2008 Woodie Awards
Letter to the Editor: Give the Scholars Program a chance!
Aaron Blum
Issue date: 2/9/07 Section: Opinion
- Page 1 of 1
Elliot,
I'm not inclined to agree with you based on the fact that you failed to pay much attention to the summer research opportunities. The field trips during the semester are not the meat and blood of the scholars program. They are to help you to become aware of the various fields to which you may apply your interest. Yes some of them may be boring to you but you may also discover an area where you can apply your major which would be both interesting and profitable to you.
I'm a junior in CS now and have participated in summer research. Research topics have ranged from grid-generation schemes for hydrodynamic modeling to route finding in a continuous but finite model space. The majority of my research to date has been for the Civil Engineering Department even though I am a most dedicated CS major. My current research endeavors are split and I am using the H-186 course to do research through the Humanities Department while continuing work at Davidson Labs.
In summary - the Honors Program here at Stevens focuses on research and cultivating the development of ideas. If you are uninterested in research in your field or any others and would rather take more challenging courses you can pursue graduate certificates as an undergraduate and swap out primary courses with graduate level equivalents for you CS core curriculum.
The scholars program is there for scholars - people who are interested in furthering their understanding in a field and potentially contributing to their field of interest.
Give the scholars program some credit. It's more than a few boring field trips. You can get out of it what you choose to seek.
Respectfully,
Aaron Blum
I'm not inclined to agree with you based on the fact that you failed to pay much attention to the summer research opportunities. The field trips during the semester are not the meat and blood of the scholars program. They are to help you to become aware of the various fields to which you may apply your interest. Yes some of them may be boring to you but you may also discover an area where you can apply your major which would be both interesting and profitable to you.
I'm a junior in CS now and have participated in summer research. Research topics have ranged from grid-generation schemes for hydrodynamic modeling to route finding in a continuous but finite model space. The majority of my research to date has been for the Civil Engineering Department even though I am a most dedicated CS major. My current research endeavors are split and I am using the H-186 course to do research through the Humanities Department while continuing work at Davidson Labs.
In summary - the Honors Program here at Stevens focuses on research and cultivating the development of ideas. If you are uninterested in research in your field or any others and would rather take more challenging courses you can pursue graduate certificates as an undergraduate and swap out primary courses with graduate level equivalents for you CS core curriculum.
The scholars program is there for scholars - people who are interested in furthering their understanding in a field and potentially contributing to their field of interest.
Give the scholars program some credit. It's more than a few boring field trips. You can get out of it what you choose to seek.
Respectfully,
Aaron Blum
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Daniel Ready
posted 2/09/07 @ 1:49 PM EST
Mr. Aaron Blum:
I get the impression that you don't understand the point Mr. Sadlon was making. Elliot opposes the waste of time known as the "Honors Seminars," not the Stevens Scholar program itself. (Continued…)
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