The first time we attended an ROCC Launch event was March of 2009.  This was an interesting experience, as one larger size rocket malfunctioned.  Its parachute failed to open and it torpedoed into the ground.  I followed the crowd that embarked to find its landing spot.

Another time we attended an ROCC Launch event and took lots of picture was January of 2010.  This is a good time to mention that rocket launches are a great venue for budding (or professional) photographers.  You have lots of opportunities to get that perfect launch shot.

The command center.

One of the greatest part of launching your own rockets is that your launch is announced by the Launch Control Officer (LCO) over the loudspeakers.

Rockets line the launch pad.

The launch pad is filled to capacity before launching.  This means periods of dead time between launches.  It is much like a tailgate during these times and many people grill hot dogs and hang out.  When launching happens, all of the rockets are launched consecutively.

Discussing a launch.

Many high school and college groups come to events like this for trial runs of rockets they have created in preparation of competing in rocket competitions.

Launching a rocket.

Many of the launches are quite impressive.  The larger motor sizes lead to launches that look like mini Nasa launches.

A launch with black smoke.

It is an interesting surprise to see what type of reaction will be caused by the motors – red and white flames are common.  Occasionally a launch will have black smoke instead of the traditional whitish color.

Another great rocket launch!

Looks like a great day, doesn’t it?  I will admit that I wasn’t really into all this rocketry geekery – but I went at Adam’s request.  I wound up enjoying myself even more than he did!  (*Update* After reading this, Adam claims that he had more fun than I did.)

Find a local rocketry club near you through the National Association of Rocketry.

Oh yeah, for those of you curious to Adam’s home-made rocket endeavors, here you go!  I advise to not try this at home.  (Apparently we aren’t the only ones using a creative license when it comes to rocketry. On a related crazy note, watch a child get his tooth pulled out by a rocket here!)

Even some “experts” at the music store will have no clue what they are talking about, so let me enlighten you something so you won’t fall prey to their stupidity.

I like to record music from time to time on my computer.  Nothing special, a riff here or there on the guitar, or a cover song or something. I wanted to have the simplest method for recording so when I chose to, I can focus on recording music instead of setting things up.   I found the MXL USB.006 Condenser Microphone to be perfect for my application, however everyone and their brother advised me against it. Even the guy who sold it to me at “Guitar Place” said it wasn’t as good as running a standard condenser mic through a mixer and using a USB sound card. The one he recommended was the Behringer UCA202.  So I bought them both to see the differences.

With both items plugged in, issuing the command “lsusb” to list all my USB devices in the terminal shows the following:

Bus 008 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 007 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 006 Device 004: ID 08bb:2900 Texas Instruments Japan PCM2900 Audio Codec
Bus 006 Device 003: ID 08bb:2902 Texas Instruments Japan
Bus 006 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 005 Device 007: ID 062a:0000 Creative Labs Optical mouse
Bus 005 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 004 Device 003: ID 1267:0103 Logic3 / SpectraVideo plc G-720 Keyboard
Bus 004 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 003 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0001 Linux Foundation 1.1 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub

The numbers in the 6th column show the hexadecimal of values vendor ID and product ID numbers.  You can see two entries for “Texas Instruments…”  The one that says “PCM2900 Audio Codec”  is the MXL mic.  The other TI entry is for the Behringer UCA202.   Notice that the Product ID is very similar (2900 vs. 2902).  This refers to the chip they are using to convert the audio to USB.  Being that they are both 290x means they are the same series of chip.

Here are the datasheets for these chips:

Here’s the 2902 (in the Behringer) and here you can find the 2900 (in the MXL mic)

The only difference between these two chips is that one (the one in the Behringer) has SPDIF out, and the other does not. Quality is exactly the same.

This lead me to think that the foretold lack of quality must be from an inferior microphone element. This lead me to more research. The mic itself is considered a “cardioid condenser mic.”  “Cardioid” means if you were to draw out a shape of where the mic can actually pic up sound (its sensitivity pattern) you will find it is shaped somewhat like a heart ( ♥ ). Wikipedia has a great article showing the different sensitivity patterns of mics.

The term “condenser” means that basically the mic is a variable capacitor. Sound waves vary the distance between two capacitive plates changing the capacitance between them. This change in capacitance is the electronic incarnation of the sound, allowing it to then be mixed normally.

MXL claim that they use their standard gold-sputtered diaphragm condenser mic element in the USB.006.

Condenser mics require DC power to work . For this they use 48v Phantom Power. This is basically provided by a mixer or preamp and is sent via XLR mic cable. Since the USB.006 mic has no normal XLR cable, they MXL had to come up with a way to provide phantom power for the mic element. They likely used a charge pump circuit to up the 5v DC USB power to 48v. This allows the output of the MXL USB.006 to be exactly comparable to standard condenser mics.

