What’s on your mind? (Students/school edition).

[VisceralRealist]

I finished a master's degree two years ago in Medical Informatics - with a late-2020 Intel MBA, so don't worry if you don't have the latest and greatest. I just pushed stuff to Azure if I needed more storage or computing power.

I'm a "mature student" (apparently 😁) but yeah, I'm around half way through my career, so the masters was done just for fun really. I did it full time (1.5 years) as part of a career break.

I'm enjoying this thread because it's full of posts from people just starting out - your education isn't just for fun but also could be the start of something new and exciting. It's fascinating to read, especially from those (such as rm5 above) who aren't just going into IT/AI.

As an aside, a good musician friend of mine has just worked on a film/documentary score. He enjoyed it, and it's fun to brag about, but I think he makes more money doing other stuff.

I appreciate being able to speak to fellow students, but also those of you who've been through this stuff and can offer some advice to those of us who are still figuring things out

As someone who is studying a subject that does not immediately lead to any specific career, I may have a more circuitous path to employment. But I want to do something I love. I'll have a chance to work at my university's art museum next year part-time and I have no idea what I will think of working there, but I have a feeling it will be my kind of thing.

 

[splifingate]

But I want to do something I love.

Sometimes, a person doesn't know what they love, until they do something with which they eventually fall into love.

I've held two handfuls of careers, and I didn't know what I was supposed to do until I finally did it.

I am doing M-F Teaching, all-the-while furthering my SpEd Teaching Cert.

Being "In" 147% certainly helps, and we all do what we can do.

I've lived more decades into life than the digits on my left hand, and actually now being a 'student' helps me sync with the teens I guide on-the-daily.

It becomes a "we" thing!

 

[rm5]

Who else has gone back to school shopping?

Nope, and don't plan to. Have all I need. Bought a smaller Yamaha keyboard I'll ship to Wisconsin when it gets closer to the start of the term. A friend and I are going to play some restaurants on the weekends, and I do not want to ship my CP88 back and forth (too expensive and impractical).

Any summer break highlights?

Not really. I didn't travel or anything. Conducted some youth jazz and rock ensembles, and performed 3-5x a week (still doing that).

 

[rm5]

Also, on the subject of figuring things out career-wise, my dad was a French major in college. He thought he wanted to become an electrical engineer, and then took some French classes and really liked them. After he finished undergrad, he had some friends in Boston and D.C. that he lived with, and worked at various different places. Then did a Master's in French History, traveled extensively throughout France and the rest of Europe, and finally, after I think 10 years, settled into teaching. So sometimes it takes awhile. Or, in my mom's case, you work in a field for nearly a decade before realizing you hate it, and switch careers.

There was a woman who visited my college who worked for the State Department during the previous administration. I think she was an anthropology major, and took a VERY winding path and eventually landed at the State Department. So, you really never know.

 

[rm5]

I also am able to lighten my pack with a slim backpack and only carry my MacBook Pro, a folder, my physics notebook and pencil case. Along with a little pouch to carry my Mac peripherals around with a MagSafe charger.

Interesting. I actually needed to get a BIGGER backpack--a North Face Router. I had the Borealis, and it was way too small (I still have it, actually, just in case I need another backpack for some reason). Need to carry around a lot of stuff. It has space for two water bottles, which, since I drink a lot of water, is kind of a necessity. I just got a MacBook Pro 14" this past week, too, which I like a lot more than my previous Windows laptop.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Oh hi 👋🏻 there! So is that training from a centre or you’re going back to college to do continuing education for your licence 🪪?

Heard many medical professions have to do that especially for nursing, doctors 🥼 and dentists. 🦷 But I also heard some teachers have to do continuing education too.

To renew my architect's license in California, there are two specified topics with courses available from providers that are mostly either professional organizations or private companies that specialize in offering such courses. Continuing education requirements are something that vary from state to state. For example, PE engineers are required to take continuing education courses in most states, but apparently not in Califorina

 

[goldmac2006]

Interesting. I actually needed to get a BIGGER backpack--a North Face Router. I had the Borealis, and it was way too small (I still have it, actually, just in case I need another backpack for some reason). Need to carry around a lot of stuff. It has space for two water bottles, which, since I drink a lot of water, is kind of a necessity. I just got a MacBook Pro 14" this past week, too, which I like a lot more than my previous Windows laptop.

