Hello everyone!
Since classes started on Tuesday (I can’t believe it), this post is my first of the year. Which means, happily, introductions! Not that I imagine many of you would begin reading right smack when school begins, but it never hurts to give a refresh :).
So, hello! My name is Monica. I’m a senior at Wellesley College, and this is my fourth year writing this blog for the Admissions Office. I love questions (and don’t get nearly enough of them, in my esteemed opinion ;P) and am happy to talk to anyone personally about the college and my experience here. The rest of the time though, I’ll still be talking about my adventures at my last year at college—apparently I don’t need any help enthusing over Wellesley/ jabbering about myself, but I hope you’ll find some of it useful!
recent pics o’ me with my sisters (I’m on the right in both cases)… and a more typical example of my behavior at the bottom (here, I believe I am scrounging for blueberries)
Relevant piece of information: I’m a neuroscience major. I chose the neuroscience major because it’s: a) awesome, and b) allows me to study two of the areas I find most fascinating, cognition (a branch of psychology) and computational science (a.k.a. CS). Of course, I didn’t know b) when I started out, but that knowledge has slowly accumulated in me over the years. It’s nice to know that when everyone tells you you’ll figure yourself out at college, you actually do collect some inklings along the way :).
I mention neuroscience right away because like most Wellesley students, I’m pretty obsessed with school. However, I seem to have become even more obsessed with school since coming here, to the point where I’m hoping to go to graduate school and not get a job until I’m like 32. SO OLD :). (I jest, though, just so you know. We have Davis Scholars (non-traditional-age students at Wellesley) and their life stories are beyond amazing. I’m continually inspired whenever I have the opportunity to listen to them.)
I eventually hope to become a computational cognitive science (that’s a mouthful. “Coco sci”!) professor and go on to do lots of research and mentoring people my age. And let me tell you, the professors here spend an astonishing amount of time and energy mentoring us, as I have recently experienced during class selections and applications. I can only hope to live up to their example someday.
Which brings me to… classes! Classes are always my favorite, but even more so this year because as a senior who has finished all of her distribution requirements (also known as general requirements, etc.) and almost finished her major, I get to handpick whatever classes I want. Every new first-year student opening her huge course catalog awaits this moment, and I’m so happy and lucky to have the courses I do this semester. They are:
Neuro 300 (Capstone): This is our capstone course in the neuroscience major. Only seniors are allowed to take it, and it’s designed to help us pursue our future careers. We’ll be reading scientific papers, presenting papers, discussing papers, discussing with speakers, and finally writing a grant proposal. I’m psyched.
CS 230 (Data Structures): Have I expressed to you all how much I love computer science? I don’t think so. You’re going to hear a lot about Matlab this year (which was my first programming language, and what I use to do most of my neuroscience research—more on that later–) and this class is teaching me Java, an object-oriented programming language (which is a different way of programming. Crazy stuff, right? There are actually tons of programming languages, but this is a foundational one.) My teachers have bent over backwards to get me into this course, and I am so excited already.
Psych 328 (Brains, Genes, and Individual Variation): Uh huh, who got into the crazy-popular nature vs. nurture psych course? Monica did! This class is taught by Prof. Wilmer, who is an expert in the subject, and who is one of the sweetest professors you will find on campus. The first day was already great. (And we’re writing another research proposal in this class! At this rate, I’m not going to have any finals :)).
9.66 Computational Cognitive Science. Okay, I’ve been prepping for this class for literally an entire semester (it took me 3 out of 4 classes last semester to get the pre-requisites done). I am so excited. This is a combined undergraduate/graduate-level course that I’m taking through Wellesley’s cross-registration program at MIT (check it out—it’s a fabulous opportunity) with Prof. Tenenbaum, who I’m too scared to talk to is so impressive. This is what I want to do in the future, too, so I’m really hoping I love it :).
Neuro 360: THESIS! And I’m doing an undergraduate thesis! This has already become a major part of my life this first week :). I’ve been doing research in Professor Bevil Conway’s color vision lab since my sophomore year, and I will be continuing to work with him and his lab technicians this year. I’m also doing part of a thesis with Professor Ellen Hildreth in the CS department, to start exploring Bayesian modeling, which is a technique I’m very curious about. And I am not alone—three of my close friends who live on my floor are also thesising, so we’ll be able to struggle and succeed together :).
… So, Monica, do you do any clubs/organizations?
Um, not really? For my first two years I was on the varsity Swimming and Diving team, and I’m still very close to my friends there. I’m also very happy to talk about how wonderful college sports are.
Nowadays, I do some tutoring for the CS/Neuro departments occasionally, write this blog, do school, workout (I love working out and reading. I’d carry an elliptical around with me if it were possible), eat delicious food, and hang out with friends :). It’s a great life, and I really can’t imagine it being or getting any better :).
And that’s my introduction :). I always feel at such a disadvantage when I meet people who have read my blog, because they pretty much know everything about me when I’ve just met them! Alas, but that just makes me as eager to learn about their lives :).
All right, all right, enough with the smileys you say! I shall leave you, since tomorrow is a big day for our new first-year students: it is Flower Sunday, a tradition in which the youngest members of our community (the “Little Sisters”) are assigned a “Big Sister” to help mentor them over the year. This year I’m getting two little sisters, and I’m excited to meet them tomorrow!
Great to meet you all, and hope you enjoy the posts over the year!
Monica