It is safe to say that the MXL USB006 mic has the same quality as any comparable mic running through a mixer and into the Behringer UCA202. Anyone who says they can tell a difference is a complete moron (like many self proclaimed “gurus” who work at music stores.)  Put it this way; if they knew what they were talking about, do you think they’d be the guy selling you stuff at the music store?

I know this isn’t the case for everyone. Many times you will find an authentic guru at the music store.  It just really bothered me how these people just accepted that the USB mic wasn’t as good as the other methods because some other “expert” told them so. Worse than that, they undersold themselves (sicne many work on commission and the Behringer costs about 1/3 to 1/4 the costs of the USB.006 mic) and perpetrating a lie. Spouting off bad advice is no way to help people. If you don’t know what you are talking about, please at least try to look it up before giving advice on the topic.

Both the MXL USB.006 and the Behringer UCA202 are great cheap USB sound devices and I highly recommend both of them to anyone looking for good quality simple and fast recording. Personally, I use them both at the same time when I record, and even use the Behringer UCA202 as the default sound card on my machine.

</rant>

From a teacher’s perspective, four makers in particular presented things I just “need” to have in my classroom.  This is my wish list:

• Classroom Visits for “Scrap” from the ScrapExchange
• Leatherbound Books
• ShopBot Tyro
• DIY Multi-Touch Screen

Find reasons and more information about each of my choices after the jump.

“Scrap” from the ScrapExchange

The pre-party for all the makers involved was held at The Scrap Exchange, and I admit I spent over three hours in this creative reuse center perusing all of their wonderful and random items.  Some items of interest for potential classroom application range from the obvious to the obscure:

• Lab Equipment (All teachers that teach science need to use tools scientists use!)
• Paper (Large Rolls for Art Projects or Collaborative Group Planning)
• Folders (I like to use folders with educational programs like MathPals)
• Notebooks (For taking notes, duh!)
• Stickers (I couldn’t resist buying some sparkly sticker paper myself!)
• Corks (One of the many materials you can find there to test bu0yancy or density)
• Old Posters, Newspapers, and Magazines (Comparing yesterday to today.)
• Mylar (Creating kites to study the physics of flight)
• Doodads & Whatnots (Whatever your mind can imagine!)

I think either a teacher field trip or student field trip to the scrap exchange could be an amazing creative journey.  They have giant blue bins that contain all sorts of random items you knew (and never knew) you wanted and needed.  All of their prices are very reasonable, and for a mere $3.50 you can fill a shopping bag size bag with all the bin items you could ever want.  The only stipulation is there is a item limit for each of the bins.

Leatherbound Books

Of course a name like Leatherbound Book Works is bound to get an educator excited.  The books here are bound by bookbinder and shop owner, Michael Greer.  The journals he creates are sure to inspire any child and would make great writer’s or reader’s notebooks.  Michael shared that the maps in the stories by famous author J.R.R. Tolkien influenced him to go into book making, and he now even creates his own maps to be included in the pages of the books he binds.  His passion for bookbinding makes me want to help my students create their own professional books from scratch, much like this instructables post I found.  Have you embarked on a similar venture?  I would like to here how your own bookbinding endeavor turned out.

ShopBot Tyro

I don’t know how anyone could NOT want a CNC Router.  With such a piece of machinery, you could create virtually anything.  The ShopBot Tyro is looking to release in the next few weeks for about $3995.  Every middle and high school shop class should have one of these in their classroom.

DIY Multi-Touch Screen

Already having a promethean board (which means I essentially have all the more expensive raw materials already available – like a projector and computer), I am VERY much wanting to create one of these to use in my classroom.  Can you imagine fifth graders working together with such a surface to share and create?  It would be impractical to use everyday, but this surface makes it ideal for groups to share computer resources.  The software is open-source (free!) and active support is available through the NUI Group Community.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I think the best impression that any teacher, or person, can take away from the Maker Faire is that if you can dream it, you can create it -  so go out there and make!

Come see our light-following robots and other SheekGeek products!  SheekGeek is making the drive from Charlotte to Durham this Sunday to run a booth at the Maker Faire: NC.  We are excited to finally have a MAKE event somewhat nearby and couldn’t miss out on the geeky festivities.  Sadly, because we will be running our booth, I’m not sure how much time we will have to visit other exhibits, but we will do our best.   There are lots of cool things to see, from book binding to CNC fabrication.  It looks to be a promising day!

