Free Elective Easy Ga Tech Pass Fail

I recently graduated with my BS/MS in Computer Science with a concentration in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) at Georgia Institute of Technology with a perfect 4.0 GPA. It was a long journey that spanned over 5 years with many frustrations, obstacles, doubts, and important life decisions that were made along the way. I've always been the calculating type of person that made career plans and backup plans well in advance in case things turn for the worst, and thankfully, that mindset has helped carry me through my career. I wanted to document my long journey in this post, and I hope that my advice will be helpful to prospective transfer students, or to people considering a career in CS and graduate school in general. This will be a long post containing GT transfer advice and graduate school advice. Please read on if you want to know my story!

UPDATE: Thank you so much to all the prospective transfer students who have reached out over the years. I'll try to continue answering relevant questions, but I STRONGLY URGE you to seek out the current updated processes if anything in this article has changed.

Handling College Rejection

I felt it was appropriate to start off with my time in high school. It's no surprise that high school students have it rough with every passing year. College admissions are getting harder to get into, expectations for test scores and GPA are higher, and many have to consider applying to backup colleges. Just because you might go to a prestigious high school, attend after school tutoring sessions, have amazing extracurriculars, or are part of a distance learning college program, doesn't guarantee that you will make it to your dream school. But, I am here to remind those high school students that freshman admission is not the only path to success.

I attended Northview High School in John's Creek, GA. According to my immigrant parents, it was a prestigious high school at the time and was the sole reason why we moved there. They truly believed that if I were given such a great opportunity to learn at a renown public school, I would have a higher chance at getting accepted for colleges. To some degree, they were right. I was able to meet smart friends and inspiring teachers. The academic nature of the school was tough, and I would argue I spent more time studying in high school than I did in college. But, that ultimately helped me build important study habits later on in college. I considered myself a very average student. I actually sucked in math & science, and I had a slightly above average GPA. I dreaded the SATs, but I got a decent score on the ACT after a few tries. My stats were good enough to beat the average admission for GT at the time.

When it was time to choose a major, I always leaned towards being some type of engineer. I liked tinkering with technology, building custom gaming PCs, modding video games, etc. I joined a class that taught Web Design and had fun learning beginner HTML & CSS. However, I was somewhat dissuaded after taking AP Computer Science. Perhaps it was due to the teacher or due to the structure of the course, but I did not find myself enjoying coding. I got a 2 on the AP CS exam that year, and it made me wonder if I should actually pursue a STEM career. Even though I was unsure, I applied as a CS major anyways to a few colleges my senior year with the idea that if I didn't like it, I could just switch majors later on.

I got accepted into public schools like UGA, GSU, and Purdue, however I immediately got rejected early on from my top choice, Georgia Tech. No deferment, no wait list, just straight up rejection. Of course, I felt devastated, but that didn't make me lose hope because I had planned for this rejection all along since sophomore year of high school.

Planning your Backup College in Advance

There are many ways that a high school student can earn college credit in advance such as the AP exams, IB tests, distance learning, etc. However, how many students actually carefully consider which exams to take? How many actually consider taking some to meet transfer requirements or prerequisites for college courses?

The above is GT's transfer course requirements by major. Early on during my high school underclassmen years, I wanted to plan for transfer acceptance into GT as a backup plan way before I knew what my first SAT/ACT scores were. When it came to decide if I wanted to take AP courses, I knew that I wanted to take as many as I could. If I passed the AP exams, that would mean free college credit, and I wouldn't have to take them again in college. Seemed like a great double dip solution to not only save money, but time as well. I chose to take AP courses that would first fulfill my transfer requirements such as calculus, lab sciences, and CS (sadly I failed the AP CS exam anyways lol). Then, I went on to actually research what AP courses could fulfill prerequisite courses for my backup college, UGA.

There are two very important benefits that transfer students have over regular admission with regards to AP scores:

1. Some AP scores (3-4) may not count at your target college, but they may count at your backup college.
2. If you've earned AP credit at your backup college, you may be able to resubmit your AP scores again to GT and double dip if they will get you different course credits.

