Some good progress, but also tons of changes!

The main one is that I am going to postpone my grad school game plan by one year so that I can figure out the right path for me. More on that later. 

For now, let’s look at my progress and add to my list of goals.

CHECKING IN ON MY ORIGINAL ROADMAP:

- Tuesday, 12/15/2015: Sign up for the affordable JS (or Ruby) course. The curriculum looks good!

The people at the affordable JS class took a really long time to get back to me, so I signed up for a very expensive Data Science course. I feel really dumb, because I spent a lot of money on it and I might be the only person in the course who isn’t some kind of a developer for a living. Hopefully, I am just experiencing imposter syndrome. I think our first major homework assignment went well, after all. I have already learned a ton, and we are only about one-fourth of the way through! But it is a very difficult class, and it has shown me just how much I have to learn if data science is the path I should take.

I am really hoping that this course will further illuminate the journey I want to take, enhance my coding skills, empower me to create a meaningful portfolio beyond what I do for the class, and also give me access to an instructor (or two, if you include our TA) for a recommendation letter.

- Thursday, 1/7/2016: Purchase a new laptop (Macbook Pro?) before that date as this is when the course starts. My current laptop is almost five years old and on its last legs. I’m afraid to take it out of my house.

Done! I bought the MBP in December 2015. Secretly, I really wanted to hold off since I knew a new model would likely drop in Q1 2016. But I needed a new laptop, and it was time I make the switch from Windows. I have been thrilled so far (knock on wood).

- Sunday, 1/3/2016: Must have already taken the GRE once. I have been studying for the past few months focusing on quant, so it’s time to take a leap of faith. Goal:  163V, 162Q, 4.5 AWA

I messed this one up. I set a date for myself (Sat, 1/2), and in the two weeks leading up to the test I studied very intensively for it. However, I kept putting off registering for the test since I live in a large city with multiple test centers and thought there would always be a vacancy. I also wanted to take two practice tests on two consecutive days and verify that I was happy with the results before signing up. Basically, this was a horrible idea, because on New Years I tried to register to take the test the next day. And I couldn’t. So I learned a lesson the hard way. Now I will probably wait until the first or second weekend of February until I take the test, given my busy schedule.

- Thursday, 1/14/2016: Contact three potential recommenders on this day (college stats prof, college TA I had for several classes in my major, and hopefully my new JS instructor)

- Thursday, 1/21/2016: Contact an additional recommender if necessary since I have been out of school for several years and ugh (start thinking about who could step in and vouch for you:  visiting prof from last semester, vision TA?)

- 2/17/2016-3/1/2016: Work on apps and apply to programs (check deadlines, but that Feb date is really the earliest I could swing)

- April/May 2016:  If I’m not accepted anywhere or money does not work out, apply to coding bootcamp

Removing these to-dos since I am postponing the application to next year’s cycle.

ADDING:

- Take classes in the following (all online, unless otherwise noted):

- Refresher: some pre-calc, calc i, statistics

- Intro to Computer Science (CS50?)

- Algorithms

- Calc II, Multivariable Calc

- Linear Algebra, Discrete Math

Advanced Statistics/Probability

Javascript (Maybe take that affordable JS class)

Focus:

I spoke with a friend at length about my goals and my possible paths. He even had me solve a problem on a whiteboard to see where my skill level is at (a parentheses stack problem that I had actually once glanced at in October or November). He was very kind to give me so much of his time and careful attention.

Anyway, I came away from our chat feeling much wiser and pretty sure back-end development is not for me. I think I would probably enjoy front-end development, although I really can’t shake my fascination with data science. That said, I have become very interested in ITP as a program. Maybe I’d be happier there than at an applied stats or traditional computer science program. I consider myself a creative, and I think what interests me in both front-end development and data science is the ability to use them as tools to tell a story. I think I would find quant-heavy programs really technical and tedious, and I’d be unhappy. Maybe I’m wrong. 

Just some things to think about. Or maybe I’ll be swayed by money, if all things else are equal. Or maybe the more I study, the more my path will make sense to me. I am really bummed though that I am putting grad school on the back burner for another year, since I feel like I am stalled yet getting older. I want to get on with it already. But I know that I need time to build a convincing application so that I can get into a good program and also figure out some of these big questions like what to do (and also build a reputation with new potential recommendation letter writers). It doesn’t hurt that I can buy some time to pay off debt and save some money too, in the meantime, before I become a poor student again.