time to catch up. In this class, there are only a project, a term paper, and a final. The project is worth 50% of the total points, and it does not seem to be an easy task. Most of my classmates already formed their teams while I am still by myself. Fortunately, Java is the language that we will use in this project, which is an advantage for me because many people in the class have little or no experience in Java. In my opinion, a great team should consist of someone who knows Java and someone who is good at computer architecture. I am not an expert, but I did many projects in Java, so the only thing I need now is a computer architecture guy. Hopefully, I will find some next week. Differ from Computer Architecture, Algorithm Design and Analysis involves lots of advanced Math and all kinds of logic. This class will consume most of my time to get the homework done due to its complexity. I don’t know how I would survive if I did not have Mathematics as my second major. My brain will surely be tortured by this course. Two core courses already make a mess. If I listened to my advisor to take all the three core courses in the first semester, I would die in the first month of school. I am glad that I talked to other people.
Ironically, I graduated with a 4.0 GPA, but now I am afraid of getting dismissed from school. According to our department policy, students with two grades below B- will be dismissed from the program. It’s not quite impossible. I need to stay focused and put more effort in study because that’s what I chose to be in this school. No matter what will happen, I am certain that GW will offer me a lot, in term of knowledge and skills. If UCM provided me equipments for the journey, GW would guide me to the destination where I really become a computer expert.