I’ve had a FTDI cable for a while for testing serial communications between my microprocessors and my computer and for that job, it works great. However, I recently grabbed a couple Ardweenies from Solarbotics and decided to use my FTDI cable to program them.  The FTDI cable doesn’t have an automatic reset, so you have to push the reset button on the board at exactly the right time when trying to program it from your computer.  This causes tons of frustration.

Oddly, a few days of experimenting with the arduinos, my cable got a short in it. While fixing the short, I was surprised to find out that the FTDI cable uses the same chip as the Sparkfun Programmer (which has automatic reset) so I went about modifying my cable to include this feature.

Modifying the cable is much easier said than done, but since I got it working, I figured I’d do a write-up on it in case anyone else wants to give it a shot.

The first thing you must do is remove the molded plastic housing around the USB connector.  This is made by placing the PCB into a mold and pouring in liquid plastic, so it is literally molded to the circuit board.  I opened mine very carefully with an exacto knife by slicing along the seams.  Once the seams were slices, I peeled the plastic back to reveal the PCB.

At this point, I found the problem with my cable, the ground wire had broken off the board.  I quickly fixed that problem and began trying to find out how to modify the circuit.

The problem with this cable is that the end connector has all the correct outputs for arduino programming except one.  The Green wire on the connector connects to the RTS pin of the FTDI chip instead of the DTR pin.  The DTR pin is used to automatically reset the arduino board before programing.  I looked up the chip and found it to be the same one as on the Sparkfun Programmer.  This was great news.  It meant that I could modify it to auto-reset my arduino so I don’t have to push the reset button every time I try to download a sketch.  So I looked up which pin on the FTDI chip the DTR pin was.

In the datasheet for the FTDI chip, It shows that the DTR and RTS pins are side by side (pins 31 and 32.)

Here you can see the view of the bottom of the chip (mirrored form the top perspective)

Finding this on the actual chip was complicated.  I had to pull out the Macro lens for the camera just to see the pins.

Testing with the multimeter proved that the DTR pin isn’t connected to any vias or solder pads on the board.  The connection would have to be made directly to the pin.This was no easy task.  The thinnest wire I had available is from an old wire wrap kit.  Even this was too large to connect to the pin.  I tinned the tip of the wire carefully, and attempted to use my home made hot air reflow pen, which didn’t work at all.  Then I tried a heat gun, which neatly melted all the parts on the board.  Finally, I had to manually solder a wire to the pin.  The thinnest soldering iron tip I have is about 5 times the size of the pin.

After a couple of hours of trying, and even a couple of good solder connections that broke because they were so thin, I decided to put the wirewrap wire through one of the vias on the board for support.  This helped, and after about another hour of attempting, I finally got a good connection.  As soon as I verified it, I coated the whole thing in a couple layers of super glue to hold it fast.

The final solder connection covered in super glue.

After the glue dried, I then desoldered the green wire from the board and connected it to other end of the wirewrap wire.  To get things to fit back into the plastic housing, I had to mill out the inside a bit with my dremel.  Then put the housing back together and super glued the seams.  To hold this tight, I wrapped it with a few zip ties until dry.

Now my FTDI cable is better than ever! All I have to do to program my Ardweeny now is click the download button in the program.

This little robot is really easy and fast to make. You only need a few parts. Hit the jump to see the full tutorial.

Here you can see all the parts you will need for this project.

• 3 small paper clips
• 1 piece of double-sided foam tape
• 1 pager motor with weight attached
• 1 coil cell battery holder
• 1 3V coin cell

After gathering the parts, We need to make the legs of the robot. First, straighten the 3 paper clips. They don’t have to be perfect, just straight-ish.

Next we need to bend each paper clip in the middle. This helps the legs stay at the correct angle later. Two of the paper clips can be the same size bend (about 7mm in the middle) and one must be slightly smaller (about 5mm in the middle).

Next, bend the long parts of the paper clips outward. The paper clip we bent to 5mm is on the bottom in this picture.

Now bend the paperclip we bent to 5mm into the shape shown. This makes the front legs of the robot.

If you want, you can make the bend go up, then back down as shown here. This will add to the bug look and make it easier to make all the legs even later.

Now bend the second paper clip up to form the legs.

Again, a “kick” in the bend might make it looks more buggy.

Now bend the last set of legs. It helps of you angle them a bit as shown below.

Now place the legs on one of the stick sides of the foam tape as shown here. We’ll adjust the lengths and angles a bit more later so for now, approximate placing is ok.

Now stick this to the bottom of the coin cell holder, making sure not to cover the solder terminals. On my holder, there were little plastic tabs getting in the way, so I cut them off to make the tape lie more flat.

Now solder the motor to the battery holder terminals.

Now solder the motor to the battery holder terminals.

Here you can see the back and side profiles of the little guy.

