Can't wait to be a Tennessee Vol!

[HAL9000]

This post is mainly for current/recently graduated students or just people who like reading about why the University of Tennessee is a great school.

I'll start off by telling a little bit of my background (and I'll add a tl;dr version for you busy/lazy/shallow *****ers).

I'm Chris and I'm 28 years old. My parents met in college at UTK and my dad went to med school in Memphis. I grew up (with orange blood of course) in Memphis. If any Memphis people care to know I went to Snowden, Campus School, St. Dominic, Christian Brothers, then finished my HS diploma through Gateway/Fournier.
I was diagnosed with ADD and mild depression/anxiety at an early age.
I've been down a long difficult road of bad decisions, terrible girlfriends, failed classes, serious partying, hard thinking, and more thinking...also partying.

In summer 2008 I was academically dismissed from UNC Asheville (don't ask me why I ever decided to go there, DERP) and they told me I couldn't come back for 3 years. I used those 3 years to get things out of my system, recover from idiotic decisions, and find out what I really wanted to do.

During that interim what I found was I had a knack for things like Cognitive Neuroscience as well as writing code and designing algorithms (amazing what the brain can do once you sober up!). When I returned to UNC Asheville I realized that any major there other than Sociology or Literature or Women's Studies :lol: was basically a joke (women's studies is pretty much a joke too tbh, I mean really) and I wasn't ever going to get the education I wanted at UNCA. Plus the people there were starting to get on my nerves... everyone there thinks they're so "authentic" and really they just suck. A bunch of worthless hacks really. Anyway.

What I really wanted to do was develop algorithms in Computational Neuroscience and contribute to the progress of Machine Intelligence in general. This would take a long time in both undergrad and graduate school, and I would need a good research university to do it. So UNC Asheville, obviously, wasn't the environment for me.
In my search for a new school I was surprised to find out that there were some of the best labs in the country for AI and Machine Learning right here in Tennessee. Facilities like CISML (Center for Intelligent Systems and Machine Learning) and the MIL (Machine Intelligence Lab) in the Min Kao building were exactly what I was looking for. UTK was the obvious choice at that point. An environment where those types of facilities are provided is what exactly I have needed for years. So, I feel pretty stupid for not thinking of UT before and I hate that I wasted time at UNCA, but then if things had not happened the way they did, then I wouldn't be so sure about what I wanted to do and where I wanted to do it.

*tl;dr
After years of dicking around and then finally maturing a little and doing my own research, I have discovered my passion for Artificial Intelligence, and in order to do research in that field I have decided to transfer to UTK. I'm now finishing up the process of getting prereqs done and repairing damage done to my GPA at Northeast State Community College in east TN. I've never been so ready/excited to go to a school in my life. I feel like I've always been destined to go to UT, I just had to find what really drives me before I was really ready for this new stage in my life. This spring I'll be finishing my associates degree and then moving to UTK as soon as humanly possible.
What I hope to gain from posting here is a little guidance from fellow orange bloods. I have a few specific questions and any sort of advice in general is welcome.

What is the best housing arrangement for someone in my situation?

I am planning to be a Computer Science major but I don't want to apply to the engineering school just yet in case my transcript isn't good enough. I was thinking maybe get all the required courses for Computer Science, Math or Statistics, and Neuroscience minors before finally having to choose a major. Does anyone here have experience with getting into the engineering school from within the university?

What are some good classes and who are the good teachers in these subjects?

Where do people hang out? Where can I find like minded people or students with similar interests? I need to surround myself with people who can talk about the things I like to talk about. These days I'm pretty obsessed with my research and I like to discuss ideas with intelligent people.

Anyway that's a long ass post but I'm just excited to finally be going to my parents Alma Mater. Thanks in advance for any guidance/advice. And GO VOLS.

 

[Cyclopskiller]

Congrats man!

 

[Obsessed]

Congrats as well..

You have me interested now, and I'll need updates for your journey to attend UT. I wish you the best of luck.

 

[orangebloodgmc]

Chris, you give me hope. The early part of your story sounds very much like my own son, another intelligent young man with some issues of ADD, depression/anxiety, lack of organization, failed classes (A's in some!) bad decisions and partying. His school invited him to not come back for a while. He's 21 and I hope he continues to grow up, reflect and become determined to get back in there and pursue his dream, as you are doing. Thank you for sharing your story and we wish you all the best.

 

[HAL9000]

Chris, you give me hope. The early part of your story sounds very much like my own son, another intelligent young man with some issues of ADD, depression/anxiety, lack of organization, failed classes (A's in some!) bad decisions and partying. His school invited him to not come back for a while. He's 21 and I hope he continues to grow up, reflect and become determined to get back in there and pursue his dream, as you are doing. Thank you for sharing your story and we wish you all the best.

His struggle might turn out to be a blessing in disguise. If I had been able to finish school the first time around I might be stuck in a career I wouldn't be happy in. I really think if things had not turned out the way they did, I would not have had the chance to discover my true passion. Having that time to reflect forced me to really look at why I couldn't motivate myself. Now that I'm on the right path I feel like I can have a bigger, more positive impact on the world.

 

[vader]

I have discovered my passion for Artificial Intelligence

Good lord, man. Don't you watch movies?

Seriously, I don't have any good advice, but I wish you the best in your studies and future endeavors (unless you truly do bring down the human race). It is good to hear of someone finding their true calling.

 

[BAJAvol]

I could really use your help in statistics right now. My homework appears to be simple for most, but I cant seem to grasp it. Anyways, congratulations man

 

[HAL9000]

Good lord, man. Don't you watch movies?


Seriously, I don't have any good advice, but I wish you the best in your studies and future endeavors (unless you truly do bring down the human race).