For case #1, this means that if you got that 4 on AP Physics C, it might not count at GT but will count at UGA. This also works with AP courses that GT doesn't give credit for, like AP Stats for example. When you successfully transfer over, if that physics or stats course credit that you earned at UGA matches a course in GT's transfer equivalence table, then you're set!

For case #2, this means that you may be able to transfer over more credit by simply resubmitting your AP scores to GT. For example, if you only got a 3 on AP Chinese, you earned CHIN 2001 at UGA, but if you resubmit your scores to GT, you'll also earn CHIN 1002 that wasn't awarded when you were at UGA! This can be helpful to fulfilling more social science electives.

I ended up taking a total of nine AP exams, passing eight of them successfully with a score of 3 or over, and earning a total of 30 AP course credits at UGA. If I had gotten accepted at GT with the same AP scores, I would've only earned 24 course credits. So, if you are considering transferring, please take a look at your school's AP transfer table and resubmit AP scores to GT if it'll net you more course credit. I've listed the AP tables I used for UGA to GT below:

• GT AP Exam Credit Table
• UGA AP Exam Credit Table

Building your Transfer Schedule

I decided to attend my backup college, UGA, with the plan to transfer out in 1-1.5 years. One main reason I chose UGA over GSU or other colleges was that it had a healthy pool of transferable credits. Some of you might be familiar with GT's Transfer Pathway Programs or Conditional Acceptance if you've had a family member attend GT in the past. I am the first child in my immediate family to go to college, so I did not have such a luxury. The colleges that I got accepted into were not part of GT's transfer pathways either, I wanted to transfer out much faster. However, regardless if you are part of those programs or not, planning out your transfer schedule will benefit you in the long run with finishing more coursework.

The above is an example from GT's Transfer Equivalency Table. Regardless of which college you are transferring from, please look into every class subject to see what classes you could take at your college to transfer to GT! Ideally, if you have finished meeting your basic transfer requirements for your major, you want to take additional classes that would transfer over as well. I would argue that certain classes like math and science were much easier at UGA than their GT equivalent. A good place to start researching which courses might have potential transfer credit is from your target GT major's core requirements. I followed the BSCS Core Requirements. I tried to fulfill as many math, science (physics was my lab science choice) and language classes as I could during my time at UGA.

Sometimes, a course you earn transfer credit for might not be counted within your GT major or minor requirements, but might earn you free elective credit! Worst case, don't take a course at your college that won't earn you transfer credit, you'd just be wasting money. There are some exceptions, perhaps you enjoy that course's content that's not taught at GT, or maybe it's a prerequisite that will get you into a course next semester that will transfer over. My little brother, who also transferred, successfully earned credit for a environmental science course that had no data on the GT Transfer Equivalency Table, but GT faculty approved it after seeing the old syllabus, so save your class syllabuses in case! These are more personal decisions, so weigh your options carefully! In most cases, if the transfer table shows "No Georgia Tech Credit Awarded", then that decision has been set in stone in the past and will unlikely change. Note that retroactive changes to the GT Transfer Equivalency Table may occur too. For example, CSCI 1360 at UGA did not have data on it in the past, but one of my transfer friends earned credit after an update to the table in his senior year. However, I believe they will only add to the transfer table, I don't foresee them taking away credit.

One final note about making your transfer schedule is that don't be afraid to go to your career counselor at your college. Most will understand that you're a student trying to transfer since it's common practice. However, it is ultimately up to you to plan out your ideal transfer schedule. If you do things right, you'll have enough credits in line to keep up with people who got into GT through freshman admission.

Handling Transfer Rejection

Now, say you worked hard to build your transfer schedule, applied to transfer to GT after one year, and got rejected again, what now? Your greatest fear is that some of the courses you took might not even count for your backup college since it wasn't part of their curriculum. Now, transfer admission chances have always been traditionally higher than regular admission, but it's still not a guarantee, even if you beat the average transfer stats. A good place to see these transfer stats is on the class profile on GT transfer page or posted on the GT Admission Twitter.

That's exactly what happened to me. I got rejected from GT again after trying to transfer out after one year. However, this too, I had planned in advance. If you were planning to transfer for the fall semester, you would hear back sometime in early summer. Before that time frame, you would have the opportunity to register for fall classes again at your backup college. Don't think that you will have guaranteed transfer acceptance, plan out your backup transfer schedule for next year too.