Now here is one of the most important steps! You have to adjust the legs. The Stiquito robot is similar to this leg layout. Having built TONS of Stiquito kits, I know what to do here. The legs must be leveled out. Do this by standing it on the table and cutting all the legs to be even. Try not to cut too much.

Once all the legs are even, you need to bend the “feet” slightly backward so the angle is about 120 degrees. This will cause the vibration of the motor to propel the robot forward. You can see what I mean here:

Once this is done, you are ready to go. Play with the leg design a bit to see if any adjustments bring out different behaviors. You might have to tweak it a bit to get it to go straight. In my experience, it will always turn more in the direction the motor weight is spinning.

A final addition of tiny googly eyes makes this robot complete. Have fun and enjoy!

In the first part of this two-part series, I went over some of the basics of graduate school applications.  In this part, I’ll go over some more detailed aspects you should consider when choosing a program and tell you some tips that might help you get in even if you don’t fully meet the requirements.

After each detailed section, there’s a “TLDR” notice. This stands for “Too Long; Didn’t Read” and gives just the basics of the section.

Program Selection based on Financial Support:

Graduate schools in America are considered “Extra schooling.” By that I mean that many times Undergraduates can qualify for financial aid in the form of grants. Graduate students, however, don’t get this option very often. Unless you get a fellowship, or assistantship (and even if you do many times) you will likely be taking loans to pay for school, and it ain’t cheap.

If your program has enough money (and if they want you bad enough) they’ll offer you a fellowship. This is basically a grant, but it isn’t from the state. It is directly from the school. Sometimes you have to meet certain requirements for them, such as promise to work on certain projects for a certain time period, etc. Be careful and read the fine print some require light work duty, but pretty much all of them say how many credit hours you must be registered for.

You should look for programs that have lots of active projects and grants going on. These programs will likely be able to hire you as either a Teaching Assistant (TA) or a Research Assistant (RA.)

Here’s how it works:

A professor or group of professors at your program will write a grant. If they are awarded the grant, they must research what they wrote in the grant request. For instance: A professor writes a grant to work on a flexible tentacle robot. He gets the grant, and now he has a a few hundred thousand dollars a semester to spend on parts and labor. The labor includes paying someone to do menial tasks such as grade papers (the job of the TA) and it includes paying people to actually actively work on the grant (the job of an RA). RA positions pay more than TA positions, and the work that is done on an RA benefits the worker. If you are an RA working on the tentacle robot, any research you produce that is published has your name on it, and can help you get jobs, money, women, etc. (Joking, but only slightly.) Many times the research you do helps you with your thesis.

When you are a TA, you have to take time away from your current studies to grade some undergraduate’s midterm. Clearly RAs are the rock stars in this scenario. The good thing about a TA is that you can work for any professor, while an RA usually works for their advisor, or another professor on the grant.

You should research who has money, and what kind of money they have. You can speak with professors directly and ask them if they think they’ll have any positions available, and you can see the Graduate Student Services Coordinator to ask about fellowships. Here is some more information and some tips on fellowships and assistantships.

The last thing to consider here is not in any rulebook. Make sure you can write coherently and speak good English. This isn’t a racist thing, but you are less likely to be hired if simple communication with your boss is hard. If you are a RA, make sure that your writing skills are up to par as well. You need good grammar and good style to write effective papers. Your Adviser doesn’t want to have to rewrite everything you send him before he submits it to a conference or journal. These are little things but they must be taken into account. Too many students are passed over for jobs because of this. Again, its not racist, its usually subconscious on the professor’s part.

I was forced to take loans for Grad school, and my very first semester cost me more than all 5 of my undergrad years together. This was in addition to the fact that I was luck and already had an assistantship lined up.

• TLDR
• Look for where you can afford to go.
• See if you can get a Fellowship.
• Try to find Assistantships (RA is better than TA)
• Speak and write well, and in English.

Portfolio, Resume, Curriculum Vitae (CV):

A portfolio shows you past projects and in a way your experience and proficiency in whatever you do. In this type of portfolio, I’m including a resume and a CV.

The resume is simply your past work experience. It should be about a page or two long and it basically shows what you’ve done, how long you did it and who was paying you to do it. You can even add what skills you have and past class experience. I always add this because if a professor sees what you’ve done professionally, then he gets a better sense about you. If he likes you he can pass this resume along to people he knows in industry.

If all you have to write about is that you worked fast food during high school, don’t bother. This is more focused on work in your field. But if you’ve started a company, then by all means, write that down. You want to have 3-4 good jobs at least on there, and list out tasks you performed at each job and how long you worked at it. Spend some time with you school’s career adviser. Mine was a huge help.