Hey bro! Guess what? I have a MacBook Pro 14-inch too! That’s an incredible upgrade from your MacBook Air! And you have an M4 MacBook Pro too? That’s awesome!

I’m planning to bring my Adidas Classic Three Stripes Backpack. It’s in navy blue. I used it before when I rented tiny Chromebooks in high school. But then in college, they gave engineering students ThinkPads to loan. Those were huge, like 16-17 inch bricks! And their battery life was terrible. They died on sleep mode because of all the power they drew. Their chargers were also way too big. Had to use an XL cosmetics bag for the chargers, and a large Jansport to carry these Lenovo bricks. The only time I ever had to carry a lot was when I played flag football and needed to carry some gloves and clothes with my bulky Thinkpad. That added up to the bulk.

Mines has water bottle pockets, and I only have to bring lunch on the Wednesday that has the lab and lecture.

I used to have an Acer Chromebook, but I’m so glad I switched to a MacBook Pro in July. I love my Mac! I can confidently game and do modeling without it being too slow.

 

[rm5]

Hey bro! Guess what? I have a MacBook Pro 14-inch too! That’s an incredible upgrade from your MacBook Air! And you have an M4 MacBook Pro too? That’s awesome!

Nope, M1 Pro. Wanted something I didn't have to pay anything for. Bought it refurbished and paid basically nothing for it because I sold my previous laptop. While it's not nearly as powerful as the previous Lenovo laptop, it is a lot more practical to use. I find that I don't need to use power-hungry programs all that much, and when I do, this suffices perfectly fine. There were only a handful of instances where I used all available resources on the Lenovo, so it just didn't make sense to keep.

I find that nowadays I'm mostly using a laptop to write, browse the web, and occasionally edit videos (I use my desktops for that mostly though). I have an HP workstation at home and an iMac in the dorm.

 

[goldmac2006]

Nope, and don't plan to. Have all I need. Bought a smaller Yamaha keyboard I'll ship to Wisconsin when it gets closer to the start of the term. A friend and I are going to play some restaurants on the weekends, and I do not want to ship my CP88 back and forth (too expensive and impractical).

Not really. I didn't travel or anything. Conducted some youth jazz and rock ensembles, and performed 3-5x a week (still doing that).

So it’s all performing and concerts all summer? I was busy with L’Space MCA working virtually with two meetings a week. I just finished these meetings and it’ll be in the books 📚 once the final presentation rolls around next weekend, August 30. My department manager has booked that slot when A lot OF PEOPLE have went back to school already. I’ll have to change my plans for that weekend and hit the gym early that day.

I did go on vacation during the summer, to Vegas. Resorts World I liked the simplicity of their hotel keys being all electronic and digital, it’s the first hotel on the Strip utilizing Apple’s native room key technology in Apple wallet. Also took a dip in the pool; it was during the July week off break from work. Also made a visit to Naples- for a summer weekend retreat with my aunt, grandparents and cousins at the beach house, I took lots of nice pictures of the houses and the oceans along the canal, check POTD and iPhone 15 Pro photography threads to check them out!

Nope, M1 Pro. Wanted something I didn't have to pay anything for. Bought it refurbished and paid basically nothing for it because I sold my previous laptop. While it's not nearly as powerful as the previous Lenovo laptop, it is a lot more practical to use. I find that I don't need to use power-hungry programs all that much, and when I do, this suffices perfectly fine. There were only a handful of instances where I used all available resources on the Lenovo, so it just didn't make sense to keep.

I find that nowadays I'm mostly using a laptop to write, browse the web, and occasionally edit videos (I use my desktops for that mostly though). I have an HP workstation at home and an iMac in the dorm.

In my case, my MacBook Pro M4 Pro requires an upgrade to its RAM and storage capacity. I use CAD and virtual machines to run specific Windows applications, such as Altium PCB CAD and Siemens NX, for work. Virtual machines consume a significant amount of memory, so many Mac users, including my friends, recommend increasing the RAM for better performance of engineering and programming applications. Additionally, virtual machines require a partition, so I opt for a minimum of 1TB of storage. I also use my MacBook Pro for video editing on iMovie and photo editing.