I carefully planned out my 3rd semester transfer schedule at UGA, filling out any remaining social science, health, ethics, or math subjects left on GT's BSCS core requirements I could find. I was starting to run out of options as these classes would be some of the last remaining ones I could take without prerequisites. I even took a CSCI course that didn't count for the BSCS core requirements, but counted as free electives. If I failed to transfer out after this semester, I would be behind on my backup college curriculum too. However, that was a bet I was willing to take, because I've heard stories of students applying for transfer the 2nd or even 3rd time, and succeeding.

I was also intrigued by GT's Computational Media program as well. It seemed like a mix of coding and design, which is what I liked. I noticed it was a transferable major and the requirements were similar to BSCS. Half motivated by the fact that it might be a less competitive transfer major, and half motivated to try the program out, I decided to apply for my second transfer application as a CM major. However, I knew one restriction was that I had to stay as a CM major for at least a semester if I were to get accepted. I couldn't switch majors until afterwards. After looking at the CM curriculum and determining that it was ultimately half the CS core anyways, I thought I would be willing to try it out and switch if I didn't think it was fit for me in the end. This decision paid off in the end.

Heading to a New Campus

Third times the charm right 😃? I got accepted into the GT Spring 2017 transfer class as a CM major! When I opened the letter in November, I was so thrilled that all my hard efforts had finally paid off. Now, I could've slacked off on my remaining UGA classes since I knew my transfer GPA would be wiped at GT, but there's a chance they might rescind the offer if you fail your courses, and I wanted to keep my good study habits. I spent the last month doing all the UGA things I had left on my bucket list, said goodbye to some friends, and headed off to a new campus in January alongside some transfer buddies. I thought my life would be smooth sailing from here on out, but oh boy was my journey just starting.

During my first semester, I missed some project deadlines, barely passed CS 1332 data structures (which people consider a weedout CS class), and I ended up with a 3.09 GPA. Well what went wrong? I was purely not used to the GT academic environment. UGA classes were so different compared to the level of complexity of GT CS courses. I was not prepared for the amount of work, timed coding tests, and stress that was put on me my first semester. I really hurt my new starting GPA and knew I had to do better in order to keep my HOPE scholarship (which required 3.0+ GPA to maintain).

If I were to give my younger self advice, I would say practice more coding in your free time. Take online courses on Udemy or Udacity, attend hackathons, or build your own personal projects like creating your website portfolio. There are plenty of Bootstrap themes to help you get started if you know basic HTML/CSS. You can host it for free with GitHub Pages.

During this time, I also had a rough experience navigating through my first GT career fair. With nothing much except for my transfer GPA and a few class projects, I knew I needed to beef up my resume for my junior year. I decided to spend my first summer semester taking classes to catch up. As a transfer student, I knew I had a lower chance to land an internship compared to my peers, so I planned for classes as a backup plan. I also carefully looked up my summer & fall semester class options and compared professors and class averages. Here are some of the helpful resources I used:

• RatemyProfessors - Find reviews of some older teachers
• GT Grade Distribution - See the average GPA for past GT classes
• r/gatech - GT subreddit is a great place to find past answers and ask questions

Landing my First (& Second) Internship!

By the time junior year rolled around, I had slightly recovered my GPA, had some undergraduate research under my belt through the GT VIP Program, and had presentable class projects on my GitHub. I switched my major from CM back to CS after the one semester restriction, because I really liked two specific CS threads: People and Media. GT's BSCS offers a really flexible thread program which allows you to pick any two threads to build out your custom degree. Sadly, CM only lets you pick one CS thread, but if CM was ever offered as a minor, I probably would've considered it.

GT runs a week-long College of Computing Career Fair every Fall and Spring semesters. It attracts a lot of well known companies, many of the medium to smaller ones are local as well. I went in with the mindset to take whatever experience I could get, as long as they weren't sketchy opportunities. Instead of targeting companies like the "Big Four" or "FAANG" (unless they had cool swag), I spent the majority of my time at career fair talking to small and medium companies.