The Curriculum Vitae (CV) is basically your academic resume. Whereas the resume is only work experience and should only be a page or two long, the CV shows academic as well as industry work experience, teaching experience, community service, achievements, awards, publications, conferences attended, the name of your sister’s cousin’s uncle, etc (joking again of course.) Where the goal of the resume was to be only a page or two, it seems like the goal of a CV is to be as long as possible but without being redundant or extraneous. Again, have your school’s career adviser look it over and give you tips.

My portfolio is one of the main things that got me into Grad school. I may not have had the best GPA, or the best GRE scores but throughout my entire undergraduate career I had been designing and building projects that were on the level of most people’s Senior Design projects. I still had all these projects, and I searched through all my hard drives to find images, videos, code, descriptions, anything at all on them.

I went to Open Source Web Designs, picked out a nice design and stared hacking on it until I had made myself a well organized portfolio website. I uploaded it to a web address and burned copies of it (as well as an autorun script) to CDs. It included contact information, a general introduction, resume, CV, videos, pictures, and even presentations of past projects and my publications. I linked this in my Personal Response and handed a CD out to any professors I met in a program. Since most people don’t do this, its rather impressive to have a full body of work there. The professor just pops it in the CD drive, and the webpage automatically runs off the CD.

Even if you haven’t done a lot of outside work, you can still put projects and presentations from your undergrad classes. Any big project with a powerpoint file or a final paper should be documented and used. In my case on the CD, I actually provided PDFs of descriptions of what each project was. You can browse the files to find more projects than were presented on the HTML pages.

Don’t worry if you don’t know HTML, neither do I. You can use a WYSIWYG editor to drag and drop things. Kompozer, Nvu, Seamonkey are all great free WYSIWYG editors for every platform.

• TLDR
• Make a good resume
• Make a good CV
• Collect some projects form undergrad you are proud of
• Create a simple but appealing and well organized website showing all this.
• Put it online as well as burn it to CDs to hand out when you meet people.

Face to Face Meetings:

One big thing that I feel helped me get into Grad school was face time with the professors in the program. These are the people who will be on the graduate committee. They are the ones who go through all the applications, read all the personally responses and will ultimately decide who gets in and who doesn’t. The best thing you can do is to meet with these people and make a good impression on them. This is quite possibly the most important thing you can do.

The first step here is to research the professor on the school’s website. See what kinds of projects they have. You have to do your research, otherwise you’ll just waste their time and that can piss them off. You should be able to ask intelligent questions about their projects, etc. Many times their websites are out of date. Be prepared for this as well. Search for their names in Google Scholar and try to find some papers they’ve published.

For instance, when I was checking out Clemson’s Intelligent Systems Program I got online and researched every professor in the program. I set a day that I could go to Clemson, and meet with them. I set up appointments with each and every professor in the program. Basically I sent a cold email or made a cold phone call to each one of them.

Dr. X

I am an Undergraduate student in <topic> at <your university> and am interested in pursuing <Dr. X’s program> in graduate studies. By searching the <Dr. X’s school name> website I found your project on <whatever Dr. X is working on> and am interested in learning more about it. If you have the time, I would really appreciate a meeting at which we can discuss your project and my prospective Graduate school plans. I will be visiting the <Dr. X’s school> campus on <give a date.> Please let me know at your earliest convenience whether or not we can meet that day; and if so, what time would be best for you.

Regards,

Name

This isn’t exactly what I wrote, but it’s close. You need to be professional and state exactly what you mean to discuss. Most professors will reply favorable to you taking the initiative like this.

I set up 7 meetings for the one day I planned on visiting the campus. I gave 30-45 minutes per meeting with time for lunch. I left my house at 4:00AM, drove straight there, wore a suite, met with some people, ate lunch, met with more people, and left campus at 5:00PM and arrived home at like 9:00PM. The entire night before I had stayed up putting finishing touches on my portfolios.

At each meeting I introduced myself and knew exactly what topics to discuss with each person I was meeting with. I even met with some people I didn’t expect, such as the Graduate Student Services Coordinator and the Chair of the program. Be prepared for this kind of stuff too. I was taken on tours of research labs and met with a few RAs.

They may ask you questions such as “Why do you want to work in <whatever they teach>?” Be prepared also to mention some projects you want to work on. Don’t be afraid to get kind of specific, these people know your field, and can easily carry on a conversation. Don’t B.S. them either.

I was once chatting with the head of a Computer Science program I was applying to. I was talking about neural networks and image recognition, and talking way over my head. Someone interrupted our meeting for a few seconds and while they chatted up the professor, I looked at her bookshelf. There were titles such as “Neural networks and Vision recognition.” The bad part was that these were book she had authored! She had literally written the book on what I was trying to B.S. about. Imaging my surprise. Once we were alone again, I quickly changed the subject to more familiar territory. (That program accepted me in the end, and had I gone there I would have had to do a lot of extra work to keep up with my B.S. I was talking.)