:lol:

There's a reason they call it science FICTION. The amount of effort it would require to create evil machines is something they conveniently skim over in those movies. We have enough trouble getting them to speak a language fluently or perform complex motor functions.

But there is a chance that when machines become more intelligent than humans they could see us as an inferior waste of space. There are plenty of solutions to that problem though, like give them a virtual reality to exist in or just send them to another planet. People automatically assume that machines would be motivated to kill, but we only think of that because we have millions of years of violence hardcoded into our DNA. Machines (by themselves at least) wouldn't be inherently violent unless we really worked at it. By the time anyone can pull that off fully biological lifeforms will probably be obsolete anyway. Kind of a dark and depressing future but eternal life comes at a price. Don't worry though that's a long way off.

 

[Nationdom]

Great story. I still don't know where my life is going, hopefully Knoxville if I ever find my true passion before I pass.

 

[golfballs]

I'm not familiar with your situation but I'll throw in my 2 cents. Maybe someone else has better advice, since I was just a standard undergrad student.

The only people I knew in their late 20s at UT were TAs. It'd probably be of benefit to make friends with them anyway. Which you can probably just do through class. Best bet would probably be to figure out some clubs or groups to hang out with through them - since they'll be your age, and have similar interest.

The only overlap you'll have in classes I took is probably statistics. And looking at their department page it looks like several of the professors I had are still there. Cwiek was pretty good. Kind of a laid back guy, but I'm not sure you'll take any of his courses - his focus is in process control. Seaver is still there. Didn't really care for him. Bit of an ego, but if you can get past that he's not bad. I enjoyed Bozdogan's class - mostly because of the content.

I didn't take a ton of math classes. The only professor of note that I had was a guy named Morwen Thistlethwaite. He taught calculus, algebra, and topology, as I recall. Interesting cat. On his school webpage posts pics of his asian wife wearing pumps. lol. Anyway, his class can be a little dry, but if you're into algorithms, he created one to solve the rubiks cube. So there's that.

Not sure about housing. I'd probably just find something in the fort.

 

[37L1]

Perfect user name for your "gift."

 

[holtridge]

I'm not familiar with your situation but I'll throw in my 2 cents. Maybe someone else has better advice, since I was just a standard undergrad student.

The only people I knew in their late 20s at UT were TAs. It'd probably be of benefit to make friends with them anyway. Which you can probably just do through class. Best bet would probably be to figure out some clubs or groups to hang out with through them - since they'll be your age, and have similar interest.

The only overlap you'll have in classes I took is probably statistics. And looking at their department page it looks like several of the professors I had are still there. Cwiek was pretty good. Kind of a laid back guy, but I'm not sure you'll take any of his courses - his focus is in process control. Seaver is still there. Didn't really care for him. Bit of an ego, but if you can get past that he's not bad. I enjoyed Bozdogan's class - mostly because of the content.

I didn't take a ton of math classes. The only professor of note that I had was a guy named Morwen Thistlethwaite. He taught calculus, algebra, and topology, as I recall. Interesting cat. On his school webpage posts pics of his asian wife wearing pumps. lol. Anyway, his class can be a little dry, but if you're into algorithms, he created one to solve the rubiks cube. So there's that.

Not sure about housing. I'd probably just find something in the fort.

Goofballs what year did you graduate at UT? I was too dumb and still am to attend a college.

 

[HAL9000]

I didn't take a ton of math classes. The only professor of note that I had was a guy named Morwen Thistlethwaite.

I've actually read a lot about that guy and his conjectures and I've seen his webpage. I would love to take one of his classes. I hope he'll still be around by the time I get to topology. His name also makes him sound like a Hogwarts professor.

 

[LittleCat]

College definitely woke me up and taught me to stop ****ing around. I'm going to my 2nd year and trying hard to focus for once in my life on academics.

keep us posted.

 

[gatorhater5]

I just graduated in May with a degree in chemical engineering. I would advise you to apply to the college of engineering now and if you don't make it in, it won't hurt you. The reason I say this is because you will be required to take EF 101 and 102 (or honors versions) as a part of the engineering curriculum. These are only offered in the fall and spring semesters. They will put you back a whole year if you don't get into these as soon as possible as they are prerequisites to your departmental classes. Also, it may actually be easier to get into the college of engineering as a transfer student than as an internal student. I got into the college of engineering from high school, and it was based on high school GPA and the math score of the ACT. I am not sure how exactly they determine eligibility for transer students, but like I said, they are not going to hold it against you if you don't get into the college of engineering at first.

As for where to live, I can't help you with that. I lived on campus for all my 4 years with 3 of them being in Andy Holt Apartments. If you are concerned about being around people your age, I know that the 15th floor of Andy Holt is for grad students and Vol Hall has grad students.

 

[Aavoxx]

Try to grab an internship at ORNL.

 

[HAL9000]

I just graduated in May with a degree in chemical engineering. I would advise you to apply to the college of engineering now and if you don't make it in, it won't hurt you. The reason I say this is because you will be required to take EF 101 and 102 (or honors versions) as a part of the engineering curriculum. These are only offered in the fall and spring semesters. They will put you back a whole year if you don't get into these as soon as possible as they are prerequisites to your departmental classes. Also, it may actually be easier to get into the college of engineering as a transfer student than as an internal student. I got into the college of engineering from high school, and it was based on high school GPA and the math score of the ACT. I am not sure how exactly they determine eligibility for transer students, but like I said, they are not going to hold it against you if you don't get into the college of engineering at first.

Are you sure? Last time I checked, if you get rejected from the college of engineering you're not allowed to apply again. That's really the only reason I planned on applying after I got a couple of semesters at UT under my belt.

Try to grab an internship at ORNL.

That would be pretty cool. That's like the American version of Bletchley Park. Lots of history. I grew up in a city though so it would be hard for me to live out there for very long.