I was able to have some great conversations with companies like UPS, Chick-fil-A, and The Home Depot. I ended up getting contacted for interviews with all three companies. Furthermore, the Home Depot representative I talked to at career fair was also looking for part time Spring interns at their midtown innovation center right on campus! It was my first time hearing about innovation centers, so I got curious and did some research. Turns out, there's a lot of them that hire students part time while they're in school and offer flexible schedules! Definitely check them out if you want a part time job that pays well and gains you work experience.

As I was preparing for my first behavioral and technical interviews, I asked former interns and checked interview reviews on GlassDoor. Thankfully, these east coast companies at the time of this writing were not too heavy on LeetCode or online code sharing interviews. Admittedly, I sucked at these (and still suck). I simply brushed up on Java and basic object-oriented principles and was able to ace my phone and in-person interviews!

I decided to accept the spring internship offer with Home Depot and the summer internship with Chick-fil-A, both were located in Atlanta, GA. I felt so relieved that I was finished with my job searching by winter time. However, I want to note that I did not simply rely on these companies. I probably submitted over 100 applications online, and I talked to around 25+ companies at career fair. I went out to tech talks and info sessions hosted by the College of Computing. I primarily only heard back from these 3 companies and got ghosted by the rest. My advice would be to apply to every beginner position that seems fit, attend resume review sessions, practice your elevator pitch, expand your network, and skip non-essential classes to go to career fair if absolutely necessary.

Gaining Real Work Experience

When I started my first two internships, I was honestly pretty lost. Coding on the job, even as an intern, is vastly different than coding for school projects. Prepare to actually practice concepts instead of memorizing. If I were to list out the important differences, it would be:

• Be prepared to learn new languages, libraries, SDKs, in a short amount of time.
• Google is your best friend. Dive into documentation, StackOverflow, online forums.
• Don't be afraid to ask for help when you're stuck! Your senior engineers, project managers and fellow interns are there to help you.
• Participate in cross-functional team gatherings, morning stand-ups, 1-on-1 meetings.
• Practice your presentation and soft skills. Coding isn't the only skill on the job.
• Network with everyone you can during your internship. Keep in touch even afterwards for potential full time opportunities.
• If your project lead allows, save your intern project to display on GitHub and portfolio website!

Considering Graduate School

Around the time senior year rolled around, I did a great bit of research into graduate programs. As I enrolled in more higher level CS courses, I actually found myself enjoying school work and research. I looked into GT's MSCS program and discovered that there was a 1 year fast-track program (now called BSMS) for current GT CoC undergraduates. There was one specialization I was really interested in, which was Human-Computer Interaction. Turns out, GT actually ranks as one of the Top 3 HCI programs in the US on multiple charts. Of course, this was for GT's official MS-HCI Program and not MSCS with HCI specialization. These were two completely different things, however after looking at the MS-HCI Core Curriculum, turns out a lot of elective classes are shared between the two.

There were a few reasons why I wanted to consider doing MSCS instead:

1. It would give me another school year which means one more summer internship, more career fairs and more time to do things on campus.
2. It would allow me to transfer up to 12 credit hours from undergraduate, with two classes taken at the graduate level during my senior year, and two classes that were at least CS 4000 level. Some good classes to take at the graduate level are cross-listed classes.
3. This effectively reduces a semester of coursework, making MSCS only 18 credit hours remaining if I went with the 30 hour course option instead of a master's thesis or project. That would mean only 3 classes for two semesters.
4. Masters degree holding students typically earn a higher internship pay, as well as a higher starting base salary.
5. If I were to do graduate school, I would rather do it while I'm still young and not have to take classes with a full-time work schedule when I'm older.

Of course, in order to meet all these benefits, I would have to carefully plan out my senior year schedule and opt to take extra classes to be transferred over to graduate. Since I was somewhat ahead with my AP credits and UGA transfer credits anyways, I thought why not. Worst case, if I don't get accepted into grad school, I would still be able to graduate with my BSCS and would've taken some higher level courses for fun. So I went ahead with the application, however I knew I wouldn't hear back until mid-spring, which means I would still need to consider what to do this summer whether or not I got accepted.