I ended up not even applying to Clemson, as I wouldn’t be able to afford to move there at the time. That was a mistake because I would have lost nothing in applying but had I gotten in, I’m sure I could have found a way to work things out. I think with fair certainty that all my work would have paid off and I would have been accepted there.

The whole trip took its toll on me, as that weekend, I had a pretty bad panic attack from all the stress it put me under. I had chosen a terrible time to go, I had an exam that week, as well as Valentines day, and a huge project for work the same week. Be smart and plan ahead on all this stuff, to avoid the same fate.

The best thing I can say is to imagine you have their job. What would make you remember someone, and make you want to work with them?

After you meet with the professors, way a few days and send a personalized “Thank You” email to each of them. Mention how you appreciate their time and effort, and thank them for mentioning <whatever thing you talked about that you hadn’t heard about yet but are now really interested in>, etc. This goes a long way with them as well.

• TLDR
• Research each professor in the program you are interested in
• Try to meet with them in person, otherwise through email (this is why your portfolio should also be online.) It is easy for them not accept a name on an application form, but much harder for them to deny someone they’ve actually met.
• Dress nice, don’t look like you’ve stayed up all night.
• Be genuine and don’t lie (you should do this always anyway).
• Introduce yourself and be confident and self assured while meeting with them.
• Ask the right questions.
• Get their names and projects right.
• Be ready to answer questions yourself, as if in an job interview.
• Be ready to provide some ideas you’d like to work on that are similar to their projects.
• Plan ahead.
• Send Thank you emails.

Numbers:

While it isn’t free to apply to graduate programs, you should apply to every one you can afford to that you are interested in. I only applied to two programs, and they were from the same school. I should have thrown my hat in the ring at Vanderbilt and Clemson, and even MIT. I might not have been accepted, but I would have gotten some nice letterhead at least.

On a whim, Jessica sent her GRE scored to Harvard. A couple of months later, they sent her a letter saying they got her GRE scores, but she had not applied. Based on her score they were surprised that she hadn’t. Word for word: here’s the beginning of the letter they sent her:

Greetings from Harvard… We have received your official GRE score report and believe you to be a strong candidate for graduate study at our school.

The only thing you loose in applying to more schools is the submission costs and costs to send them your GRE scores. The benefits are that you can go to a really great school with innovative projects and interesting people. You loose every possibility for these things by not applying.

• TLDR;
• Apply to all the schools you are interested in, and don’t sell yourself short. You just may get into the school of your dreams.

Conclusion:

All of these tips can only help your chances at getting into graduate school. Strong relationships with the professors are integral, and integral to that is a strong portfolio and some good face time with them. That being said, having good GRE scores and a high GPA, and good letters of recommendation are a lot of what they look for. They also look to see if you are a hard worker, and all of the tips above will prove beyond a doubt that you are. This is also a good exercise in working by yourself for a goal. You’ll be doing this in one way or another all throughout Grad school, so get used to it that kind of mentality.

If you they let you in it is because they believe in your potential. They don’t want you to fail. Your success helps your adviser get raises and promotions so they will do what they can for you. Your adviser is a great ally.

Good luck in your Graduate Program Search and I hope you get it!

Admission is $8 for adults, $5 for children ages five to twelve, and free for children four and under.  It is a great deal considering it provides several hours of amusement and learning.

If you are looking for a specific reptile or other exotic pet, it is a perfect venue to meet the breeder and haggle a price.  Here is a photographic journey of our experience.

When first visiting an animal convention, we were surprised at how animals were displayed.

Acrylic cases and plastic tubs were ubiquitous.

The plastic containers housed frogs.  I think this picture is a great candidate for speech bubbles!

The containers also housed tarantulas and other eight legged creatures.  This particular specimen, a “Cameroon Giant Red Baboon”, turned upside down for his (or her!) picture.  It turns out this particular tarantula like to burrow.

This leopard gecko also appeared to be a lover of the camera.  I was also a lover of his “tangerine” color.

This bearded dragon gets a healthy diet.  I was very impressed by the passion and obviously well taken care of dragons from the breeders at Carolina Designer Dragons.  Our next future addition to our household may be one of their sweet dragons!

Vendors unknowingly (or perhaps very knowingly) put on a free show.  This albino python was a hefty weight to carry.

One of my favorite aspects of Repticon is the educational aspect.  There are informational shows every 2 hours about reptiles and other creatures.  You are also able to interact with many different types of animals during the show (if you volunteer).  “Hey kids, want to hold a corn snake?”

