I received departmental scholarship
I’m very glad to receive the scholarship from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. It lightens my financial burden of my out-of-state tuition and living expenses so that I can focus on research and continue on to graduate school. Check the full list here: https://cse.umn.edu/cs/news/congratulations-2021-cse-scholarship-recipients
Personally, I want to take some time to appreciate the pleasant research enviroment that the U provides to us always. There are just so many oppotunites for students to participate in research (e.g., exploreCSR, UROP, etc). In my experience, many faculties are happy to take undergrads into their labs. For future students, I will advise them the best timing to join a research group is the summer of your sophomore year, because most of you might already finish many core courses at that time. Don’t be shy to send an email to the professors, even just asking the permission of auditing the group meeting. Also, there is a student-run student-review academic research jounral (MURAJ) for undergrads to publish papers. In the past year, I even saw a special topic class that aims to introduce undergrads to research. With all the benefits that the U provides, I don’t want to be the villain to persuade CS students in doing research. I also had a hard time deciding between pursuing a career in research by going to grad school, or finding a CS-related job (e.g., software engineer, web developer, data analyst, etc) right after I warp up my undergrad. It’s better to make a decision earlier although it’s difficult, because it matters a lot in term of what classes you may register in your junior/senior year. If you have any questions regarding this blog, feel free to reach out to me.