Applying for a Gap Summer Internship

I decided to go for one more summer internship, but wanted to go out of state this time in order to experience a new city. I applied to hot CS cities like Seattle, Portland, SF Bay Area, LA, and NYC. This time around, I was hit with more LeetCode challenges, online code sharing interviews, and weird logic puzzles. I didn't particularly enjoy these nor did I believe these are valid tests for your knowledge. But, I would say definitely practice them in your free time if you are targeting these cities!

If you're a graduating senior but intend to go into graduate school next year, you have to specify this to the recruiters. I probably wasted around ~20 job applications because they looked at my resume and thought I was applying for full time opportunities. Tell them in person, remind them over phone interviews, add a cover letter, write it in the optional fields on the application, etc. Make sure to get this point across.

Thankfully, I landed a cool internship opportunity with Nike at their Beaverton, OR, headquarters right outside Portland. Unfortunately, since I was technically still an undergraduate, I would be paid at the undergraduate intern salary. However, I didn't care that much because I knew I wanted the cool Nike discounts and the opportunity to visit other cities on the west coast during my weekends. Nike has an awesome 4.5 day work week where you can leave by 12 noon on Friday. This allowed me to hop on a train or airplane to travel quicker. Here are some pictures of a Georgia boy experiencing the west coast for the first time during his internship:

Visiting all these cities where I had friends interning or working helped me form my own opinion of actually living there for full time work. I would highly recommend going for an out of state internship, study abroad, or exchange program for a fresh new perspective!

Paying for Graduate School

Prior to the Nike internship, I heard back that I got accepted for MSCS in late spring! What was even better was that I also applied for a Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) position and heard back mid-summer! This means that I am able to attend my graduate program tuition-free and also get paid a monthly stipend on top! Here are some tips if you want apply for a GTA position even during your senior year as an underclassmen:

• Look at the GT class schedule for next year and see if your favorite CS 3000+ class is being offered again. See if it fits within your schedule.
• Email or go to the office hours of the professor who will be teaching it expressing your interest in a GTA position.
• Most of the time, they'll only accept students who got an 'A' in the class. Your chances might be higher if you've interacted with the professor in the past and they know your face.
• There is a GTA list that's sent out midway every Fall and Spring semester to graduate students. Undergraduate students won't receive it but ask your advisors to see if they can forward you the list.
• Apply to as many classes as you feel comfortable teaching or grading. You might not get selected for your first or second picks. Some classes may be in serious need of GTAs like ethics courses.

On top of the GTA position, Home Depot gave me a return offer for a graduate-level part-time internship with a higher pay. I wasn't planning on working in graduate school alongside being a GTA, but I thought I could handle both at the same time since they were both flexible part time jobs that gave valuable experience. However, I came to realize that it was a much more difficult schedule to handle with schoolwork. I ended up not having a lot of free time and found myself working on the weekends. A benefit that did come out of this was that I quit my procrastination habits and learned how to use Google Calendar.

Dealing with Graduate School Struggles

Similar to how I underestimated GT classes when I transferred from UGA, I didn't quite learn from my mistakes as well as I thought. I did take two graduate level courses my senior year, but they weren't much different from my other undergraduate courses. However, I soon learned that cross-listed classes were meant to be easier because of the mix between undergraduate and graduate students. When I took my first real graduate level courses (that didn't have a cross-listed section), I underestimated how much time the class required.

Graduate level classes have a huge focus on research papers, research projects, and professional presentations. The ideas that you propose in class must be of academia quality, and the teachers will roast you for undergraduate level ideas. There was one particular class for my core requirement where my partner and I got roasted for our project proposal and we both did bad on the midterm. This dropped my grade so low that I was worried about not earning a 'B', which was the minimum grade required for MSCS core classes. I quickly made the decision to change my grade to Pass/Fail, fully knowing that this wouldn't count towards my degree, but would allow me to keep my full time student status and save my master's GPA.

However, this created a new problem for me entirely. Because I had effectively dropped the course, this core requirement was not offered again until next Fall semester. There was no alternative available, and I absolutely did not want to stay another semester just for one class. Thankfully, my advisor recommended that I try petitioning for a course substitution with the specialization department heads. When the spring schedule of classes were released, I had found a special topics course that seemed similar to the course I dropped. I requested the permission from the professor of the course and the HCI specialization head, sent the approval to my advisor, and everything was set for the spring!