Overall it was a great experience and well worth the admission price.  It makes me wonder what other type of lovely conventions are out there for me to attend…  My dad and uncle “in-law” recently attended an orchid convention, so obviously they have them for a myriad of interests.   If I attend another random convention, I will post.  If you have a convention suggestion, let me know about it.

Here is a gallery of the images from the Charlotte Repticon January 2010 and 2009.

]]> http://sheekgeek.org/2010/jessicasheekgeek/charlotte-repticon-january-2010/feed 1 http://sheekgeek.org/2010/adamsheekgeek/tips-on-getting-into-grad-school-part-1 http://sheekgeek.org/2010/adamsheekgeek/tips-on-getting-into-grad-school-part-1#comments Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:27:16 +0000 Adam@SheekGeek http://sheekgeek.org/?p=184 From time to time, people ask my advice for how to get accepted into Graduate school. Reading the school websites, and talking to professors and administrators isn’t enough.  Not to mention you need people skills to get in.  In this, the first of a two-part series, I’ll break down the very basics of what many programs require, and give you tips and tricks to help out.  The second half will be advanced tips, that show that you really want in the program.

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not an expert on this subject. I don’t have the best people skills, and I don’t know all there is to know about Grad school, but I do know what worked for me, and my advice has helped a few people to get accepted so far.

I’ll begin with some general questions I get asked.  The second part of this series will go into more advanced aspects of Grad school selection and even some tips that may help you get in even if you don’t meet the requirements.

After each detailed section, there’s a “TLDR” notice. This stands for “Too Long; Didn’t Read” and gives just the basics of the section.

Timing:

This is a pretty simple one. Start Early! If you are interested in starting Graduate school in the Fall, then you should do all your research and apply as early as possible for that program. Another benefit of applying early is you may get your results faster. Many times a Graduate school might accept you into a program, on the contingency that you take some classes to bring you up to speed with their program. If your acceptance has a such a contingency, applying early give you a chance to make it up.

Degree Selection:

One of the biggest questions I get is “I got my undergraduate degree in X, what do I need to get into a Y grad program?”. The answer I give applies to all degrees, but my answer is going to involve a specific example.

Let’s look at a Bachelors degree student in Electrical Engineering Technologist (EET) trying to get into an Electrical Engineering (EE) program. You would think these two things are very similar, and in many aspects they are, however, there is one MAJOR factor separating the two degrees. Calculus. EEs have to take Calculus 1, 2, 3 and Differential Equations, then the Calc-based Physics classes. EETs on the other hand generally take a class that combines only the topics required for the degree from Calc 1 and Calc2 classes. EETs going for an EE graduate degree are many times in a bad situation, where they are required to take all those math classes Post Baccalaureate before being accepted into a Grad program. I only know of 2 cases in my Grad program that a B.S. EET was accepted. Both of us had first taken our first 2 years of our undergrad in EE, then changed majors. This is critical as we already had the math required. In fact I had to take Calculus 3 the summer before my first Graduate semester to make up the deficiency.

• TLDR

• Basically the rule here is try to find what programs your undergraduate degree works best with. For most EETs, Engineering Management is a great choice, and for those that like to program, Computer Science is good. I know people who I graduated with who have done both. Don’t fool yourself into thinking your B.A. in History will help you get into a Biology program or vice versa.

• No matter what program you are in you will likely have to take a deficiency class. It usually won’t apply to your graduating credits either but many times Graduate Directors use this to see how serious you are and how hard you are willing to work.

GRE and Acceptance Exams:

Usually, to get into a graduate program, you have to take an exam like the GRE. The GRE is basically like the college version of the SAT. Many schools require a certain score, but this is flexible. If you lack in this area, they will look at other aspects of your college career to decide your Graduate School fate.

There are other Exams, but I only have experience with the GRE.

There are 3 main sections; Math, Reading Comprehension, and Writing. Many programs have a minimum score you must get to be accepted. To check the program or college you are interest in, scour their websites. You can also check some stats at places like GREexplorer. I also highly recommend searching the net on your own. A simple google search yielded a free site, Number2.

When you sign up for the GRE, know that it takes about3 hours straight (a short break between sections) and must be taken at a test center on a computer. The company that makes the GRE has free software called Powerprep with example GRE tests in it that look and feel exactly like the real test. You can go there now, answer a quick survey, and download it for free before registering to see what it is like.