Playing Roblox games on my Mac is significantly smoother and more stable compared to my iPhone and my aged iPad mini 1 that I left behind. 💻 I frequently use my MacBook Pro at home, as the small desk in my room has built-in shelving, making it unsuitable for an iMac or Studio Display.

Could you please share the specifications of your M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14-inch model? My MacBook Pro is the latest model, and my signature indicates that.

To renew my architect's license in California, there are two specified topics with courses available from providers that are mostly either professional organizations or private companies that specialize in offering such courses. Continuing education requirements are something that vary from state to state. For example, PE engineers are required to take continuing education courses in most states, but apparently not in Califorina

Hey, are you an architect? And do you use AutoCAD? Yep, in California, Professional Engineers don’t need continuing education, but it really depends on what you specialize in. Even workplaces offer continuing education training if you’d rather not pay extra at a college. ✔️

I’d be happy to recommend the Autodesk Design and Make ambassador program! I’m in engineering, but all AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) and even entertainment/video games industries are welcome too! Here’s the link: https://www.instructables.com/autodeskambassador/

 

[Macky-Mac]

Hey, are you an architect? And do you use AutoCAD? Yep, in California, Professional Engineers don’t need continuing education, but it really depends on what you specialize in. Even workplaces offer continuing education training if you’d rather not pay extra at a college. ✔️

I’d be happy to recommend the Autodesk Design and Make ambassador program! I’m in engineering, but all AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) and even entertainment/video games industries are welcome too! Here’s the link: https://www.instructables.com/autodeskambassador/

yes, part of my work is as an architect (hence the need for a license) but a lot of my work is designing museum exhibits.

AutoCAD wasn't available for Macs when I started using CAD so I use something else.

 

[goldmac2006]

yes, part of my work is as an architect (hence the need for a license) but a lot of my work is designing museum exhibits.

AutoCAD wasn't available for Macs when I started using CAD so I use something else.

Nice 👌🏻 my mentor who taught me AutoCAD last summer he is a real architect too. He designed lots of different buildings including Marriott hotels and residential buildings.

What CAD did you learn first? Do you run a VM on your MBP or boot camp it like mine?

Mines was F360 and tinkercad when I was in high school. I learnt AutoCAD as an online summer course from my mentor. Going to be doing PCB design on Altium next.

AutoCAD has a Mac version and you’re right they didn’t have it on macOS until mid 2010s.

 

[rm5]

So it’s all performing and concerts all summer?

Pretty much. And practicing classical repertoire for the fall. I don't have to play any classical stuff on my degree recital (I can if I want to), but I'm learning several piano accompaniments for instrumental recitals in the fall. I've also been working on YouTube videos.

I did go on vacation during the summer, to Vegas. Resorts World I liked the simplicity of their hotel keys being all electronic and digital, it’s the first hotel on the Strip utilizing Apple’s native room key technology in Apple wallet. Also took a dip in the pool; it was during the July week off break from work. Also made a visit to Naples- for a summer weekend retreat with my aunt, grandparents and cousins at the beach house, I took lots of nice pictures of the houses and the oceans along the canal, check POTD and iPhone 15 Pro photography threads to check them out!

Never been to Vegas, and to be honest, no real desire to go. Never heard of or been to Naples, either.

Could you please share the specifications of your M1 Pro MacBook Pro 14-inch model? My MacBook Pro is the latest model, and my signature indicates that.

Base model with 16GB of RAM and 14-core GPU.

 

[goldmac2006]

Pretty much. And practicing classical repertoire for the fall. I don't have to play any classical stuff on my degree recital (I can if I want to), but I'm learning several piano accompaniments for instrumental recitals in the fall. I've also been working on YouTube videos.

Never been to Vegas, and to be honest, no real desire to go. Never heard of or been to Naples, either.

Base model with 16GB of RAM and 14-core GPU.

Good morning, bro! 👊 It sounds like you’re diving into the music scene! 😂

Vegas is great for sightseeing and a getaway, but let’s be real, casinos and all that drinking are the main attractions. I tried to convince my family to head to Cupertino or Lake Tahoe this summer, but they weren’t interested, especially since they want to go to Vegas as Resorts World is offering free parking and no resort fees until after Labor Day. Naples is a community in Long Beach with canals and those million-dollar beach houses. My aunt owns one there! I go there every winter for holiday boat parade, this is the first time I went during the summer.