It was a lot of paperwork hassle to go through, but know that it is possible to substitute a MSCS core class requirement even if you don't see it listed as an option on the MSCS specialization website. It is your responsibility to recognize this if you are in a similar situation, or if you have overlapping credit from undergraduate that will not double count. Sadly, around half the courses on the MSCS curriculum are outdated and have not been offered in recent years. However, special topics courses (CS 8803) are new classes that are essentially in "testing" and might become official courses in the future that can replace requirements. So definitely check them out if you need free graduate electives, you may even be able to substitute one as your core requirements!

Hunting for a Graduate Level Job

During my masters year, I also had to prepare to find a full-time job after graduation. I did not want to go for another internship (I had done 6 at this point, 4 with Home Depot!), nor did I want to pursue a PhD program (too much life commitment, getting burnt out from school). In addition to the undergraduate resources I had access to, I also found some others:

• HandShake - an online job board targeted for students and new graduates
• Hiring Without Whiteboards - list of companies without whiteboard style hiring
• AngelList - an online job board with a focus on startups
• Tech Square Job Fair - a career fair with local companies in ATL
• ATDC - the primary startup incubator in ATL

Be sure to browse through LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, and any career events that MSCS have prepared. With a master's degree, a few more doors open up in terms of types of positions. You may be able to apply for Software Engineer II, Research Scientist, or perhaps even Senior level roles depending on the company. I wouldn't bother with positions that clearly want a PhD role or positions that purely hire new-grads with bachelors. If a job position states the candidate must possess a "bachelors or masters degree" or their preferred qualifications state "masters degree", then there's a good chance they might offer a higher starting salary or benefits. Be sure to communicate to the recruiter if there is a difference between bachelor and master candidates. This will let you know if they hire master degree candidates at a higher salary, or if they believe master degrees will only have an edge over bachelor candidates but offer the same position and pay.

Another important thing is to network with your previous companies to see if they can prepare a return offer for you. Since you have worked with them in the past, you understand their IT/Technology department and their company culture. If you've done a great job as an intern, then they'll view you as a valuable asset for rehire. In addition, if you've done multiple internships with them like I have with Home Depot, then I'd argue you have some level of legacy. They might internally hire you with better benefits than you would get from applying to a company whom you have no relationship with.

However, something unexpected happened during my final semester in graduate school. The COVID-19 pandemic really put a halt on my career search. Many companies that I was either in the middle of interviewing with, or that I made it to the final rounds of, actually cancelled their positions. I was dropped from three upcoming interviews, and I had lost one full-time job offer. This really discouraged me, and it made me really afraid of graduating without a job in this economy. Despite all this, I want to give you all an encouraging message to keep improving yourself and finding more opportunities. There was an outpour of support on LinkedIn, Reddit, alumni groups, etc. that still provided opportunities for the Class of 2020. Don't give up and keep fighting! If I've learned anything throughout my college career, it's that these are only temporary setbacks, you will get through them!

So, what's next for you?

If you've come this far, thank you so much for listening to my personal journey! I'm happy to say that my story does have a happy ending after all. I (virtually) graduated on May 1st, 2020 with my Master's degree in CS with a concentration in HCI with a perfect 4.0 GPA! It was my first 4.0 I've ever achieved in my entire college career (goodbye undergrad GPA).

Shortly before the time of this writing, I also received a full-time return offer with The Home Depot as a Software Engineer at their ATL headquarters. Huge thanks to my manager, Amanda Jurek, for the amount of work she has done to find me an appropriate team. The offer has amazing benefits for someone with my masters degree and intern experience. I'll be accepting the offer and starting full-time this Summer 2020!

I hope that my story has given you valuable advice with regards to transferring to GT, deciding if CS is a career path for you, or encouraging you to attend graduate school. Even if you get rejected not once, but twice, keep trying and persevere until you succeed! Feel free to contact me with any questions, I'm always happy to help fellow students out!

See my complete portfolio at https://johnnyhoboy.github.io/

mayerforienthe.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/my-5-year-journey-georgia-tech-transfer-student-john-ho

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