The fact is that you HAVE to study for this test. You cannot just wing it. Now as far as test preparation, There are many schools of thought. You can buy all the books, do all the practice tests in them, and take classes; or you can use Powerprep and the internet. Jessica and I both used the second method and did well. (I did OK, Jessica did pretty well…) I have a friend who tried to wing it the first time, and whiffed miserably. He bought a book in the campus bookstore, studied it and whiffed again. He said the book was useless.

Jessica and I used Powerprep and the internet to find old GRE-like questions. We each made above average on the exam.

There are classes for the GRE preparation, but I didn’t take one. They go over good test taking skills and how they apply to the GRE specifically. You can generally find classes at local Universities. I really likely should have taken a class, and will if I ever need to take another test like this.

As far as materials selection, go to Amazon or some other site with a lot of reviews and read the reviews for books you are considering. People have likely found that only certain sections of a book are relevant to the test, or that a particular book was completely useless for reviewing.

You can take the GRE multiple times, but there are a few rules. You can only take it once per month. Depending on your grad school they can choose to either take a single score, or the average of your scores. You have to check with them to see what they accept. If you take it more than once, they will only send the scores of your last 3 recent tests to the schools you choose. I took it more than once and it improved my score a good bit.

Since you can take it multiple times, some people study really hard for one section, then the second time they take it they focus on another section. This may get you an overall cumulatively higher score however, Grad schools will look at what makes up the parts of your score too if memory serves. Whether or not they do this, I personally find this method of testing unethical and therefore cannot recommend it.

• TLDR

• Find out what test your college or program requires, study hard using good materials and take it more than once.

• Find out if the Grad program you are interested in accepts multiple GRE scores.

• Take a GRE preparation class before taking the test if possible.

Two kinds of GPA?:

Some schools have a minimum GPA requirement. They might post this online to scare off lazy and timid people. Using the tips in the second part of this article might help you convince them to waive this requirement. But in many cases, if their minimum is a 3.0, and you have a 2.8, you may still be able to get in. These rules are not always written in stone, the decision is in the hands of the Graduate Director and the Graduate Committee. More on these people later, but for now just know, its usually a flexible requirement just like GRE scores.

In lots of cases, cumulative GPA is not taken as seriously as “in the major” GPA. Cumulative GPA counts in stuff like English 101, College Algebra, Calc, Physics, etc. These classes include everything you’ve taken from that art class you never attended to Senior Design. The classes you did poorly in because you hated the material haunts you here. My cumulative GPA is below 3.0 from my undergrad studies. What made up for it was the fact that my “in the major” GPA was higher.

“In the major” GPA comes form the classes that define your major. These are mostly taken your last two years, but can come all the way from freshman classes in certain programs. Since you specialize your knowledge more in Grad school, they look to see that you excel in your field more than in general classes.

Personal Statement:

There’s not too much to say about this aspect of the process. Here they simply want to know what your motivations are to be in their program. They are also checking to see that you are a competent writer (in English usually.) Don’t make it too long and don’t make it too short. I think my statement was about 3 pages.

Make sure to personalize it to their program. They HATE to read something that sounds generic, and they can tell when you’ve used the same statement for every school you applied to. Change it up a bit and if you’ve met with the professors there, mention something you talked about. Mentioning their research is helpful as well. Again the people who read this will be the Graduate Committee of the program you are applying to. If you follow all my tips in the second half of this article, you’ll likely have met some of them already.

They like to get a sense of your experience so far, as well as possible research ideas. Throw in some neat ideas you might have for your field. Don’t make promises, and don’t go crazy with the ideas.

I stressed out more than needed about writing the statements, but a just keeping these things in mind will make it easier to know what they are looking for.

• TLDR

• Don’t stress over this.

• Write in proper English with good grammar.

• Personalize the statement to the school.

• Why do you want to do (whatever field you study?)

• What is your motivation for continuing your education? ( mention life-long learning, improving concepts/projects/ideas/the science of <whatever>, etc.)

• What kinds of ideas do you have for research topics? (Robots for space exploration, sensor fusion, etc.) Don’t B.S. too much here or make your projects too fantastical. They are looking to see that you have ideas, and that you can make reasonably reachable goals.

• You can mention professors you have met in their program and what you may have spoken about.

Letters of Recommendation:

Usually you’ll need a couple recommendations from professors in your undergraduate program. This isn’t bad. Simply ask a few (you should have made friends with a couple of them if you got the most out of your time with them.) Most will be glad to help you if they believe in you and your potential. Its usually a simple process of printing out a PDF, and having them fill in some blanks, write a bit about you, and mail it in. Most schools nowadays offer this service completely online, and the professor can enter it at their leisure.

Conclusion:

These are the basics required of most Graduate program admissions. International students may be required to take a few additional exams to show proficiency in English, or to for placement in the program.

Check out the second part of this article for additional tips on getting into grad school.