Life-changing experiences of a Brown graduate, and the CS major which he never thought he would do
The Brown University experience
The first thing that really stood out for him was the incredible people he met, be it at student interactions, and overall. He felt that in his four years of learning, exploring and pursuing interests at Brown made a life-changing difference to him. His interactions with professors were more one to one individual basis and very accommodating.
How he chose CS and what tracks students can take
Brown has an intro sequence system, where a student can try two or three kinds of intro sequence, initially it is all fun and games inspired, where the students build projects and then a more difficult track with more complex projects. He had never thought of doing CS but possibly doing Applied Math or English. A student can take a CS concentration course, half year or full year to fast track. Once a student does one of three intro introductory sequences, they are free to explore whichever part of computer sciences one wants. The two specific tracks he picked were data science and artificial intelligence.
Brown has five core courses, which a student needs to take split amongst the core disciplines of CS, learning basic coding and how to think about algorithms, data structures and then computer systems. Further on mathematics of computer science and theory of CS. Once can also do elective courses.
With CS Major, different challenges and competitions for students
He enjoyed working in the Artificial Intelligence Lab at Brown. He was trying to look for a position initially, and stumbled upon a project doing healthcare and machine learning. Basically, trying to improve patient care using AI, doing so he decided to specialize in data science. A lot of students get involved in hackathons, a lot of extracurriculars where they might create websites or engage in competitions. Generally, just being involved in the computer science community at Brown is an enriching experience.
AI and healthcare at Flatiron health as an Intern
At Flatiron, they work towards making medicine and healthcare more personalised to patients. This is based on a lot of data collected from different patients eg. specific genes, multiple diseases etc. Using previous data to understand what test or which drug will help the patient in making a speedy recovery. Also all this data is used for development of policies, creating new drugs and researching drugs.
Advice to high schoolers keen on doing AI
Online a lot of resources are available, like the coronavirus dataset. Downloading those datasets that already exist and play around with them, gives you an idea how to analyse and conclude from them.
Life on campus at Brown
He felt the life at Brown/ America was very different from his life in Singapore. He found everyone very friendly, kind, welcoming and generous. As a freshman, he did not take up too many activities. Focused on classes and being around people from his dorm. The dorm culture is very good, but as your activities increase, one tends to understand one’s interests.
Starting on the job
Starting with the Flatiron Health data sciences team, aiming to solve health problems of cancer patients. He was most interested in the project management side of it vs the data science side. Looking forward to living in New York City and exploring the fun side of it.
Journey to writing essays to giving LSAT
The whole process, he felt, is like a lucky draw. As it is basically based on your choices, comparison of universities and courses you wish to attend. For him it was pure luck that he got into Brown, as he had seen his brother go through the whole process a few years ago. One should do their best to find your perfect place.