Gaining experience which opens up new opportunities and finding proven road towards success is perhaps the keystone of creating an outstanding collegiate career. Other than learning these things first hand, the most effective way to pick up the helpful tips and create connections is to talk to the people who’ve gone down the same path and asked the same questions that I currently am because their tailored responses can equip one with specific information that they can use to most efficiently navigate to the end goal of a better college tenure. This assignment gave students not only the resources, but the motivation to go out and seek those very assets by having us select a STEM upperclassman, a TA, and a professor and performing different interviews with each one for the sole purpose of learning how we can improve ourselves while at The Ohio State University. For my interviews, I chose to talk to Grace Calhoun, a 4th year triple major in astronomy, physics and anthropology. I also decided upon my German teaching assistant as to develop a better relationship with him for my classes. Finally, for my professor, I used my physics 1250H instructor, Dr. Mathur who is one of Ohio State’s leading physics researchers.
To find my interviewees, I needed to find the ones who I believed would offer the most benefits to my particular situation as a freshman physics major. So, for my upperclassman, I chose a friend of mine, Grace Calhoun, who is the president of the Astronomical Society on Campus and shares my major. I felt she was a good candidate due to her vast experience in both the academic and extracurricular aspects of life on campus, such as taking the majority of classes I will have to enroll in and being a part of over a dozen clubs throughout her years here in Columbus. After attending several meetings in the Astronomical Society, I approached her about a sit down and she was very eager to chat about what she thought could help me moving forward with my physics degree. Next, I decided it would be valuable to speak with my German TA, Harrison Baldwin, because although German is simply a degree requirement for me, being able to establish relations with people who can offer me help later down the road will be crucial for me when I’m taking more advanced classes and I need help understanding a certain topic. To meet with him, I simply needed to attend his office hours in Hagerty Hall which were made by appointment. Fortunately, he doesn’t have many other sections that he teaches so he was the easiest to schedule and find. Lastly, I decided to interview my current physics 1250H professor. To find a time to meet with him, I had to attend his office hours which, again, were made via an appointment. I told him that I needed help with a few concepts of the previous week and I would like him to clarify a few things. While I was with him, I chatted with him at first about some homework, and then before I was about to leave, I mentioned I read over his articles and if he’d like to discuss some topics covered in them in the future. He responded by making me a second appointment a few days later and then I knew I was set with my final meeting.
Perhaps the most personally helpful conference was with Grace, as she had the most knowledge in regards to living conditions and how to be a better prepared student. As she has been involved in a host of clubs and organizations across campus, she learned very quickly how to become organized and strategies on becoming good with time management. She also said that the Younkin Success Center was one of her favorite resources on campus because they gave her information that no other department at Ohio State offers such as life management. In addition, she told me that one of the most important aspects of freshman year is becoming a good communicator because without communication skills, the transfer of any information is halted. For example, she highly recommended to be completely up front with professors if I’m struggling because, more likely than not, they can provide me with individualized help after seeing I put in the effort to seek out their assistance.
More educational, however, was the time I spent with my German TA. After arriving at his office, we discussed different test and note taking strategies that could improve my grade in my classes. He said that if I actively engage in my note taking rather than simply coping down what is written, I will be able to internalize the information much better and I can also make the points more personal so I can even further my understanding of what is being taught. After this, he then told me that for graduate school, it’s “similar but different” to the application for undergraduate. He said that there are still essays and grades you have to submit, however, the amount of consideration the reviewers have and the value of personal investment are much greater than they are for undergraduate where one evaluator might see hundreds of applications every day with just a few minutes to give you.
Finding the scholarly articles published by my physics professor was thankfully a simple process after being educated on the different methods through the STEM Scholars class. By beginning at Scopus’s catalog, I simply did an author search for “Samir Mathur” and quickly found his works. However, being an elite level theoretical physicist means that his papers can be highly abstract to those who do not have a truly great comprehension of the field, in this case being grand unification between quantum mechanics and general relativity within black holes using string theory. Although I have a true love for anything physics, I could barely understand any of the jargon or calculations made within the paper. That said though, the advantage to having the article online is that I can very quickly access separate resources to help me comprehend different terms within the work. Plus, because all the references are immediately listed, I can also look at those works and understand any proposals they have which the current paper stands on.
After setting up my second appointment with my professor, Dr. Mathur seemed very excited to talk to me about any questions I may have. So when we came together again later that week, we spoke briefly about the paper as I was genuinely curious about most of it despite my utter lack of understanding of most of it, but I quickly changed the conversation to what he would recommend for me as a first year physics major to have the most impact on my resume for graduate school, and if there were any opportunities for me to indulge in my love for physics. He recommended that I think about becoming a tutor for the physics department as that will keep my skills fresh and that if I wanted to have fun with the department I should join the Society of Physics Students as they congregate every week in Smith Lab to just talk physics for an hour every week. I signed up later that night.
Connections are key everywhere in life. In college, knowing who are my best assets and how I can befriend the right people to set me up best for life after college is a nearly indispensable tool. This assignment offered the opportunity for all STEM students to actively seek those assets and perhaps build relations that could benefit them later in their academic careers. Plus, through this interview process, I learned how to become a better student at Ohio State and how to become more involved on campus so this has been without question the most enlightening assignment since my time arriving at Ohio State.
Mathur, S. D. “The Fuzzball Proposal for Black Holes: An Elementary Review.” Fortschritte der Physik 53.7-8 (2005): 793-827. SCOPUS. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.
Das, S. R., and S. D. Mathur. “Comparing Decay Rates for Black Holes and D-Branes.” Nuclear Physics B 478.3 (1996): 561-76. SCOPUS. Web. 24 Oct. 2016.