Speaking of trips, I am dreaming of traveling internationally someday, so I stumbled upon the Florida rentals website. It’s a smaller organization that does something similar to Airbnb but specifically for the Florida area. They have a $1000 scholarship program that can fund your next trip if you write an essay about a dream vacation you’ve always wanted to go on. I wrote about the UK and Europe area in my essay, but I’m still halfway through! It’s awesome that some travel services offer scholarships like that because we busy college students don’t get to travel often (unless you’re studying abroad or some folks who travel a lot are doing a fully online degree program).

No wonder you mentioned your MacBook Pro isn’t as fast as your Windows. That’s the base model, after all. But it’s perfectly fine for what you need, in my opinion. I use more resource-intensive apps, so I have to bump up the RAM on mine.

 

[rm5]

It sounds like you’re diving into the music scene!

Been on the scene for nearly a decade, it's wonderful here. I don't play as much in the Midwest, but I haven't made an effort to do that (yet), so it's fine. Played at the farm yesterday morning, and again this morning and this afternoon. They have music there on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Naples is a community in Long Beach with canals and those million-dollar beach houses. My aunt owns one there! I go there every winter for holiday boat parade, this is the first time I went during the summer.

Ah! Good to know. I haven't been to Long Beach (only LA proper), but my mom was there recently for a conference. She loved it.

No wonder you mentioned your MacBook Pro isn’t as fast as your Windows. That’s the base model, after all. But it’s perfectly fine for what you need, in my opinion. I use more resource-intensive apps, so I have to bump up the RAM on mine.

It is the base model. But given I paid basically nothing for it, I'll take it. All resource-intense programs for me are run on my desktop computers.

 

[Macky-Mac]

Nice 👌🏻 my mentor who taught me AutoCAD last summer he is a real architect too. He designed lots of different buildings including Marriott hotels and residential buildings.

What CAD did you learn first? Do you run a VM on your MBP or boot camp it like mine?

Mines was F360 and tinkercad when I was in high school. I learnt AutoCAD as an online summer course from my mentor. Going to be doing PCB design on Altium next.

AutoCAD has a Mac version and you’re right they didn’t have it on macOS until mid 2010s.

My learning CAD happened back late in the days when CAD for architects was still predominantly 2D. There were a number of programs that were native to MacOS and so I learned using several of them. For a while now I've been using Vectorworks. It's cross platform now but I think it started as a MacOS program called MiniCAD

I've never used VM or Bootcamp. Years ago, I did use Autocad for a couple of projects, but I had access to a Windows PC.

 

[goldmac2006]

My learning CAD happened back late in the days when CAD for architects was still predominantly 2D. There were a number of programs that were native to MacOS and so I learned using several of them. For a while now I've been using Vectorworks. It's cross platform now but I think it started as a MacOS program called MiniCAD

I've never used VM or Bootcamp. Years ago, I did use Autocad for a couple of projects, but I had access to a Windows PC.

👍 3d modelling wasn’t a thing until later on.

Like when it hit the 2000s. Movies were able to be in CGI.

What Mac do you use for CAD? I have a MacBook Pro M4 Pro, specced up. Full specs on my sig.

Been on the scene for nearly a decade, it's wonderful here. I don't play as much in the Midwest, but I haven't made an effort to do that (yet), so it's fine. Played at the farm yesterday morning, and again this morning and this afternoon. They have music there on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Ah! Good to know. I haven't been to Long Beach (only LA proper), but my mom was there recently for a conference. She loved it.

It is the base model. But given I paid basically nothing for it, I'll take it. All resource-intense programs for me are run on my desktop computers.

Bro it’s my first day of school today. I have physics class 11 to midday.

I understand, so the Mac is only when you’re on the go right? A few friends preferred speccing up their iMacs and Mac minis and get a base MBP too.

 

[Applewatch42]

A person in my class said that PEMDAS is a lie, how do I explain to them that they are a idiot?

 

[goldmac2006]

A person in my class said that PEMDAS is a lie, how do I explain to them that they are an idiot?

It’s a mnemonic term that I learnt since middle school.

Since y’all have to start solving variables and multi step equations a lot.

Probs eliminate all the words that each letter stands and explain the math itself?