Aim High

By Adnan Firoze on Thursday, June 13, 2013 at 3:14am

by Adnan Firoze
Okay so Ive been around this group that is HSA from December 2012; however, by then all my applications had been submitted. I had no clue on how
to apply and/or how to contact professors and all that hoopla. Therefore, I went with my gut. Later, after joining the group I realized that there are tons of
info on this Group and also the HSA website that are invaluable to future applicants. Kudos to the HSA team. The HSA team deserves (read
DEMANDS) respect.
But I am here to talk about my personal way of approaching the university applications and procedures.
1.

What do you want in life?

I had no clue that there is something called no funding for MS students. Furthermore I personally dont like the maxim that says apply for PhD
because you will get funds even if you dont intend to be in the academia or conduct research. Thats just wrong in my opinion. Since, I didnt know
about these complications, and I do not intend to serve my life doing research, I rather naively applied for MS programs mostly. Later I realized that it
certainly reduced my chances of getting money from Uncle Sam. (FYI. I myself got funds for MS and several of my friends got funds from Rutgers,
Rochester, Simon Fraser and several others for MS).
But I do NOT regret that decision nor should you. I suggest you apply to whichever program you think you REALLY want in life (be that a PhD, MS or
MBA) and will help you lead a life that you wish for yourself.
2.

University Selection - high/low according to your profile OR your dream?

For me, it was the latter. As I mentioned, I didnt know the practicalities of funding and all that. I never wanted to go to a major Engineering School given
my CS background but I searched for versatile schools (an analogy can be made by using Dhaka University and BUET as benchmarks). I preferred
schools like Harvard/Princeton/DU over MIT/Stanford/BUET because thats what I wanted. As I never wanted a hardcore engineering research degree,
I made that choice. However, I wanted to go to a brand school that has fame and glory. I didnt get into BUET (blame on myself as I was negligent
after HSC) and studied in NSU but that decision was probably the best thing to have happened to me (Alhamdulillah). This is why:
In my second semester, I realized that I love to write not only in C, JAVA and C++ but in English (yes, human language English). I loved political
science and international relations. These are not even remotely connected to Computer Science. But, if you can play your cards right, you can eat the
cake and have it too! I picked up English Linguistics as a minor in NSU besides my major in CS. That was another decision that begotten unexpected
fruits. I, later had 2 publications that combines AI and Linguistics.
Upon graduation, I joined a news agency and worked as a journalist (notice, I am still not giving up on my aspirations and going against the flow). Later
these are the universities I had applied to (among which I got into only 2):

1.

Columbia University

2.

University of Pennsylvania

3.

Princeton University

4.

Yale University

5.

Purdue University

6.

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

7.

Simon Fraser University

And all were in MS programs. I made this list back in July 2012 when I did not have a GRE score or TOEFL score in my hands. I just wanted to go to
one of these but preferred the Ivies. I saved the list on my cell phone to look at them and I had a specific interest in a specific universitys program as
my FIRST choice a Dual MS program in Computer Science and Journalism (focusing on Digital Media) in Columbia University. Another reason for

this choice was the fact that I always wanted to visit NYC and see a Dave Matthews Band concert at Central Park. And no, I didnt know that funding
was reserved for PhD people or the like.
My university selection was nave but I really feel that this naivety led me to select programs that I actually WANTED to pursue!
3.

Is simply aiming high good enough (or practical)?

Aiming high is certainly not all of it but one SHOULD aim high or aim for that which he wants! A person may reasonably choose to go to National
University of Singapore rather than McGill. It is a personal choice. Thus, one should not be intimidated by the name and fame of schools. Human
beings attend those schools NOT superheroes. And even if I accept that there are superheroes in the world, I can assure you that Bangladesh has an
abundance of such superheroes.
Anyway, aiming for what you want is the FIRST thing to do and AFTER THAT would come your struggle for achieving it. It is like this: suppose Musa
Ibrahim wanted to scale the Everest but on the contrary he was offered a Nobel Prize in Physics. Even though the latter sounds more lucrative, that is
not what he wanted. He would prefer to climb the Everest than come up with theory of relativity or the quantum theory of light. Every individual is
different. Not everyone wants to become an academic there are people who would rather be entrepreneurs. Just because practicalities bind you to a
narrow spectrum of programs (where money is contingent), you will find a way to get that much treasured funding in whichever program you wish to
pursue IF you try your best to achieve it. Then again, the Omnipotent one decides the fate (and I am a believer), but giving up on dreams results in
failure more times than following practicalities. Or so I believe.
4.

Being stupid is good (sometimes)

If you are sensibly stupid, it is good in my book (Steve Jobs would agree who said, Stay hungry, stay foolish in his commencement speech to
Stanford). And it is especially true when you are true to yourself. Suppose you really want to go to MIT; ask yourself, do you want to go to MIT
REALLY? If you know in your heart that you want to go to MIT, you will find your way there. It will take your heart out but the driving force of the human
spirit will indeed take you there. The key is to turn your shoulds to musts.
Let me elaborate: suppose you think, if I cannot go to MIT or Stanford, I will not go to grad school then in more times than not you will work harder
than others for GRE, do research work and so on and ultimately, if Allah wills you WILL find yourself at your destination.
There can be detours too. One of my seniors went to Simon Fraser University and worked on his research will all his heart (for his Masters degree after
completion of his BS in NSU). Then he went to Stanford for PhD.
So you see, if the determination is there then the force simply takes care of the practicalities (standardized tests, gpa etc.).
On a personal note: I want to go to XYZ University because it is in USA (the dreamland) is NOT a good motivation. That doesnt work, or so I
believe. If the motivation is reasonably at a level that you start dreaming about it, who is to stop you from getting GRE scores ABOVE the 90th
percentile?
Hence, I humbly want to end this by saying that posts like, my cpga is blah blah, GRE score is blah blah, TOEFL score is blah blah . suggest a
good US university to go with my profile is practical but does it really capture your endgame? Shouldnt you be thinking about this much earlier, say in
your 3rd year during your undergrad?
Therefore, in my humble opinion, I would say, instead of evaluating your profile (I learned the term profile after joining the group before that I
thought profile was the side-face of a person or a Facebook profile haha), work on BUILDING your profile to reflect YOUR DREAM! Do this early
and MIT/STANFORD and the Ivies will be giving you money as bigger schools have larger endowments. I just want to repeat, when your should
becomes your must and your aim becomes your dream theres no stopping you!
The dream is YOURS; the effort is yours so why settle? Reach for the stars.