spring semester

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Junior Spring Begins

January 31, 2012 in Scott's Blog by Scott Yim | Permalink

Since my last blog post during Wintersession, campus has become a lot more lively because everyone is back. I’ve finally decided on my schedule, which includes several new things that I’ve never tried before.

  1. I’m working in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) undergraduate labs under the direction of Sujata, my concentration (major) advisor for Biomedical Engineering. Sujata and I met earlier this week to decide on a project that I’d be interested in. With sustainability and this whole “Green is the new Crimson” initiative on campus that was implemented in recent years, we decided a really neat project would be to work with naturally-derived, renewable materials. This semester, I’ll be performing both biological and mechanical characterization of these materials with clinically relevant cell lines and exploring them for biomedical applications. For example, perhaps a corn-derived material or fabric could be used in supporting the lungs of someone who is suffering from emphysema (loss of elasticity in the lungs) or just had a heart attack. I’ll essentially be trying to mix these things to see if corn-derived materials can be used in things like medical devices and to see whether or not they can be used in the body safely, without adverse side effects.
  2. I am taking 5 courses! Well, my research counts as a course, so it isn’t the traditional class with a lecture and homework. While it isn’t all that unusual for someone to take 5 classes, the typical semester here includes only 4, which is what I’ve always done. Regardless, I’m excited, and I think I’ll be able to manage it.
  3. I have 8:30 am class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. For those of you high schoolers reading this, that may sound very late. However, you realize that in college, 9:00 am becomes your 6:00 am as an undergrad. Of course, I woke up at 6:00 am in high school for a 7:15 am first class and was so accustomed to it that it just became part of everyday life. Waking up past 6:00 am was considered sleeping in. But in college, 9:00 am is pretty early, and 8:30 am is nearly unheard of (in my experience, I’ve found that very few classes meet before 9). This is, indeed, tragic, but having done it for a week, it’s not all that bad. I guess I’m being a bit dramatic, but it’s nice to be done with class for the day by 10:00 or 11:00 am, which is before some people even start!

I’d like to invite you all to follow us student life bloggers on Twitter. Our username is @HarvardBloggers (http://twitter.com/HarvardBloggers), and it’s simply another way for you to connect with us. We’ll be tweeting about life on campus, as well as whenever one of us has a new blog post! Check it out!

 

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Picking and Choosing

January 2, 2012 in Scott's Blog by Scott Yim | 3 comments

Happy New Year! I can’t believe 2012 is already here. It is unbelievable how time flies, and it definitely doesn’t feel like I’ve been at Harvard for two and a half years already. I told you all I would keep you updated on how my planning for the spring semester is going, and it looks like I’ve decided on only one course so far: “Engineering Sciences 123: Introduction to Fluid Mechanics and Transport Processes.” Okay…so from the title alone, this class isn’t exactly one that I’ve been dying to take since declaring my concentration (major) as Biomedical Engineering. It sounds like there is going to be a lot of physics and applied math involved. I love the latter, but can’t say the same about physics. While I’m not a physics person by any means, I’m open-minded, and this is indeed a concentration requirement.

As far as the other courses in my schedule go, there are a bunch I am looking at.

  • “Computer Science 51: Introduction to Computer Science II”
  • “Government 1093: Ethics, Biotechnology, and the Future of Human Nature”
  • “Societies of the World 24: Global Health Challenges: Complexities of Evidence-Based Policy”
  • “Engineering Sciences 91r: Supervised Reading and Research”
  • “Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality 1266: Gender and Sports”

OFF ON A TANGENT: You’ll notice that I’m considering many courses that don’t have to do with engineering. When I applied to Harvard, I indicated on my application that I intended to pursue engineering and stuck with it. No one actually declares a concentration until his or her sophomore fall. However, applying as an engineer, I was conscious of the fact that Harvard isn’t a traditional engineering school, but that’s what was really attractive to me. I liked the idea of being a “Renaissance Engineer” because I have many eclectic interests. Sure, I love math and science and those are the two subjects I focused on in high school. But I have a great appreciation for English literature (Shakespeare’s King Lear, anyone??), ethnic studies, technology, and global health, to name a few. I knew that Harvard would be able to offer me opportunities in engineering in the context of a liberal arts education, which set it apart from many other, solely technical universities that I was considering.

There are actually several other courses I’m looking at, but these really stood out to me. Selecting courses is extremely difficult, because there are thousands to choose from, and only so much time in one semester. On top of deciding between which subjects I’m most interested in, finalizing my schedule also comes down to logistics, including requirements, class meetings, exam dates, etc. In addition, I haven’t spoken to any friends about classes yet. At least one person usually ends up finding a gem that I didn’t. With so many courses, it’s easy to overlook many of them, let alone one. It usually all ends up working out some way or another, though. When it’s shopping week (check out Jeanie’s post if you aren’t familiar) towards the end of the month, I’ll post a screenshot of my final shopping schedule–I’m sure it’ll look crazy hectic with all of the aforementioned courses and then some. New semester, new courses, new year…I’m really looking forward to 2012 and new challenges, ups, downs, and memories in general!

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